The best day of my life

Last weekend we stayed at Chelsea Football Club’s hotel at Stamford Bridge. It was a very emotional two days for me and it has been hard for me to write about it! On Saturday we went on a tour of the stadium, the press conference room, the Chelsea and opposition dressing rooms and the dug outs were they sit during a game. Then I met most of the Chelsea team! John Terry (left pic), Frank Lampard (right pic), Ashley Cole, Joe Cole, Alex, Michael Ballack, Florent Malouda, Pedro. Lamps is one of my favourite players which is why, I chose no. 8 for my club shirt. The game was a stunner! The singing was loud and never stopped and there were some funny songs! Chelsea beat Wigan 8-0. There were lots of records broken at the match. 103 goals for the season, Drogba hat-trick and golden boot, biggest winning margin in Chelsea’s history. If Chelsea can win another FA cup tomorrow it will be the first double in the clubs history. This was the best moment of my life!

“We love Paris, in the Springtime....”

After returning the campervan to Munich with 3,350km’s on its clock, we took an overnight train (last Tuesday night) to Paris. Mike gave a seminar at ESSEC and they kindly put us up in a nice furnished apartment for two nights, right at the Arc de Triomphe, a 100m from the top of the Champs des Elysees. On Wednesday we had a massive day (walking >10km), down the CdE, to the Louvre (Tom was desperate to see the Mona Lisa), then we tried in vain to find the restaurant where we got engaged (on 18 Dec 1993), but unlike our marriage, it does not appear to have endured! So, after lunch, we continued down the Seine then crossed over to Notre Dame (which Rob declared was the last church he is visiting on this trip). On Friday Mike spent the day at ESSEC and Lee-Ann and the boys had a picnic under the Eiffel Tower. On Friday evening we flew to London where we were greeted by our old and dear friends, Craig and Marijke (and Josh and Dan), with whom we are staying. So, after nearly 3 months its Au Revoir to continental Europe and if the BA strike gets called off at some stage, it might be gidday USA a week from now....watch this space!

...and then back to France...!

From Barca back to France. We spent our 8th night on the Med again, a few metres off the beach, at Marseillan-Plage (just north of Narbonne). But, it was a different Med to the cote d’Azur (days 4 and 5). Windy and rough seas, but still charming (a bit like Cape Shank in winter). The next day we headed off for Lyon, but somehow got pulled towards the mountains and stumbled across a charming little village, Les Abrets (just north of Grenoble). The campsite was called Le Coin Tranquille, and it will no doubt return to being tranquil after we've left (www.coin-tranquille.com). We even had to order our baguettes the day before, and they were delivered fresh in the morning. We took a long walk in the countryside in the late afternoon and it was just so very, very rustic, authentic and ‘French’ (sounds lame, but true). Its not hard to see where Monet drew his inspiration from.

Breathtaking Barcelona

Barcelona!! (think of the Queen song). How does one describe this stunning city? We weren’t sure what to expect, but were literally blown away by the place. It’s a really impressive, liveable city on every level. Climate, public transport, gardens, museums, history (>2,000 years of it), great buildings, beaches, friendly locals - they seem to have it all. They are also fairly partial towards soccer. See pic (below) of the boys at Camp Nou, FC Barcelona’s 100,000 seat home ground. We were in the city on the day of the UEFA semi-final (Barca v Inter), but unable to find a spare $4,000 for last minute tickets, we watched the game live in a restaurant with big screens and dozens of obsessed locals. Quite an experience in itself (and yes, we did have Paella for dinner!).

And as an added Catalan bonus, our campsite was 5-star (literally and figuratively: http://www.vilanovapark.es/). The pic above is Mike outside Santa Maria de la Mar, the 15th century church to which Ildefonso Falcones international bestseller ‘Cathedral of the Sea’ (great book – highly recommended!) is written as a homage.

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