Since I didn't write that much about Berlin thought I'd add a bit of a PS especially for you. Berlin seems a very vibrant city and would appear - at least on the surface - to have come to terms with its past. A free city walking tour which we joined during our own wanders gave us some excellent little tit-bits of history and life for Berliners. The girl - Annabel - who led the group was Australian (of course!!) and from Perth. It was a job she'd been doing for the past two years and, she told me, she just [View Full Entry]

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Two nights in Berlin but only really one full day to explore the city - nevertheless we managed to fit quite a bit in. The studio apartment located in Olivaer Platz we'd booked online the day before we arrived proved to be a little gem, Deciding to take a taxi once we'd arrived at Berlin Hbf it seemed to be a long drive but it turned out that we were well served by buses (didn't even try the metro) and not very far from the places we wanted to see. Making the most of the day we visited the Reichstag, Berlin [View Full Entry]

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And we crack the Paris Metro - finally worked out which line to take where - we feel like Parisians!! All of the Spaniards on our Metro traveling from Montmartre to Saint Michael, and on the streets as we walked back to our hotel, were exuberant on their win against Germany in Euro 2008 - there was much singing and dancing! It was impossible not to get carried away with the emotion of it all. Kev had managed to watch the last ten minutes of the match on a pub television while he waited for me to buy two T-shirts - [View Full Entry]

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Well it was very gay at one point in our touristy travels - we witnessed a Gay Pride parade and a little bit of a concert which was part of the festivities. Numerous police around the concert area, batons and shields at the ready while others waited in nearby police vehicles. Too busy to watch any television so we've no idea if it all turned nasty - hope not. We enjoyed doing many other things during our stay in Paris. As is to be expected, in Paris in summer, just about everyone you meet seems to be examing a map of [View Full Entry]

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“Keep moving” - those were Kevin's words as we walked around the Louvre. As Margot and Nicola both know I like to take my time in art galleries so not sure how you two will react - sympathise with me or with Kevin!! Anyway I did my best to keep up with him and as you really need about a week to do justice to the Louvre he maybe had a good point. Even though we'd seen it before, naturally we had to go see the Mona Lisa along with all the other people. I don't know what's more impressive - [View Full Entry]

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The idea of spending four days on the Somme was so that I could follow in the the footsteps of Frederick Stobo Phillips and try to get a 'feel' for the area and, possibly, gain some sort of understanding of what it might have been like for the diggers 90 years ago. A mighty ask I know but I did what I could and Kev got into the swing of things - he was extremely helpful driving me here, there and everywhere. The weather was just perfect, most of the time the sun was shining out of a clear blue sky. [View Full Entry]

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Heathrow's Terminal Five is awesome - huge - and even has comfy looking lounge/beds in the waiting area. With the short hop from London to Paris on British Airways it wasn't long before we were back in a hire car once more. Having returned our Renault Megane at Heathrow - driving on the left - we picked up a Toyoto Yaris at Charles de Gaulle - driving on the right. Luckily it was pretty easy to drive out of the airport and on to the A1 heading for Lille - no problems there!! But it was then up to the driver [View Full Entry]

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After leaving the Everson-Cranes we headed to Rothley to spend a night with my old friend Ann Baxter and her partner Chris. Ann's sister Sally joined us for a drink at the Red Lion before we all went back to Ann & Chris's place for dinner and a glass of wine (or two!). As you can imagine we chewed the fat over the many adventures, and misadventures, which we'd enjoyed during our long-gone mis-spent youth. Ann & Sally, and their elder brother David lived opposite me where I grew up in the village of Rearsby. It's amazing how many childhood memories [View Full Entry]

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Yes, that's right, what began when I answered a question on the internet, - after lots of emails between Australia and England - has become a wonderful friendship. Since its humble beginnings in cyberspace over eight years ago the relationship took wings when the Everson-Crane family first visited Australia. They have since returned at least three times, stayed with us at North Rocks and spent a short time living in Melbourne. So now its our turn to see Rachel, James and their three children - Jake, Helena and Sam - in their neck of the woods. We manged to cram a [View Full Entry]

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William Wordsworth played a big part in the first part of our visit to Engand. Driving through Cockermouth in the Lakes District we were crawling along in traffic so Kev pulled into a pub carpark and we went in for a drink - just to get out of the traffic for a while!! The pub was the Trout Hotel - see http://www.trouthotel.co.uk/ - and we ended up having lunch there and booking in for the night, in a room overlooking the river. It turned out that the childhood home of William Wordsworth was just next door!! The next day we were [View Full Entry]

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