All Good Things ... (Finale)

This is our last blog post as yesterday we arrived back in Melbourne after our flight from Heathrow.

The kids did a great job over the 23 hours of flying, especially as we stopped for about half an hour in both Dubai and Singapore. It's quite strange to board a plane late on Thursday and end up at our destination on Saturday morning with the long fly time and nine hours time difference between countries.

On Thursday 8 July, back in London, we walked beside the River Thames from Waterloo up to Tower Bridge, past the Millennium Bridge and Tate Modern Art Gallery. We then caught the Docklands Light Rail (DLR) to our old place at Gallion's Reach (near London City Airport) and were a little disheartened how the area still lacked life and, aside from a few new buildings and an extension to the DLR, was pretty much as we left it eight years earlier.

Lachlan loved the driverless light rail and sat at the front in the 'driver's seat' (pictured), stopping to pick up passengers. He had also wanted to catch a London double-decker bus, so we retraced our old route to work when back in London by catching a bus from North Woolwich to Canning

Town, then a connecting train on the Tube back to Waterloo.

It was great at the end of the day to then catch up with our friend Janelle who we also saw back at the start our trip in Dubai (she lives in London). After a coffee, we then thought we'd used pretty much every other form of transport for the day so we took a cab to the airport (costing a lovely 70 pounds = $120 Aussie dollars = ouch!). Unfortunately we didn't have much choice as we'd accumulated 95kgs of luggage which was a little too much for Sandra and I to lug onto the Tube during peak hour.

So, we're now back in Melbourne. As I've said before, we had an awesome time and it's a shame that all good things must come to an end.

It's great to catch up again with family and friends and again have the creature-comforts of home, but in no particular order, here's some of the things we'll miss about Europe:

• The wonderful sites including beautiful, historic buildings.
• Warm weather and long days (it's 15 degrees in Melb and dark at just after 5pm ... yuk!).
• 130km per hour speed limits.
• Guilt-free 10 min showers without water restrictions.
• Meeting great people and learning more about their cultures.
• Wandering around a new town, not knowing what to expect, getting lost and finding something cool and unexpected.

So, thanks for reading over the past several weeks. Back to normality!

Journey's End

After 46 days of travel through seven countries (10 if you count the world's two smallest in the Vactican City and Monte Carlo, and our 1 hour drive through Germany) ... we've reached our journey's end.
This has truly been the trip of a lifetime, and as I scan my way through this blog it's incredible how much we've crammed into such a short span of time.
Tonight we board a plane from Heathrow for a 23 hour flight back to Melbourne, but as we have a day still in London we're taking a trip down memory lane (it's around the corner from Whatever Street).
We lived in London for several months back in 2002 so we're keen to check out our old stomping ground.
This is probably our last post from overseas. To all our friends and family back home, we've only taken 5801 photos which we'll show you in incredible detail.
See you back in Melbourne!

London Monopoly

The start of today wasn't exactly something we had as part of the itinerary. Our first four hours was spent in the emergency ward of St Thomas' Hospital about a block from our hotel. Everyone is OK, but as we're not registered with a local doctor, it's the only way to see a GP while in England as a foreigner.
After a long wait, we all got checked out, and Sandra and I were diagnosed with tonsilitis. At least we were able to get some decent medication for the 23 hour flight home which starts tomorrow night.
After getting back to the hotel for a rest, we then decided we needed some fresh air and went for a gentle walk across the river to the centre of town. Sandra went her own way to do some shopping in the Convent Garden area, while the rest of us went on a Monopoly board tour of central London.
Johanna and I (while still feeling pretty run down), are now off to see Les Miserables in the West End before calling it a night.

Legoland, Windsor

One of the things the kids have been hanging out to do since we arrived in Europe is visit Legoland in Windsor. So yesterday, Tuesday 6 July, we jumped on a train from Waterloo Station across the road from our hotel and made the one hour journey.
It was probably the last thing we actually felt like doing as we're all pretty run down, but it was a promise to the kids and they've been great by being good at the places Sandra and I have wanted to visit.
We're glad we made the trip because the theme park was fantastic and on par with Euro Disneyland in Paris that we went to several years ago.
We took a river raft ride which warned you at the start of the queue that you might get wet. What we weren't expecting was for lego animals on the side to be actually squirting bucket loads of water at us (as the ride itself was fairly tame). So, sick with colds, we also ended up drenched at the start of the day which didn't help. But fortunately it was still warm and we dried out over about an hour.
The amount of effort that went into creating the park was fantastic with a lego zoo full of animals you'd see at a regular zoo (life size), a pirate-themed section, pyramids and several other attractions.
One of the parts the kids loved the most was the driving school where they could go through a short course, then go out on a track and drive go-cart lego cars and get their lego driver's licence. Lachlan was particularly devious and deliberately crashed into other four and five year olds (thinking no-one was looking), while Johanna was the perfect driver obeying the road rules.
From a parent's perspective, the best bit was near the end where there was a minature Europe.

London

Yesterday, Monday 5 July, we took a one hour flight from Amsterdam to London Heathrow.
It was great to be back in London, and predictably little had changed since the time we lived here for several months in 2002. Nevertheless, the familiarity of the place is fantastic, and even though we've loved Dubai, France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Italy and Holland, it's also nice to be back in an English-speaking

country (well, sort of English if you count Eastender slang). At the start of our trip when we were bursting with energy, the challenge of ordering a meal using only French was a lot of fun, but now that we're tired it's also nice to again get what we need quickly.

We were going to take a train from Heathrow to the city, but instead opted for a cab to manage our 70kgs of luggage (which British Airways made us redistribute across an additional bag because they're British and like their odd little rules).

The hotel we're staying in was advertised as being 5 mins from the London Eye. As a true skeptic, I interpretted that as being several suburbs away and if you caught a train for 5 mins you'd be able to see it on the horizon. Well, occasionally skeptics are proven wrong as I was this time as we're maybe 100 metres away. The building we're in is right behind the imposing structure. So, with such an attraction on our doorstep, it wasn't long before we were onboard the ol' Eye and checking out London from above.

As Johanna and Sandra have been on it twice before (just once previously for me), Lachlan was the only one really bursting with excitement as the rest of us just peacefully took in the familar surrounds. We need to keep reminding ourselves that while we've seen a lot of London while we lived here, Lach's seeing it all for the first time. Johanna says she remembers bits, but she was just two when here last.

The others were keen to return back to the hotel for a rest, but I was equally keen to get out and pound the streets to reorientate. Over about two hours I walked the touristy route past Big Ben, past White Hall, over to Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square and back to Waterloo where we're staying.

We then grabbed some noodles from an Asian store across the road for a late dinner, and then settled in for the night. It's hard to believe that this time next week I'll be back at work, no doubt freezing away in Melbourne (London is having a heat-wave ... it was a massive 25 degrees today!).

Zaanes Schans & Amsterdam

Today (Sunday 4 July), we had a minor sleep-in, or sleep 'out' as they say in Holland because a sleep-in means you're dead!

While I got to check out a windmill museum a couple of days ago with Daan, the kids were particularly keen to see one for themselves so Sofie took us to an historic park in nearby Zaanes Schans to see several.

The park is a bit like a Dutch version of Sovereign Hill (except free), and also had a cheese-making area where Johanna surprised us all by trying out a few cheeses and making several not-so-discrete fly-bys to get more of the local product.

Also here was a clog factory that we remembered visiting with Johanna when she was 18 months old. Again we were keen to recreate an old pic from 8 years ago by sitting in a giant clog though it had been painted orange instead of yellow as we remembered it. Is there nothing sacred from the orange brigade!

Sofie then drove us 12kms further into Amsterdam. As the weather continues to be unusually hot for Holland, and the humidity quite draining, we managed only a basic walk around the city centre before

getting on a boat cruise of the canals. Last time we did this, Johanna cried constantly and was given a toy doll by the boat's captain to keep her happy. No such dramatics this time from the 10-year-old who instead took in the sites sitting beside her brother whom she kept in line every time he got figgety.

The day finished with a BBQ with Sofie, Daan and Paul. It was also really good to see Sofie's parents at last as I'd missed catching up with them when mountain bike riding a few days ago and

at Le Tour yesterday.

This is our last day in Holland as tomorrow we jump on a plane for a short flight to London where we'll finish up our trip later in the week. We've had an absolutely wonderful time so far and can't believe how much we've fit into just six weeks, but we're also getting tired and Sandra, Lachlan and I have a cold (hopefully Johanna can resist the trend).

Sofie and Daan have been outstanding hosts, and we're very grateful for their hospitality over the past week. It was great to see them in Austria, then now at their home, but over dinner we already started plotting the next catch-up ... perhaps somewhere different for all of us like Canada? Time will tell. Thanks for making us feel at home Sofie and Daan. Farewell Holland!

Tour de France pt.3

Yesterday's Tour de France prologue in Rotterdam was absolutely fantastic. I was feeling very flat and a bit sick with a cold at the start of the day, but am so glad I still went along as it was undoubtedly one of the best sporting events I've ever been to (definitely up there with the Sydney Olympics and Melbourne Commonwealth Games).

The day started with two train trips over 1.5 hours from Beverwijk to Rotterdam, arriving at the start of Le Tour at about 11am. I got off at Rotterdam Centraal Station and was very impressed by the city's organisation for an event where they were expecting up to million spectators. Yellow signposts marked out the walking route every 50 metres with estimated walking time, making it very easy for tourists to navigate their way to the course.

I travelled to the event by myself as Sandra and the kids, along with our Dutch friends were staying back for the 2nd birthday of their son Paul.

After making it to the first point along the course, I decided to walk along the 9km route initially with the aim of finding the best vantage point with a little shade as the weather was already very warm and humid. However, after a 5km walk to the start, it was clear that here was the best place to be as behind the start line were all of the team buses with mechanics working on the bikes and the occasional glimpse of a rider checking out the course.

Unfortunately, some of the team buses were completely out of the public view such as Lance Armstrong's Team Radioshack. However, it was surprising how close spectators were allowed to get to most of the other buses parked close to the barriers. While it was very cool to check out the behind-the-scenes set-up of the big names like Garman, Rabobank (hard to see only because of the huge numbers of Dutch followers), Astana and Saxobank, I was particularly keen to see the new Swiss team BMC Racing - mainly because their lead rider is Australia's Cadel Evans. By about 12.30pm the weather had turned from very hot to bucketing rain (though still quite humid), so an added advantage of following BMC was that they were parked under a bridge which offered a little protection from the elements. After waiting for about an hour and talking with a few other Aussies who similarly had donned their national flag, we caught sight of Cadel. As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, it was absolutely wonderful that he saw a bunch of Aussies and came over to sign autographs (see pics in post #2 below). Before now I had always watched the tour from home into the early hours of the Australian morning supporting a rider or two, but not a team. Now, I'll be cheering on the boys from BMC who I got to see a fair bit of over the space of 2-3 hours around the start area.

It was surprising how quickly three hours disappeared, and just after 2pm the official parade started with all of the sponsor's cars and floats blaring music and giving out freebies along the course. An hour later, the riders were allowed out on the course for training, though with the 198 riders all riding individually in time trials during the prologue, the top ranked riders were not out as they were not due to race until 7.20pm in the case of Cadel, or 7.30pm for Lance

Armstrong (2nd last pic in this post) and last year's winner Alberto Contador (last pic).

The leader's yellow jersey was claimed by Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara from Team Saxobank in a time of just 10 mins even. Englishman Mark Cavendish (3rd last pic) was sensational last year, but was down the rankings after the prologue. Armstrong came in fourth, ahead of Contador.

Cadel Evans finished 23rd - 39 seconds off the lead, and unfortunately lost one of his team mates Mathias Frank who crashed out and sustained an injury (not a good start for 'my' new team of BMC).

After a fantastic day out, I navigated my way to the nearest regional train station at Rotterdam Zuid and made the 1.5 hour trip back. When I arrived back at our Beverwijk 'home', it was great to see that the party that started a few hours earlier was still going (though the party boy had retired to bed at his grandparents). It was really nice to meet a few of Sofie and Daan's friends, even though I was completely exhausted from feeling sick with a cold and having walked at least 15kms around the Rotterdam course.

Earlier in the day, Sandra and the kids walked to the nearby market which the locals call by its original name 'the Black Market' because it's where all of the 'off the back of the truck' items used to be sold. Strangely, they all came back empty-handed which just goes to show that we're all starting to get pretty tired after so much travelling (surely they could have bought me a machine gun, rocket launcher or at least a dodgy DVD at the 'Black Market', though I think it's more the place nowadays for junkie electronics from China that you'll find at most markets around the world).

So, I wish my young friend Paul a very happy 2nd birthday. I'm sorry I couldn't make it to your party young man, and even though there's a bit of a language barrier, "Papa Lachie" (Lachie's dad) as he calls me ... wishes you a great year and hopes to see you a couple of years older in Australia some day.

Tour de France pt.2 (pics)

Here's a few more pics of the tour prologue. In order - Cadel Evans visiting the Aussie contingent, my signed cap which is going straight to the pool room, the BMC Swiss Team bus, the Dutch team Rabobank tour bus, and the Garman boys warm up before their individual time trials.

Tour de France pt.1

I'll provide a more detailed post later today, but right now I'm at an internet cafe about 100m from the start line of the Tour de France in Rotterdam, Holland. I've been here all day and am just killing a little time waiting for Cadel Evans to take off for his time trial. After positioning at the BMC team tent for about an hour it was very cool to briefly meet him and get his autograph a couple of hours ago on my tour cap after he walked over to a group of about 10 Aussies. It definitely pays to wear the Aussie flag because he came over to ask where all of his national comrades were from.
This is the second coolest sporting event I've ever seen (nothing beats the 1990 AFL Grand Final). Back to watch the race ...

Victory to Holland (World Cup)

When we first arrived in Holland on Tuesday, the first thing we noticed was the sea of orange (even more so than normal). If it could be made in the national colour of Holland you'd see it in orange everywhere. Anyone would think the Dutch like their football (soccer to the Aussies). In fact, at a quick glance, the residential streets looked like massive construction zones with orange flags draped everywhere (see pic).
Today (Friday 2 July) was Holland's big day with the sudden death quarter-final World Cup game against Brazil. The latter started well and scored the first goal within 10 minutes, leaving Holland scoreless for the first half.
Sofie and Daan had a few friends around to watch the game at 4pm at their house and the streets were silent - at least until Holland scored their first goal soon into the second half. Another goal gave victory to Holland 2-1 and knocked out the fancied Brazil. Holland now meet Uraguay on Tuesday with the winner through to Sunday's final. As temporary Dutchies, we'll have to find somewhere to watch the game when we're in London next week.
Daan hired a keg the day before and there was no shortage of Heineken and chocolate (still left over from our visit to Switzerland) to go around. We finished up the game with the Dutch version of fish & chips, but with things like krokets and frikandels which we all love.
After dinner we joined Daan as his support-crew for his weekly game of softball. His team was called Rooswijk (in green) and the opponets were Badhoevedorb (loosely translated as the Rose Garden vs the Bathhouse City). Unfortunately the Rose boys didn't repeat the victory of their national team, with a close loss (OK, it was 17 to 2!). Perhaps they need a more imposing name as it's a little hard to be scared by the Rose Garden team. Daan then took us for a drive around the nearby ports and around his work before we returned home for an early(ish) night for change.

Cycling in Holland

When my Dutch mate Daan was in Australia last we went for a moutain bike ride around Lysterfield in outer Melbourne. At the time, I said it would be cool to do the same next time I was in Holland so yesterday (Thursday 1 July) we travelled about half an hour from his home to a town called Bergen which sits beside the ocean and a forest of sand dunes.
We hired bikes from a local bike store and rode about 3kms to the dune trail. According to a friend of Daan, a good rider will do the 14km course in about one hour. We were a couple (32) minutes slower than that, but considering we stopped for a few breaks to take photos and video the time wasn't too bad.
We were also happy with the effort as the sand was extraordinary. Most of the first 8kms was riding in pure sand. It would have been nice if it had

rained beforehand because the sand was up to 10cm thick most of the way and soft so it was just like trying to ride a bike at the beach (very hard going). Supposedly Holland is cold, wet and flat, but the conditions were the complete opposite. The sand dunes may have been the only hills in the region, but they provided a decent challenge in 28 degree heat.
Before returning back to Beverwijk to meet up again with the kids and the ladies, we drove another half an hour to a windmill museum and even though it was hardly a major tourist attraction, we were impressed by the engineering accomplishment for something so old and made entire of wood.
When we returned back home, the ladies went out to a restaurant at a nearby beach with a few of Sofie's friends, while the boys were resigned to getting the kids off to bed and the tough task of trying more of the local brew until late at night.

Holland

On Tuesday 29 July, not trusting the Italian transport system, we got up early to make the trip to Rome's airport by taxi. Our driver told us that the large queues outside St Peter's were to see the "Papa" (Pope) travel from there to St Paul's, so it was a pity to miss out on the spectacle. Nevertheless, we'd been looking forward to getting back to Holland for a while so it was good to again be on the move. The two-hour flight went without a hitch and we were met at the airport by our friend Sofie who saw the flight fly by the highway on her way to the airport.
Sofie and Daan have a beautiful, modern house in a town called Beverwijk (which is about 40kms and as many minutes by train out of Amsterdam). Last time I was here the house was just a concrete shell under construction, so it was good to see the finished product 8 years later.
We settled in for a relaxing day after the previous few days in Venice and Rome. Daan whipped up some delicious pancakes for dinner and the kids couldn't believe their eyes when we told them that it was the main course and not dessert. We also visited some of the neighbours who were kind enough to lend us three bikes for a ride the next day. The night ended with Daan serving up an excellent selection of European beer and wine which had the boys going to after 1am. I could get used to this! His own home-brewed beer is very nice, but bloody heavy. He estimates it's close to 15% alcohol and is similar to Guiness.
Wednesday - the last day of June - had us taking to the bikes. Holland is the home of cycling and nearly every road has a bike lane with absolute priority given to cyclists. The motorists are fantastic, and just as I found while riding in France, the Europeans are so much more respectful of cyclists (Aussie motorists take note - you don't have to drive within 10cms of a cyclist at 100km per hour!). On our weekly bike rides to school, Johanna and I had talked about riding on the other side of the road when we get to Holland, so it was good live up to the promise.
We were also keen to revisit a restaurant nearby called Johanna's Hoff where we took a photo of Johanna when she was about 18 months old. The bikes were sturdy family bikes and mine had a seat for Lachlan at the back (yey, I got to carry an extra 22kgs!). Lach loved it and offered plenty of encouragement along the lines of "hurry up Dad ... don't let the giiiirrls beat us ...c'mon!" (easy to say when you're getting a free ride).
We rode with Daan and Sofie (who also had Paul in a special seat) a few kilometres to the edge of town where there's an open forest beside the beach. The initial ride was a bit slow as everyone got used to the bikes and different direction on the roads, so we stopped in the forest area for lunch together at a restaurant only accessible by foot or bike. After lunch, our Dutch hosts headed back home to get Paul off for an afternoon nap, while the Aussie crew continued on to Johanna's Hoff. We weren't particularly wanting pancakes after having a big stack the night before, but we pressed on for the 10km ride to at least relive an old photo opportunity.
It was very cool to be back, and Johanna loved seeing her name on everything from road markers to the restaurant itself (she's used to her name not being so common in Australia).
After a couple of boys vs girls bike races ("les garcons" were supreme again), we were too distracted and missed our turn-off and ended up near the beach a couple of kilometres off course.
But eventually we found our way back on track and the kids did a great job to cover 22kms by bike - a new record for Johanna who was tired, but beaming from the experience.
In the evening, Daan cooked up a special meal of three entrees including raw herring, eel and another dish of beetroot and potato. I didn't think I'd like the herring, but the whole meal was fantastic and his three-hour cooking effort finished with a rack of lamb with a port and chocolate sauce. The kids, who were put to bed an hour earlier, must have heard us outside talking about how good the meal was because both crept downstairs and ended up stealing half the meal for themselves despite already eating a kids' meal earlier in the evening (we think they're having a growth spurt, particularly Lachlan who has definitely grown during the trip).
Later in the evening, Sofie got a text message from her friend Esther who we saw a fair bit of in the late 1990s when she lived in Melbourne. Esther had a little girl called Tessa at about 8pm, just claiming a June baby when my betting had her giving birth in July. So, to celebrate the occasion we knocked off a couple more beers, a bottle of red wine from Bordeaux and then had some port to try with a few different cheeses from France, Belgium and Switzerland that Daan selected earlier in the day. This time the boys were off to bed after 2am, with the aim supposedly of getting up at 8am for a mountain bike ride through the sand dunes of a nearby town.