Deborah

Whoops, sorry we thought this bit about Turkey touring had been posted it was completed prior to leaving for Italy. Here goes, The tour we took began in Istanbul with a walking tour of the blue Mosque, various ancient land marks and the ancient palace of Topkapi all located in a central area on the heights of the city over looking the bospshorous straights and the bridges connecting Europe with Asia. Mustafa the guide was an ex international banker and top family man, he took to Ben and Julia immediately and was great at making the amazing historic realities of Istanbul, Turkey and the area come alive for them, later we found out he had set up the english guiding options at Istanbul university. Fantastic chap. Needless to say the whole background and reality of the ... read more

Bens Blog - Hi we are writing the blog for the first time and on arrival we collected our bags and looked for a shuttle to our hotel and found a very confused taxi driver who took us around the old city wall a couple of times, he eventually got us here. Then we played in the pool (Julia was in the longest) and decided what we would do for the afternoon. We braved another taxi to the oldest market which is just up the road from us, it is called the grand bazzar. I went shopping for soccer shirts for me and my cousins, there was a huge range I tried some on. They love meat and bread here so thats good. We walked across the bridge over the river that seperates europe from Turkey ... read more

Hey there folks thanks so much for the feedback from all - the prayers are working barb and mum cheers Julia loved the Evie update thanks Moods team. A few milestones here we took a road trip a few hundred kms up the island to pay our respects to the kiwis who will never leave Crete, they are in a stunning locale in an area called Sudha Bay, a natural and strategically important harbour that has been in continuous use for over 3000 years by one tribe or another. despite us cruising in a skoda ( much to Bens horror) and the fact that all two lane roads instantly become 4 we adapted to the greek driving style and were successful the kids did really well, we stopped for a swim in the lovely warm and ... read more

Hi to all, an eventful and slightly challenging series of hops to get here but we are all now safely and happily escconced in central Athens for a bit of history before headfing for Crete on a ship tonight from Piraeus port. Ben telling us in the plane via the personal entertainment systems he was surfing on that our first destination (Bangkok) was featuring on BBC world news as a result of the state of emergency declared there was a good introduction to the realities of travel in various parts of the world. All was calm for us and Deb had scored on line a brand new apartment and pool complex which was excellent. Kids managed well on nil sleep for 24 hrs and we got out on a magical night cruise on the river ( ... read more