And so we say farewell.......

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HI Everyone

First I apoolgise for the unfinished sentence at the end of the last blog - blame it on the heat. The Internet place in Scario was so hot that I was just dripping and Stacey tried to help me put photos on but we gave up and had to get David to do it when he got back to England. However I forgot to ask him to save rather than publish the blog so you got the unfinished version.

Now we are in Dubai and I am sitting in the business centre in our hotel, at a proper desk with airconditioning going etc and a couple of hour on the card for the internet - then we are going shopping!!!

Now the last time I really updated you on our tripping around was in Bled in Slovenia and that was the last time we saw daytime temperatures under 30 deg. We picked the next stop, in Zadar, as it was about halfway down the coast on the way to Dubrovnik and even though we had never heard of it, it turned out to be an excellent choice. We had taken to booking our hotels through the internet as we went along and the one in Zadar was on the outskirts of the town on the beach, so we walked out the door, across the road and straight into the warm and crystal clear water without even getting sand between our toes!! There was an old town complete with a few roman ruins and a fasinating sea organ, which you couldn't actually see but it was a series of pipes under the pedestrian area by the sea and as the the sea came in and out you could hear what sounded like organ music - apparently louder when the sea was a bit rougher.

Dubrovnik is an amazing place but the heat and my insistence on climbing and walking the walls was nearly the end of me - Ian was mentally checking how to access the health insurance. So much for thinking we might catch a breeze up there!! Anyway a sit down and a drink in the shade down by the harbour helped me to recover and we decided a boat ride to a neighbouring island for lunch was more our style. Later we found a gallery of photographic scenes of the war which we had trouble understanding (how could they bomb Dubrovnik!!). Anyway, as we came out of the gallerry we said to the guy in charge that we still didn't understand what it was all about, so we got the full history of the war from him, then discovered that he was journalist from Wellington!! And we still don't really understand why so many people had to die

That night we took an overnight ferry across the Adriatic to Bari in a fairly ordinary old ship - bit like going from Christchurch to Wellington in the old days. They could have learnt a few lessons on organisation from the one we took from Picton in Dec. Getting away from the ship and onto the road in the morning was a nightmare, included a locked gate, wrong directions and a fear of having the car searched (a BMW in front of us was pulled apart) and having to empty all the bags of dirty washing we were saving for the washing machine at the villa!! We would have liked to stop in Bari as this was where Ian's parents were married but it was just too big and industrialised so we headed off across Italy to Sorrento.

Driving into Sorrento was a nightmare of scooters and pedestrian all over the roads but we got there early enough in the day to take a bus ride around the Amalfi coast and back, which left us a full day to take a ferry to Capri the following day. That second evening in Sorrento was our first real taste of the way Italians like to come out to play at night - at 10.30 pm when the shops were just closing the streets the bars and restaurants were full so we enjoyed a bit of extra people watching, one of our favourite pastimes over here.

Then we met up with Stacey, David and Georgia in Pompeii. Ian does a great job of looking after me, ensuring I don't do my usual trick of twisting an ankle, so it was interesting to see how responsibilty for Mum automatically went to Stacey when we met up in the uneven streets of Pompeii, then back again after Adam arrived two days later!!

I have already done my rave about the delights of Scario so will move forward to leaving there - a sad time as we said farewell to the kids, especially as we may not see Stacey for another 18 months when she hopes to be home for Christmas 2009. David and Georgia are planning to be in NZ in Feb 09 before settling in Perth

After that wonderful week we were really keen to be on our way home but we still had a wonderfull 4 days in Rome and did all the usual things in that fascinating city - well, as much as we could with the constant heat. The catacombs were a welcome relief as was an airconditioned bus trip to Assisi, about 2 hours from Rome. I think that Ian has seen enough churches and works of art to last him a lifetime in the last few weeks but it has been a wonderful time and we have been to some great places.

It was sad to be leaving Europe but NZ calls so we said "Arreviderci Roma" and headed to Dubai - and even hotter weather. As I sit here in a very comfortable temperature it is a raging 40deg outside and going out the door is like walking into an oven so we leap from door to car to some other airconditioned place. Early yesterday we took a private tour of the city and visited a smaller shopping centre done in the arabian style with venetian style canals around it. The money being spent in this place is mind blowing - we drove through an area that has just opened where a Palm tree shaped area has been developed out into the gulf where the streets are the fronds, so everyone has a beach, then they develop lakes inland!! Water for keeping things green is recycled from the sewerage, household water is desalinated from the gulf.

Late yesterday we went out into the desert in fourwheel drives, tearing up and down the sand dunes at precarious angles (roller
coasters are for sissies!!) then went to a camp set up for BBQ dinner and a show. Sitting on a cushion in the sand is not my favourite spot but it was an interesting concept and the food was very tasty. Never was shower more appreciated than when we got back last night!!

And now we are on a countdown (8.45 takeoff tomorrow morning) to that long haul (20 hours) back to NZ. We are not looking forward to the colder weather but everything else about being home again will be wonderful, hugs with our Rachel, catch up with friends, moving house etc etc etc. Now running out of time on the computer so must close this now - time to shop!!!

See you all very soon

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