Ian & Wendy Harris
Ian and Wendy are planning a Big Baby Boomer Overseas Experience in 2008/09. They will travel to UK to live - and work to finance their further travels to places far and near. This Log will chronicle their preparation and adventures.BBBOE
Travel Blog Posts
April 14th 2010
Every year in February Liz and Phil join several other families and hire a large house somewhere in Scotland for a week - this year the plan was for us to stay and look after the animals as the hired house was barely big enough for them all. Then we decided to find somewhere close to stay so we could join them for a few days - they went Saturday - Saturday and we drove up on the Tuesday, coming back as far as Barrow-in-Furness on the Sat then home on Monday. Setting out at 0400 was a bit of a struggle but after scraping the ice from the window and loading the dog we were on our way - passing Gretna Green at 8 but not arriving at our room in Lochcarron until nearly 4 ... read more
January 29th 2010
Late in August we joined Liz and Co for a few days camping in Wales then went on down/across to Cornwall - finishing with a weekend in Plymouth before heading home again. Liz had taken the children to Wales (near St David’s) to camp for a week in a Teepee. We joined them for the last 3 days and, as Phil had finished the hay-making by then, we took him and Jack as well. It was a long drive but well worth it. The camp ground is in a farmer’s field but there were only 10 sites - so we weren’t on top of the other campers and the showers etc were perfectly adequate. Also staying were two lots of relatives - one in a caravan and one in a tent. The night before we arrived ... read more
December 13th 2009
In early August we had a birthday to help celebrate in Stafford so we went a little early and spent two days staying at a YHA in Chester. From there we visited around and about but the highlight was the day trip to Liverpool to catch up on a bit of Beatles nostalgia - very ’60s and just great! On the Friday we drove up and detoured across to the big Bury market, just north of Manchester. It was quite interesting with the usual market stuff - I could have spent ages looking at all of the stalls but of course there were such a lot which were exactly the same as the others. It was very English and I really enjoyed the hot black pudding as a pre-lunch snack. We then went to Blackpool - ... read more
December 12th 2009
We visited the Polish city of Krakow for 4 days in December - close enough to Xmas to see the markets but not so far into winter as to be miserable. We wanted to visit the Nazi death-camp at Auschwitz and the salt Mine at Wieliczka - and maybe then find a Xmas market to cheer ourselves up a bit. We achieved these things - and a little more. The flight left at 0730 which meant a 3.30am wake up - and a long first day. When we arrived we took the train into the city then a short walk to the Hostel - we turned the wrong way on the street and had to double back once we realised but it wasn’t too bad. The room was nice, the staff friendly and very helpful and ... read more
November 29th 2009
It was coming up to my birthday in mid June and we had planned to visit Juliana and Steve in Cardiff - she was not able to make it to the party in July as she was working that weekend and, additionally, it was her birthday a few days before mine so two good reasons to visit. We had already arranged to take our friends Sue and Les to catch their plane back to NZ on the Thursday so we stayed (once again!!!!!) the night with FVV in London and set off for Cardiff on the Friday - which was my actual birthday. On the way we detoured through Gloucester and the village of Haresfield where we found the house Wendy’s Dad had been born in 1900 - although it had been added to over the ... read more
Switzerland, Germany and Denmark
Published: November 5th 2009Europe » Switzerland » North-West » Solothurn
November 5th 2009
The first week in July saw us heading back to Switzerland for Kathrin and Martin’s wedding - straight after the Big 60th Birthday Bash - but that’s another Blog!! We flew in to Zurich on the Wednesday and were very kindly picked up by Sheila and Julio who also gave us a bed for the night - thanks guys. The next day we took the tram into town then caught the train to Solothurn where K and M picked us up - they were, understandably, doing all of the last minute running around including signing papers to buy the family home. However, it was a nice time to catch up with them (hadn’t had much of a chance at the party!) and later that night Kathrin went into town to pick up Brendan and Renee who ... read more
August 13th 2009
In May we again set foot on foreign soil, this time a second visit to France. Faith very kindly got up very early to take us to St Pancras station to board the Eurostar for a quick trip under the channel to Paris. There we were met by Lea’s grandparents Elke and Jean-Pierre. We had stayed with them last year at their mountain home near Mt Blanc. After a very quick drive around the Paris sights we headed south to their converted farmhouse at Chevry. Once again they had both added their special French touch to the house and gardens. We spent 2 days there cycling the countryside, sampling local food and wine (the latter from Jean-Pierrre’s cavernous underground cellar), visiting the market at Fontainbleu and viewing the chateau from the outside. Unfortunately some months earlier ... read more
August 12th 2009
On Easter Monday we travelled to Folkestone with Elizabeth and co and Faith. We had a lovely time down south and the weather was quite hot. We visited Canterbury on our way down. Fascinating town and I enjoyed it more than Cambridge. We went for a short boat ride on the part of the river Stour which goes through the centre of the town. The guide actually rowed the boat so it was very peaceful. We visited the cathedral plus a couple of buildings associated with pilgrims. Then drove across to the village of Sandwich and should have stopped off but didn’t - the next village happened to be called Ham!!!!!! Elizabeth had used her Tesco tokens to get a deal for us all plus Faith at an hotel in Folkestone. The comments on the Internet ... read more
August 11th 2009
We spent our first night in a Hostel in Helsinki then took the train up to Kuopio the next day where we were met at the station by Hanna and Fred. It was so good to see them both again and we were taken some 40km out of town to her parents’ house for the evening - and that was some experience. The house is quite new and has a wood-fired boiler for central heating and hot water - there are plenty of trees around and one of the summer-time jobs is to top up the log supplies for next winter. There is a wood burning bread oven in the kitchen and a wood fired Sauna also in the house - we were introduced to the Sauna after dinner and I managed the rolling in the ... read more
August 11th 2009
Once again the snow was much better than usual for that time of year and one of the places Sanna took us was the lake where last time we were there we had enjoyed a picnic breakfast and a swim - this time it was frozen over and we went for a very tentative walk on skis. Sanna lives in a flat with 3 other young people near the University where she had been studying - she has taken a break from her studies and, luckily for us, one of her flatmates was away on holiday so we had his room to ourselves for the two nights. Her Dad visited briefly on the first evening (he teaches at the local University and it was his car Sanna was able to borrow to use while we were ... read more
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