Wet and wintery

After however many days of brilliant sunshine and nearly 40 degree heat, it’s back to winter for Amelia. (Although it’s only about four or so degrees colder than London I might add).

The main thing about this winter, after the brilliant, best in 60 years NZ summer, has been the vast, copious, massive amounts of rain. Auckland has had 10 wet weekends in a row and here’s what that looks like:

And if you thought the puddle looked bad, here’s what it looked like a mere five minutes later:

This weekend coming is supposed to be fine - bring it on I say!

And then it was over

So there you have it. 112 days of tripping around Europe, each about 5200 euros poorer, but a million photos richer.

There were too many highlights to mention them all, but I know that the Blue Grotto in Capri and the whole of Corsica would have to rate right near the top (or as Osun, our tour guide for Gallipoli would have said, they were some of the 'top best' things we saw). So if anyone needs hints about where to go on their next European adventure just give us a call!

Stay tuned for more adventures during the next 12 months at Oxford...

Eastern and Northern France (and don't forget Luxembourg!)

It's the final countdown...da da da dum...dum de dum de dum...

That's right, it was the last week of our trip. As I'd said, we had some more days left on our Eurail pass and so it was off to a region of France that neither of us had properly visited - the East. We based ourselves in Metz, which is the capital of the Lorraine region, and had a hostel with a kitchen - it's the simple things I tell you. Metz is home to the best stained glass in Europe - the cathedral St Etienne is literally filled with incredible glass art, from the Gothic and Renaissance periods, right up to some fantastic windows done in the 1960s by Marc Chagall. They also had a lot of pieces in museums in the region where you could look at them really up close and see all sorts of detail that you wouldn't otherwise know was there (like the expression on this guy's face).

We also spent a day in Strasbourg making use of the wonderful French institution whereby most museums are free on the 1st Sunday in every month. I for one was well over museum hopping by this stage, but our last two in Strasbourg - the Museum of Notre Dame with lots of sculptures and other pieces from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, didn't let the side down and were a good way to finish. Strasbourg felt really different from the rest of France, the German influence was everywhere, and we made the most of being so close by tucking into some delicious gingerbread...mmm...

Day trip #2 out of Metz was to a whole other country - Luxembourg. We succumbed to the lures of the city card yet again and went on a three hour walking tour with Henriette who was the town gossip and, as well as showing us the main sights like the Golden Lady (below) and the cathedral, told us all sorts of stuff that I'm sure wasn't on the official programme! Luxembourg used to be one of the most fortified cities in Europe until they dismantled nearly 90% of the fortifications to ensure peace. The remaining 10% that remain are mostly open to the public so we had all sorts of fun wandering around underground trying not to take a wrong turn! The city also had the most incredible patisseries that I have ever seen - must be something about the melting pot of European influences, but I wanted to eat everything in sight - pity the budget wasn't in harmony with the stomach...

Last day trip, #3, was out to Verdun to visit some of the WWI battlefields and memorials. We hired mountain bikes in Metz and braved near vertical hills to look around at everything (ok, they weren't vertical, but they felt like it!). It was really nice to get out in the countryside and see something a bit different.

Our final stop was in Lille for two days so I could show Adrian my other home town. It did as it always does and rained nearly non-stop, but we still managed to see the citadel, go to the zoo, look at some markets and, as no trip to the north would be complete without a trip to Flunch, eat so much food that we were nearly ill. I never thought there would be a limit to how many frites Adrian could eat. Turns out I was wrong...

The rest of the photos are here.

Ou se trouve le Louvre?

So, it all came down to this. All those weeks of travel was working up to the city of all cities - bring it on Paris!

Sterling Air did a stirling job (ahaha) of chauffering us into town, and in conjunction with the wonders of the RER and metro system we made our way to Clichy, our home for the next week (and one of Paris's largest hostels). Armed with the trusty Lonely Planet we did a walking tour through Montmartre, visiting Sacre Coeur and checking out the overpriced souvenirs, then headed out to Pere Lachaise cemetary to see Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison etc. It's such a serene place, you could just wander there for hours, and some of the monuments are so beautiful.

But we were here to see everything we could in the shortest amount of time (I don't know how long you would need to give Paris justice, but I see new things everytime I go, so our stint of five days was definitely not enough) so on day two we headed into town to join a free tour of Paris. Free tour you say? Well, you pay what you think it's worth at the end, and after seeing the Pont Neuf, Louvre, Grand Palais, Petit Palais, Tuileries gardens, Champs Elysees etc. etc., let's just say we decided to part with some of our (rapidly diminishing) euros. But we were not sated! So that afternoon we crammed in a visit to the Arc de Triomphe, a wander through some gorgeous back streets, and of course, a trip up the Eiffel Tower. 

That night we joined up with a pub crawl run by the same people who do the free tour, met heaps of cool people, had more than enough of the free vodka orange shots, and (incredibly) negotiated the Parisien night bus system to make it home safe and sound. At least, that's what I think happened...

Day three dawned incredibly hot and sunny (again) and so after a visit to Notre Dame we motored on out to Versailles to eat iceblocks, dip our feet in the ponds and lie around in the stunning gardens. We also thought we had factored in just enough time for a visit inside the chateau, but were unceremoniously kicked out early - hint for young players, it is ginormous, overwhelming, and will take way more time to see than you think!

After a day out of Paris it was time to get right back into the action so after visiting more gardens, watching some serious boules competitions, and spending way, way too much money on the most delicious macaroons ever (La Duree macaroons are unbelieveable), it was off to Le Louvre. I (Amelia) was desperately keen to see the collection of Northern European art, as it was closed the last time I visited in '99. So of course, it was closed again the day we went as well. Sacre bleu!! But, to make up for it, we saw the Egypt collection, many, many, many paintings, Napoleon III's opulent apartments, and a little old painting of a brunette.

We had originally planned to be jetting out of Paris that night, making some more use of our Eurail pass while we still had money to afford to eat, but being August, all the Eurail pass seats were already booked. One more day in Paris - such a chore! Luckily we found some stuff to keep ourselves busy, namely, a visit to the Catacombes de Paris which was just so eerie you couldn't keep it in your mind that you were walking through tunnels of real bones, and a visit to the Hotel des Invalides. The latter is where Napoleon I (Napoleon Bonaparte)'s tomb is, as well as that of other luminaries such as Vauban and Marechal Foch. The complex also plays host to the National Army Museum which would have kept Adrian amused for days, but the SNCF waits for no man, so it was au revoir Paris and bonjour Metz!

For more Paris photos, see here.

Malmo and Copenhagen

From the comforts of being looked after by Stina (and her Mum and Dad) to the comforts of being looked after Stina's sister (Matilda) in Malmo. It was great to be able to relax in a house with some luxuries of home life again - a kitchen with a fridge, and a nice lounge with state of the art surround sound and DVD player.

Malmo is home to the tallest building in Sweden, the 'Twisting Torso', and some great museums. We spent our time looking around the beautiful town and went to the beach for a bit of a dip. A series of the museums have the one entry ticket to them all. We decided to hit up a couple of them.  The Science and Technology was a real find, they had a submarine you could look around, and a whole floor of hands-on exhibitions to explain different scientific theories. I'm not sure what we learnt but we had a great time playing on different games. We left with the high score for the geography game, (as you would hope with a Master in the team).

Watch Amelia on the oversized piano, again not sure what we learnt other than don't give up the geography.

Malmo is connected to Denmark by a 7.8km bridge, which takes you to Copenhagen. In the water under the bridge is a wind farm, good luck getting that past resource consent in NZ. We spent a couple of days looking around the town, seeing the Changing of the Guards, the Palace, the Little Mermaid, and the Calsberg factory. The port area which was also very beautiful (and expensive). 

The Bodies exhibition was on in Copenhagen so we decided to go have a look. It is amazing, they have all these real bodies that have been disected and preserved in all these different ways so you can see how the different parts of the human body works. It helps to not think that you are actually looking at someone's insides.

That was our time over in Scandinavia, after a great night sleep at the airport it was off to Paris.