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Published: March 16th 2009
November 24, 2008
Finally departed North America, coincidentally Lani was also waiting at Toronto Airport to go to London but at a different terminal. She was having a stopover from New York while we were going direct from Toronto. It was quite a miserable day with the sun setting very early but we managed to find our way to the airport using the fabulous public transport.
Luckily for Ralphie and Sal we all arrived within a couple of hours of each other which meant only one trip to Heathrow. It was like coming home…Sal and Ralphie spoilt all of us. Sal and Ralphie are old friends from our Sydney days (next door neighbours) whom we have known for the past 26 years. Sal just happens to be Lani's godmother which probably explains why Lani has spent quite a bit of time coming and going from London. In fact she is probably more comfortable getting around London than Sydney. For all of us it was a time to relax and recuperate, catch up on all the washing and generally just hang loose! It was preparing us for the next 6 weeks.
Dec 1 we took off to Germany to catch
up with friends in Cologne and to also meet up with Adam whom we hadn’t seen for a year. We stayed with Knut and Steff which was an absolute treat as they had just moved (3 days previously) into their new apartment and they very kindly let us stay with them. Steff was a wonderful host, she took a day off work and did the whole ‘tour guide bit’. We managed to climb all the steps to the top of the cathedral which gave us wonderful views over Cologne. I now know the origin of Eau de Cologne 4711 and know where to get the best hot chocolate in Cologne! Cologne was also the first of the many Christmas markets we were to see in the weeks ahead. It was great catching up with Silvi, who let Adam and his friend Gero crash at her place after we all had an impromptu dinner at Steff and Knut’s . Next it was off to Holland, to Zevenaar where we spent time with Johan, Magda, Linda, Mandy, Ed, Willem, Jeannette, Anouk and Carel. We got to celebrate St Nicholas day and were surprised with goodies in our shoes the next morning. It
was here that we met a friend of Willem who just happened to be a whiz with the computer and was able to get all the UK/European/Central Europe maps for our GPS, without which we would have been stuffed!! Visited the smallest city in Holland, Bronkhurst, and also managed to see a working windmill. The guide was rather unusual…if you listened to him speak you would have sworn he was English but in fact he was born in Sweden and lived most of his life in Holland. Another thing we did to pass a wintry afternoon was spend time in a ‘garden’ shop that not only sold gardening stuffs but also all things Christmassy…gave us some fabulous ideas, just don’t know how practical they would be in Australia.
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anonymous
non-member comment
hedges have brown leaves......you know why?......It's winter!! haahhh...brocolli?.......think not, Brussel sprouts that is