Bonjour mes amis. Nous sommes en Provence. Le survivre à est parfait et la nourriture est délicieuse et abondante!* We've now been in Avignon for four days and the boys are slowly recovering from the great Wallabies debacle. On Sunday we ventured back to Marseille to see Fiji v South Africa. It was a hot day and we knew we would be seated in the sun so we took our time before the match and participated in an authentic Marseille experience - Bouillabaise (seafood soup) et vin de blanc by the port. The "Frenchness" of the event was lessened somewhat by the presence of about a thousand Australian, South African and English rugby fans all of course speaking English but it was memorable nevertheless and an important item to tick off the "we must do" list. ... read more

Unfortunately the weather didn't treat us kindly in Vilnius. The rain fell, and fell, and fell. The boys staged a revolt on the day assigned for our city tour. No more churches! We negotiated with the guide and driver to take us to Trakai, an ancient capital of Lithuania approximately 30 km from Vilnius and the setting for a medieval island castle surrounded by lakes, quaint timber bridges and birch forests. It would have been quite picturesque - if we'd been able to see through the rain. The local cuisine was on the menu that night. The Lithuanians are partial (or so the Lonely Planet would have us believe) to a dumpling known as Cepelinai so we thought we would partake. If you imagine an overcooked 300gram gnocchi stuffed with sausage meat you'll be on the ... read more

Tere. Greetings from Estonia. Two days ago we boarded a train in Russia and seven hours later we arrived in Scandinavia. Estonia, whilst a neighbour of Russia's, is closer in culture and style to her Scandinavian cousins. Finland is only 48 nautical miles to the north whilst Sweden is a six-hour ferry trip to the west. Estonians are Lutherans - no gilded, ornate, coloured decoration in the churches here. Not that many of the locals practice their religion. That was beaten out of them by fifty years or so of Soviet occupation (with an occupational interlude by Nazi Germany), prior to which there was a period of approximately twenty years of independence, before which Imperial Germans were in charge, before that the Russians again, then the Swedes, the Germans again, the Danes... you get the idea. ... read more

A change of pace from the big city hustle of Moscow to the country quiet of Suzdal. Referred to as an 'open air museum' (by which they mean nothing has changed here for hundreds of years) Suzdal is one of the 'Golden Ring' towns - former seats of power in centuries past. It's a sleepy town of churches (thirty-three of them in nine square kilometres we were informed by our guide) with autumn coloured trees, elderly Russian women in shawls selling a handful of onions, six tomatoes and a jar of pickled vegetables by the side of the road, chickens pecking in the dust and the odd cow tethered to a tree in someone's front yard. Getting to this tranquil rural spot was an introduction to Russian raod travel. Informed by our travel guide that the ... read more

Well what an adventure! We're only three days into our European escapade (aka Rugby World Cup tour) and we've so far encountered a flight delay in Bangkok (a seven hour layover allowing for three hours kip at the Bangkok Airport Novotel), the great Belarusian transit visa challenge (we wrangled a 48 hour visa in less than two), cold showers at our London hotel (thankfully we weren't paying the 150GBP tariff advertised in reception) and a fairly mean hangover for some of the group - they're working on a second as we go to print. Catching up with friends and family at The Victoria Hotel in Paddington on Thursday evening was very pleasant. It was a balmy evening reminiscent of Sydney in October, we stood, drank and chatted on the pavement outside and the drinks went down ... read more