Leaving Disneyland behind represented the very end of our fabulous journey. Although all of us were looking forward to being home, we were also sad to bring the holiday to an end. We couldn’t have wished for it to have run any better. The kids were again looking forward to going on the train under the sea. This time, Jay didn’t seem quite as concerned about the threat of sharks as he was on the outward journey. Our train was at 10.20pm, bringing us to the Folkestone end shortly before 10pm. We had aimed to be home at midnight and arrived [View Full Entry]

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We arrived at our hotel (Newport Bay) around lunchtime, checked in, found the room and headed to the park and Fantasy Land for the afternoon. The hotel was straight from the US. Even the ice machines in the corridors. We weren’t in France at all, apart from the accented English being spoken. To get to fantasyland, much to Jays excitement, we had to get on a bus, and here was a few tears when the journey came to an end far too quickly. But all cheered up when hitting Disneyland main street we fell upon the Mary Poppins show, with Penguins [View Full Entry]

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Our hotel (Les Berceaux, with well-known owner-chef Patrick Michelon) was lovely and in a great part of town. The room was ideal, with two separate rooms. We had booked dinner both evenings, safe in the knowledge that food would be good, our baby-monitor would work and is was a short ride in the lift back to bed! The kids ate first, went to bed and we had dinner later. We effectively only had one full day in Epernay and wanted to use it well. We wanted to visit a Champagne house of two (well, rude not to, really), so decided to [View Full Entry]

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Now here’s where the Tom Tom can be weird. It decided there was traffic congestion and found a cunning way around it. However, that meant that instead of heading north towards Geneva, it would take us west then north, with not a motorway to be seen for most of an hour. That said, it claimed it was saving us time and it did take us through some beautiful gorges and past a lake, where we stopped for a picnic and a drink. Once we hit the motorway, the mountains and hills were quickly left behind and we had a fairly long [View Full Entry]

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Actually, Annecy is the closest town. We had chosen a small B&B 15km west of Annecy in a place called Pezay. It was run by an English couple from Sussex who had moved out some 7 years previously. Having a pool made it popular with recent swimming-star, Asha. We dined the first evening with fellow-guests - an older English couple, who were out for a wedding, a Dutch couple and a French couple, meeting in the middle, him in Paris, her in Nice. It was a nice meal. The kids had been fed earlier, so it was more adult than we’d [View Full Entry]

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Talk about another spectacular road trip. Good old Tom Tom took us the interesting route. We left the gentle hills around Lake Orta for flatter land, before rising into the pass that leads to Monte Bianco (Mont Blanc to most of us). Tunnel after tunnel after tunnel, right up to the final Mont Blanc tunnel (built between 1957 and 1965). At €33 one-way, it’s not a cheap tunnel to use, but it saves a huge distance and, at today’s petrol prices, it probably works out more economical anyway. The views of the snow and glaciers are breath-taking and the kids were [View Full Entry]

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Crossing Italy to Lake Orta was an easy drive and a pleasant one - for Karl, at least. The others all slept, so no photos - sorry. We went past Soave, through the vineyards, hills and into the absolutely stunning surroundings that is Lake Orta and Orta San Giulio, where we were staying. To anyone visiting the area, Lake Orta’s the lake to visit. It’s tourism is very gentle and the setting is idyllic. Unfortunately, on arrival, Onita had a migraine, so was most unwell for the last part of the journey. Karl had found a hotel right in the middle [View Full Entry]

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After docking at Venice we headed for the port to take a short, local ferry to the Lido. where we were to stay and were to meet Onita’s mum & sister, who were already in Venice, having flown out for a long weekend. At the prt we had an amazing little espresso and a real sandwich, or the joy of not eating Greek food after a month. The kids fed the little bit that was left to the birds that was the beginning of the bird feeding experience of Venice. The only car incident of the whole trip happened on the [View Full Entry]

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The midnight ferry to Patras turned out to be an 11pm ferry to Patras once we actually decided to look at the tickets. Remember, by this time in the trip, we were truly chilled. We weren’t going to let little things like actual departure times play too much of a role in our planning. Anyway, we were due to arrive at Patras at 10pm, so that was fine. Well, it would have been even finer were it not almost impossible to find the way into the port in Patras. After a wasted 20 minutes of driving around, getting stuck in traffic, [View Full Entry]

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Now here is a real gem, people. Although everyone was very tired (Karl excepted, as driver, who couldn’t afford to be), we took a whole day in the Peloponnese, en-route to Patras for a ferry to Venice at midnight. We hadn’t done any research, having just less than a day and the Tom Tom didn’t know the roads, so we did our best. We chose to head first for Nafplio, a coastal town in the south-east of the island (if you can call the Peloponnese an island). Although touristy, Nafplio was very enjoyable. Dozens of waterside cafes adorned the main front [View Full Entry]

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