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 and all. Can you believe Karl had never seen Mary Poppins, so the kids promised to sit down with daddy when we got home to watch it, despite the loud Cannon bangs Asha hates from ... read more

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 and uninteresting drive to Epernay. We had expected to see vineyard a-plenty on our approach to Epernay, but didn’t. We approached from the wrong side. Anyway, we drove in along Avenue de Champagne, lined with ... read more

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 delighted. They asked a lot of questions about mountains, glaciers and other such things. Jay said he and Appleton would climb the mountain, get to the top and then ski down. From the exit of ... read more

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 ferry on arriving at the Lido. Turning the ignition key to start the car to drive from the ferry resulted in just a click. No attempt to turn the engine over at all, so not ... read more

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 of the town. We had a breakfast ice-cream there, though Asha managed to stand on a piece of broken glass and had to leave with a bloody foot and a tearful face. From Nafplio, we ... read more