I really loved your post and photos of Anzac day! I've always wanted to visit Mont Saint Michel, and I loved that photo too! My blog is looking for travel photos, reviews (like maybe of the Chateau Chenonceau, or a good place to grab lunch on the Seine!?), etc, to share. If you have the time, check it out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com, or email us at dirtyhippiesblog@gmail.com. Continued fun on your travels!
Heather
another great one! Did I tell you exactly where we were going or is it only co-incidence that we and you have both chosen to do the WWI and the WWII sites? Shall copy out your email. We are staying in French B and Bs , interestingly all run by expat Brits, but we are in a hotel in Tours and had planned to visit Chenonceau (with its history of the women) and maybe one other chateau because we have the car and getting around should be no hassle. Any suggestions?. We should be able to take full advantage of the champagne!
Interesting to note what you chose to see on the battlefields. We have been told to get hold of "Major and Mrs Holt's Battlefield Guides" - which we did for the Normandy sites from our local library - and after we had both perused it and found that there was literally a museum at every beach we decided to forgo the guide and follow the signposts to the biggest and most notable. Therefore your tour sounds great. Who did you go with? We get off the Dover ferry and stay at St Lo (with a circumflex over the o) for three days but in July it would be good to have ourselves booked. We plan to get the ferry to Guernsey too. I bet Jamy was amazed at the Anzac service crowd? Good that you had an equal war experience.
Are you well? How is Naomi and son now?
We are off to the Norfolk Broads next weekend. Admittedly in a powerboat for 4 hours because WW wasn't convinced we would have enough wind to sail or see enough by sail. If we are smitten then we can come back again and sail. Friends from Aus (actually a boyfriend from when I was 16) this week for couple of nights and since it is midsummer on Thursday we hope to have a picnic on the Downs watching the sunset (better than aerobics which is my usual Thursday night. Wednesday nights was golf lessons until last Wed. An amazing way of spending the twilight until 9.30 - even it was 12 degrees as I drove home). "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is on the TV - unusual to have anything vaguely interesting on UK TV so shall go since I have not seen it and it reminds me of lots of Greeks I have known.
Love
Pam
Did you know we are in UK for a year? I think not because your last blog came soon after our arrival in January. I am contracted until the end of the year on a visa that allows me to work in a profession which UK can't fill - Science teacher. School is hideous, an Academy with the most depressing varieties of humans there. But it is an experience - and it pays the bills for all the other things I wanted to do and haven't been able to do since 1969 when I lived here the first time. Rich and Toni are finishing his Staff college appointment in July. We are near Luton and they are in Swindon about an hour 30 away but we have seen them and their child/dog (black lab called Bella) once. He has been awarded his Lt Colonelship and they go back to ACT and have bought a being built townhouse. We are skiing for Christmas in Val di Fasso and then tidy up the rented apartment and send stuff home to leave the UK on Jan3rd. In Singapore for a few days and back in Aus on 7th. Then next year the ICW in our ketch, Morning Star, which is sitting waiting for us in Florida!
We won't be near Naples having "done" that area before but will be in Pisa at a hotel cum old monastery called Santa Croce as a base for the Cinqueterra on Aug 5 and 6 and then near Lake Como in a splurge of a hotel in the mountains, the Hotel Merloni, on 6,7 and 8th. Then we go to Interlaken. If you are doing any more weekends away and are near these places we would just love to meet up with you. Always love your blogs. Thanks for the updates.
Love
Pam and WW
It is sad. Great blog. I totally agree with you about Venice becoming too touristy. It is very sad that so many locals are being forced to leave. Venice won't be Venice much longer I fear.
Beautiful Mel Hi Mel, It's wonderful to read about all your travels. Glad you are enjoying yourselves, and making the most of your time in Italy! Just a tad envious, I am.
Very interesting Drove through that area in 1969 to get to Brindisi for the ferry to Greece but Fromer's "Europe on $5 /day" didn't have all that info!
Our news - which is hot off the press and 1/3 of the family and no friends don't know yet - is that I have a job teaching in a school near Luton for a year starting Jan 4th. Planning to spend Christmas in Paris on way. So if you come to the UK email in advance so we can see you and meet Jamy!
Cheers
Pam
Wow, you two are really seeing the world. Could I possibly take this cruise when I get to Italy this summer??? How was the water going through Gibralter? Miss you both. Mom
Another good one! Hi Mel and Jamy
Have just read out your whole blog to Warrick and he agrees with me that your style of writing is very entertaining - worthy of being a travel writer he thinks.
Was talking to a friend about their Pacific cruise as I opened your blog and reported some of your activities to her - she has told her husband she never wants to be at sea for 5 days straight ever again! Theirs was a 35 day trip to hawaii and back.
Keep enjoying Italy and your time away.
Love
P and W
awesome Hi Mel, Thanks for sharing your stories of your travels. Sounds fabulous, and so nice to hear your parents were able to join you. Hope all is going well for you and Jamy all the way over there in Italy. Although I really have no doubt you are having a ball.
lovely! Hi Mel. Always read your blog with interest. These are definitely the best photos I have ever seen of the Cinque Terra. So many people take some shots of some villages but I finally get a feeling of what the whole route looks like. We have also "done" Italian trains - from Palermo in Sicily to Rome - 12 hours and the first food, carried by a person who had a tray like vendor in the movies, was about 3 in the afternoon. Lots of sandy beaches down in the boot region.
We have bought another boat and it is is waiting in Florida on the hard for us to start the ICW. You might be back there by then!
P and W
Cinque Terre Hi Mel, great blog. Glad you are enjoying life in Italy. I loved the Cinque Terre when I was there in 2007... hope to go back back one day.
wow Just reading your blog, life sure is amazing!! Congrats on the move, finding a great place to live, a wonderful job, and being able to live in such a beautiful city. Hopefully Millie will adjust soon. Give her licks from Molly!
Swinging Hanky Mel and Jamy, I've never seen the swinging hanky dance before. The $1.00 dance yes, but not with the red hanky. Must be a Pittsbuarg tradition. Love ya, Mom
27' S2 You two know that all you have to do is come up with the money and you can have a sailboat that sleeps 5 and even has a head on it. (Mel, that is a bathroom.) Love you both. MOM
Inherited Traits You would have to be a natural Mel, with the blood that runs in your veins! Maybe the reversing ability comes from your dad! Great idea, this blog.
House looks great! Hey guys! The house looks great! Glad to hear you are finding your feet Mel! Can understand that the circle of friends would help a lot! :o)
Anyway, missing you guys loads and loads! Looking forward to seeing you back here soon! xoxoxo
Heather
non-member comment
I really loved your post and photos of Anzac day! I've always wanted to visit Mont Saint Michel, and I loved that photo too! My blog is looking for travel photos, reviews (like maybe of the Chateau Chenonceau, or a good place to grab lunch on the Seine!?), etc, to share. If you have the time, check it out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com, or email us at dirtyhippiesblog@gmail.com. Continued fun on your travels! Heather