It has been a long time since last bog with some exciting times in between. Spent December 2008/Jan 2009 in overseas and feel very refreshed from the holiday. I just read my Nov2008 entry and shudder at the memory of trying to get too many things completed before we left. Proof of this lies in my medical record of rather high blood pressure which still needs watching. Need not have worried because our relatives who looked after house and animals did a wonderful job, and even kept the gardens etc looking good. What a wonderful feeling to come home and see the place looking ship shape, knowing we could just lie back and get over the jet lag. Last time we travelled overseas we came home to grass up to our knees and overgrown gardens.
It really is a joy to not have to sleep to the alarm, concern myself with whether sufficient food (all within the “pyramid’ category) is on our pantry shelves, think of some exotic meal each night, while at the same time the laundry is being washed, will need hanging out, and dinner is cooking, while I am dashing through the house with a vaccum cleaner (hence exotic meals turn into darkened or dry blobs of not so exotic meanls) etc..for a couple of months. Pity two months off work each year could not be arranged other than a nasty illness, accident, or redundantcy.
First leg of the journey to England was a four day stop-over in Singapore. We stayed at the Miramar Hotel which I highly recommend. Fairly central location, good service, nice rooms, has a swimming pool, and a restaurant. Hotel is within walking distance to China Town, contrary to to the advice of some enthusiastic tax drivers touting for business. Orchard Road is very much like any major shopping street in London or any other big city – certainly had changed since I lived in singapore in the late 70’s and visited in the early 80’s. I love the cleanliness of the whole island, and knowing it is also one of the safest countries in the world to visit. Food was delicious as always. Bougis Street which had a reputation for its nightlife – similar to that of Amsterdam, has been revamped to make it more “family friendly”. I almost did not recognise it. Where once there were drunken tourists and sailors lurching everywhere, with gorgeous local women on their arm or drinking beside them (bearing in mind they were not all biological women but the men mostly were too drunk to notice), there are now places for families to eat, lots of stalls for family shopping etc. We were told by our local guide (the place has changed so much I was pleased we had joined a small guided tour group) that while Bougis street is not as I knew it, the “previous residents” have moved on to another part of the city – and that government would like to see this type of “night life” disappear entirely. So we toured by night, walked the markets of China Town by day, and lay by the pool in the afternoons. Bliss.
It was then on to London, where we quickly packed away our summer shorts & sandels and slipped into our heavy clothes. Met by my wonderful brother in law we spent a few days with my family then picked up the rental car for the next part of our journey. While Im on the car business, we picked up the car from Enterprise Cars Limited in Daventry, and from what I gather they are also in London and a couple of other places dotted around England. If anyone does actually read this blog, and you want a rental car, use this company – they were very accomodating and efficient and we had no difficulties at all. After a quick break to get over jet lag we made our way off to Wales, the Brecon mountains, Hay on Wye. Daughter was booked in for horse trekking at Tregoyd Farm for a week , a quick drive out of Hay on Wye. We all stayed there, and whenever she went out for a ride hubby and I would walk around after the horses across fields etc. Really was a nice winding down and darn good exercise. Hay on Wye has thirty odd second-hand bookshops and runs literary festivals which fills up the town. We only made it through 8 of these shops, so we will clearly have to go back and try to get through some more. Most nights we ate at the farm, we were the only ones staying there so it was quiet – and after dinner we would retreat to our room to read a little and fall asleep. Hubby did all the driving with the help of satelite navigation which brother-in-law had downloaded how to get to Hay-on-Wye and back to Long Buckby from there. What we did not realise was that quite a few the roads off the A & M roads were narrower than our driveway here in NZ. Takes a wee bit of getting use to, and given that the whole of UK is quite a few hundred years older than NZ I would have thought they would by now have considered shifted the fencelines or hedgerows since horse and cart are less common on the road, and made them a bit wider taking into account the move to the motor vehicle. One person told me that too much wild life would be homeless then?????
For the whole time we were away, UK and Europe, the weather was kind to us. While some Australians may have felt that 8-10 degrees was postively arctic, from where we live in NZ this was only slightly lower than average. In fact we had overprepared in the weight of our clothing and quite often just a shirt and jacket/coat sufficed. There were quite thick frosts at Brecon but once we picked up speed walking across the fields etc it didnt bother us. We also loved the landscape of Hereford and Brecon, very much like our own but in the knowledge that it is far older than NZ it makes it more special.
It was then on to Stratford-Upon-Avon, immersed in Shakespeare country and we loved every moment. Visited Shakespeare’s birthplace, his mothers place and every other monument to the bard. A lovely, clean and friendly town is Stratford-Upon-Avon and we intend to return because we only spent a longish day there. My highlights are tied, that is, feeding a barn owl at Ann Hathaway’s farm and having tea and clotted cream with scones. The cream was superior to the other places we had visited which seem to be rather yellowish and from appearance probably past its ‘use by’ date. Daughter wants to return to do a falconary course so that is her incentive for making sure she passes year 13 exams (now doing year 11 so have two years to save for it and another visit to Hay on Wye). Made a couple of long day trips to Oxford, making use of the park and ride set up. Did not have to bother about finding carparks and coins and how much a days parking would cost etc, just found the depot where the cars are left and hopped on a bus into central Oxford. Very well planned, but not planned in that we went on the first day being Monday, and the Bodlein was not open, which was fine because we went off to visit Christchurch College, and this marvellous book shop across the road that it is very unassuming, with plain black words on white signage “Theology, Philosopy, (and something else but I cant remember what it was – never the less, books on the way home in the shipment) and visited Waterstones etc and did lots of walking about and had lunch at the Bird and the Baby (CS Lewis and Tolkein fan so always pop in when I can) then went back to Oxford the next day and the Bodlein was open but for the last time until next year while they referbish it.
On 27 December 2008 we began our trip with Trafalgar Tour of Europe. Started out at 6.30am to cross the channel with 30 odd other travellers. There were 7 New Zealanders and the rest Australian’s. So we started with Amsterdam, Cologne, Offenbach (first day – bearing in mind the majority of Eurpean countries are so close to each other you could do several in a day if you didnt stop); then on to all the ‘bergs’ – Heidelberg, Strasbourg, Engelberg, with a Lucerne excursion – lots of snow and schnapps, the latter served me well going up some of those swiss mountains by cable car and the bus etc winding roads are not my pleasure – magnificent views or not. We visited the lovely monument to Louis 16th Swiss Guard & Chapel Bridge where there has been a Lion Monument carved into a stone wall which is simply beautiful – my first time to slightly miss my cats! but the moment was fleeting.On to Innsbruck and then Venice. Lots of sightseeing and boat boarding/unboarding, and thick mist. They are not use to getting snow and there was iced over old snow all over the boat ramps making it very dangerous so I was a bit on edge, and sitting on the boat especially when the fog set in made me wonder if the driver was watching what they were doing because I could not see a thing so how they saw through the fog I dont know. Needless to say I was relieved to see the back of the boating. I had been to Venice before and only wanted to make sure my daughter got to see it. Then on to Rome, a visit to St Peter’s Basilica, to the Forum and a walk around the Colosseum. Its been 20 years since I was last in Rome, and was quite surprised that they have put in turn-styles to manage visitor flows/security etc and amazed to see an elevator!!How historical is that! It came in handy because we had an elderly lady on our tour (83 and enjoying her 7th or 9th Trafalgar tour). We had dinner that evening within viewing distance of the Colosseum, pasta of course, lashings of red wine and a tenor and soprano singing very very close to us – my husband’s ears were a bit tender afterwards but he purchased their CD. Took daughter to Trivi fountain & I was stunned at the difference from when we were there two decades ago – the place was packed, it was a week night, and winter, yet there were loads of people out. 20 years ago it was a handful of us silly tourists standing around in the cold. On to Isle of Capri where we went up the top in very small vans driving around very very narrow roads again narrower than our driveways, and at great speed with no barriers on the cliff edge so I have to say that this was not a good visit for me. While the rest of the tour went on a chair lift to view some rocks, myself and two other tour members joined our local guide from Naples and visited a home that has been turned into a museum of this amazing Swiss gentleman who had restored the home from its glory during Roman times – this was in the 1930′ s he did the restoration. I cant recall his name right now, I did end up buying his biography and a couple of tiles which have animals featured in mosaics at this house, he was also a doctor and during some epidemic treated hundreds of people who were sure to die. I was so taken with the place Im surprised I didnt record it in my diary, perhaps the drive up there and fenicular trip down took too much out of me. His biography is currently shipping its way back here (along with quite a few other books). Forgot to mention the trip to Pompeii – had never been there before and it was quite a shock. There was a smell of buring rubbish, probably just a local place burning off some garden clippings but knowing how all the people died in that village added to the smell in the air of burning something, made it all a bit too real. Daughter, hubby and I felt quite shaken when we saw the castes of people taken by archaelogists. Quite a few took photo’s of these but we felt it was too gruesome, too sad. The whole atmosphere was of sadness and morbidity. None of us want to return. Then it was on to Assisi where we walked up quite a winding hill to the hotel, which was perched on the very top, too small/windy road for the bus. On to Pisa (fleeting visit for photo opportunity) and on to Nice. While in Nice we went to St Paul de Vence, a wee medieval village where I enjoyed a leisurely walk through the somewhat hilly streets, then sat and watched a game of petanque played by a group of middle aged gents, and one woman smoking a pipe, looking very chique. Then on to Avignon, Lyon and Paris. Paris sightseeing was fun – got a lot more than we bargained when our guide was trying to locate the place that we were to eat on the first night and we went around and around back and forth looking for the place. Eventually got there quite late and was rushed through our meal, and then taken on to a boat cruise and viewing of the Eiffel Tower, what is referred to as an ‘illuminations’ tour. The latter is all lit up like a xmas tree now, seems it has been for a couple of years. While impressive given the height and size of the tower, it is a bit over the top. Second evening was a trip to Moulin Rouge. A visit to Louvre, Notre Dame, and various other key points for “photo opportunities”. I got all the photo opportunities out of my system from the first tour 20 yrs ago so it was nice just to look this time and not worry about focusing the camera. Daughter took most of the photos and did a really good job so I will get her to load some for me. Then it was back to England. And while I miss being able to hang out with my big sister, whether it be to follow her around doing shopping, or just watch television and comment on various silly things, it was a wonderful time to have her “on tap”. Technology is a fine thing but we are still worlds apart so its back to the phone and email.
We have been back for a month now, and it is good to be home. Nice to go away for a while but nicer to come home and cuddle my animals, and be around familiar surrounds. All the better for knowing that we are privileged to have a beautiful country, nice people, and while we are not a very old country I think we have made some staggering good ways of life and changed the ones that were not so good, far quicker than some of the European countries.
Iwas also please to see I dont need to pour my anxieties about drought on here because the rainfull has been kind to us, we came home to green grass and it only browned up about a fortnight ago; intermittent showers have greened it up again and our water tank is full. I can hear the rain now as I type. Its good to be home.
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