Fabulous France

.....after a pretty ordinary second day, we bounced back on 'day 3', with 48 glorious hours at ‘Bormes-les-Mimosas’, on the gulf of St. Tropez (roughly between Nice and Marseille), on the cote d’Azur. Our camp site was 2m off the beach and 20m from the gentle, crystal clear waters of the Med (Tom's right arm is pointing at our camper van), see: www.campdudomaine.com. Tom was initially a little surprised that “the ladies take their bras off on the beach”, and that this “would not happen in Australia”, but we’ve all agreed to continue to try to respect different cultures. We’re all learning a lot on this trip....

PS croissants for breakfast, baguettes for lunch and a cheeky Bordeaux with dinner...let the culinary crusade continue!

Munching in Munchen

After a spectacular alpine train trip from Switzerland to Munich, Sean (Mike’s school friend) took us straight to the Munich ‘Springfes’ (basically, Oktoberfes without the crowds). Sean was dressed in traditional Bavarian attire and looked quite the native (and not the boy from Durban North).

Much of the blog has focused on food and this theme seems set to continue. The roast pork, sauerkraut, dumplings and beer where all out of this world (see above pic: is Lee-Ann literally drooling over Rob's spare rib)? The next day we picked up our campervan (after a false start!) and spent the first night in Sean and Lidia’s parking lot. Our trip from Munich took us through Austria (past Innsbruck) and back into northern Italy. Night two was spent at Arco (on Lake Garda). The campervan is a joy to drive on autobahns and autostrada – thanks to its 6-speed, multijet, Turbo–diesel engine. But on tight, windy roads the Italian Rivera it was nothing short of a 7m long, 3.5t nightmare to drive! As a consequence, Day 2 was pretty stressful and we ended up spending the night in a campervan ‘car park’ in San Remo, with no facilities. 6 heart attacks later, we managed to get back on an autostrada headed for France....

Switzerland and beyond: a road trip awaits...

Surrounded by snow-capped Alps, on a stunning lake, Lugano is scenically quite breathtaking. Our hotel is literally right on the lake and we have a top floor room with panoramic water views. In terms of visual feasts, it doesn’t get much better! We can see Italy across the water, but we’re in Switzerland. The people all speak Italian, yet we’re definitely not in Italy. Everything is super-organised, super-efficient, super-neat .....almost to the point of being too perfect. Yet ironically, compared with the rest of the country, we’re told that the Swiss consider Lugano to be pretty laid back and relaxed! Obviously, these things are relative not absolute! After four wonderful days here (Mike had a conference), we head off today (by train) to Munich (via Zurich). We’ll spend the night with Sean and Lidia (whom you ‘met’ in a previous blog), then on Thursday we pick up our campervan (motor home), and head for who knows where (possibly France and Spain). Don’t expect much blogging until we get to our hotel in Paris on about 5 May. Arrivederci!

PS check out our new home for the next 2 weeks: www.ideamerge.com/motorhomes/germany/mrent/group7_T6911_4_specs_2.html

Rob reminisces

From the Stefanos (left) we get salami ungheresi and prosciutto toscana for lunch. We also get milk and bread and biscuits. Tom gets Bionda to drink. We get gelato from Carli (right) every single night! We get amarana (cherry) for Mum and Dad and limone for Tom and I. My favourite is limone. We get breakfast every morning at Cafe Bacchina or Betti. I like Bacchina and Tom likes Betti. The Stefano’s give us free stuff also and we can come and go through the back door!

Tom’s Turin

Turin (Torino) is located on the banks of the river Po and circled by the Alps. In 2006 it hosted the Winter Olympics. It lies in the centre of Piedmonte. After we checked into our hotel, we went to see the Shroud (see pic). The shroud is the cloth they wrapped Jesus in when he was taken off the cross. Then we went for a long walk. We went to an authentic restaurant for dinner. The food was great! On day 2 we went on a hop on hop off tour bus around Turin. We saw all the sights to see in Turin. There were two lines (blue and red). We went on both. The red line took us to the big sights and the blue line took us to the Olympic sights. My favourite line was the red line because it showed more of the real Turin. At night we went to a Serie B Soccer match - at 'Stadio Olimpico di Torino'. Thats where they held the opening and closing ceremony for the Winter Olympics 2006. The match finished as a 1-1 draw. On day 3 you will never guess what happened ...my mum turned 40! When we woke up mum opened her presents and then we went to the Torino del Valentino gardens and Medieval village. We had coffee on the River Po and then went to the Medieval village. It was really cool in there because we got to see how they used to live. After that we went to the gardens and Mum told us what the different flowers were. Then we had a nice lunch and went home for gelato! We had a fantastic time in Torino!

For-tee 4 Lee

Dear family and friends: I am now a 'foxy 40' (and feeling great!). Thank you so much for all your kind messages, texts, e-mails, blog postings etc. I felt very spoilt (and loved). Mike and the boys made it a beautiful day for me. We spent the morning strolling on the banks of the river Po on a glorious spring day in Turin. I miss you all! love, Lee-Ann

Emotional farewell to A.C.Santa Lucia

This week the boys said goodbye to their team mates and coaches. Our Club back home (Peninsula Strikers) kindly sent over gifts and certificates of appreciation. Tom said his goodbyes on Thursday to his team and two assistant coaches and Rob bid farewell on Friday. Every one of Robbie’s team mates gave him a hug - causing his parents to choke up on the sidelines!

Then on Friday Tom said goodbye to his head coach (‘il Mister’), who promptly gave him a bear hug and kissed him on both cheeks. It was a very quiet bus ride home...

Pasqua in Prato

After farewelling Bids on Friday, we fell into a wet and quiet Easter weekend. “Our” little English bookshop in Florence has kept us well-stocked with some great reads. The boys were delighted on Sunday morning to discover that the ‘Easter Bunny’ had not forgotten to stop in Italy! The Fiorentina-decorated eggs were a hit. The church bells called everyone to Mass at about 11am, and we joined the crowd crossing the piazza. The service was beautiful, even though we could not understand anything that was said. The ‘weekend peace’ came to an abrupt halt a few hours later when we heard shattering glass – the boys had kicked the soccer ball through their bedroom window!!! Luckily for the boys, our landlady Simona was much calmer about the incident than their parents and she kindly replaced the glass without fuss. Prato is buzzing again and the weather is really warm. We are starting (hesitantly and with heavy hearts) to pack and consolidate. Mike is busy finishing up at Monash and the boys are enjoying their final soccer practices this week. What new adventures await us? We leave on Monday for Turin and perhaps Milan; then Lake Lugano (Switzerland) for 4 days – and then we really don’t know where we’ll be until May 7 when we fly from Paris to London. Watch this space!

Cruising the Chianti Valley

On Wednesday we rented a car and drove to San Gimignano, the “Town of Towers” (also known as the “Manhattan of Tuscany”). We all climbed the Torre Grosso (yip, the tallest one) to view the breathtaking Tuscan countryside from a height of 54m! Rolling, green hills and olive groves formed a patchwork to admire (see pic). At the base of the tower is the “world’s best gelateria” – officially! (Tony Blair, Dame Judi Dench and the Ewings concur). After a picnic in the park, our quest was to find the birthplace of the great Leonardo da Vinci. The town of Vinci is described in guidebooks as ‘nondescript’, however, we were charmed by the place - nestled in a valley of olive groves (Mont Albano). The museum is fascinating with drawings and models of da Vinci’s designs on display. His actual birthplace is a modest little stone house on a hill about 2km outside of Vinci. The boys played “tiggy” through the long grass at the base of the olive trees, and as Robbie commented, “we are running in Leonardo’s playground”. It was a special day indeed. Followed by an equally lovely ‘early’ birthday tea and cake presented so thoughtfully by Biddy. Forty candles (!!) to decorate a traditional, Italian, Easter chocolate and spice cake! Lee-Ann felt very blessed to celebrate with the lads and Bids. On that note, Buona Pasqua to all our family and friends. Hopefully the bunny will be good to you!

Venerable Venezia

Lee-Ann’s sister Biddy left today after spending 10 days with us. Last weekend we all headed off together for wonderful weekend in Venice. We arrived on Friday morning to find the city under a mysterious mist. As the sun broke through, we were amazed at the beautiful old palaces lining the Grand Canal and the smaller canals weaving their way through this unique city. Murano, the island famous for glasswork, was a highlight. This ‘mini Venice’ was full of tiny shops displaying amazingly creative glassworks and masks. As per usual, the fruit and veg. market in Rialto was a highlight for Lee-Ann: grapes the size of plums, plump artichokes stacked into wooden crates and bright citrus. The Grand Canal is central to life in Venice, with the candy-striped wooden poles used to moor gondolas and wooden water taxis. The arched bridges, doorways and windows soften the angular square structures of the buildings and the water laps against the doors leaving strips of seaweed at the base of entrances. The highlight for the boys (and adults) was the “awesome gondola ride”. Our gondolier was a very expressive chap who navigated his way through the canals, ducking under bridges and steering us past the other water traffic with great skill - while also serving as tour guide. We found the city very peaceful as the water has a lulling effect on everyone and the pace of life adjusts to the lack of cars and rush. The Bradjolina circus was also in town, but fortunately our paths never crossed. As with all adventures, one can’t escape the odd challenge or two: Mike’s VISA card was ‘swallowed’ by an ATM at San Marco on Saturday afternoon! Problem solved quickly by Visa (in the US), but after a week we’re still waiting for our NAB ‘personal banker’ (!) to respond to any one of the three e-mails we’ve sent!