Ron and Shona 'At Large'

Friday, 22 July 2011

Soon to be ‘no longer aliens’

We have had a blast – nine weeks of travel / some wonderful sights, art + architecture / fabulous foods, languages + culture and a whole lot of memories for a lifetime

Most of all we have actually enjoyed the time we spent staying with family + friends – the Podetti’s in Italy / Bio + Marie in Pignans / Michael, Cornelia + Serjoscha and the Schmidt-Bleek’s in Berlin – having direct access + interaction with people, how + where you live has been very special - thank you all very much

It has also been wonderful to share some of our time + experiences with Jenny + Ian - you guy's were great

So now it’s back home to reality / back to work and especially back to the family – have missed everyone – the emails + skype time have been a wonderful link and it would have been harder without them - also back to see if there's any money left to pay for a wedding ?!!!

See you all soon

We love you lots

Ron + Shona

Dubai

21^st July we farewelled the family + drove ( 5 hours ) to Frankfurt for a ( 6 hour ) flight to Dubai

We had opted on a 2 day stopover in Dubai just to break up the trip + have a look around – so we spent our full day here on a hop-on hop-off bus and boat tour – so see the sights we did

Al Berj 7-star Hotel

Dubai water taxi

Contrast between recent + new

Sunset in Dubai ( + on the trip )

Berlin + time with the family

So we left Paris on the 9^th July for a two day / 1100 km drive to Berlin - driving through Belgium and spending a night in Cologne.

On the way out of Paris we drove around what would have to be one of the world’s craziest roundabouts – the Arc de Triomphe - where there are 12 streets feeding onto it / no stop go lights / about 50m width of roadway without any lanes and lots of horn tooting

I also wanted to see how fast a 1600cc diesel car could go on the no speed limited German Autobahn = 203 km/hr ( but only on a downhill – otherwise only about 180 on the flat )

We visited the Bergen-Belsen WW2 Concentration Camp ( between Hanover + Hamburg – which is where Anne + Margot Frank were sent + later died ) – another tragic site leftover from the war, but an important memorial + reminder of events that should never of happened.

Our 10 days in Berlin were spent with Michael, Cornelia + Serjoscha - they live in a wonderful 1920’s Apartment building that overlooks the entry to the former Templehof Airport – and Cornelia’s extended ( Schmidt-Bleek ) family.

We had the use of some bikes and spent a few days biking around the centre of Berlin, shopping and exploring the many parks + river tracks.

We all then joined up with Lorenz’ family on a 5 day trip to Hamburg – staying with Katerina’s mum in the Village of Ahmule ( about half an hour from Hamburg )

To finish up with we celebrated Bio’s 79^th birthday with a Schmidt-Bleek BBQ at Fritz’ apartment.

Driving around Arc de Triomphe in Paris

Nuclear ? power station near Cologne

Bergen-Belsen Memorial

Site of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp

Bergen-Belsen Memorial Exhibition Centre

Picnic at Templehof

Berlin's Brandenburg Gate

Jewish Holocaust Memorial in Berlin

Serjoscha rowing on lake in Berlin's Tiergarten

Amazing model railway in Hamberg

Shona, Cornelia, Lille, Lorenz, Chris, Serjoscha, Kate + Oscar in Hamberg

Bio's birthday party

Paris

We drove up to Paris 7^th July for just the two nights.

This time in Paris we had a tour through Versailles, an evening walk around the Left Bank + Notre Dame, then a whole day shopping – how hard can that be ???

As Paris was also where we finished up our travels with Jenny + Ian, we’d booked our last night together with a Cityrama Bus tour around the main sites of town + the late night show at the Moulin Rouge – the show was fantastic ( although if our French language skills were better we may have understood the storyline a bit better ), the costumes extraordinary ( sorry photography not allowed ) and a good night was had by all.

The next morning, farewells were had – J+I moved on to Thailand and we to Germany.

Versailles

Notre Dame Cathedral

Dinner on the Left Bank

Sunday, 17 July 2011

Vouray - Loire

5th July we drove up to the Loire valley for 2 nights

Made a side trip to Oradour-sur-Glane which on the 10th June 1944 the Nazi's carried out the total destruction + annihilation of this village + 642 inhabitantsas a supposed retribution for actions of the local Resistance - the village has been preserved as a permenant memorial + reminder of a tragic injustice against humanity - a very moving + emotional visit

Vouray is a small village 10km from Tours more or less on the banks of the Loire river. Our accomodation was a fantastic troglodyte dwelling built into limestone cliffs - there was kilometers of these old dwellings + farm buildings cut into cliffs on both sides of the Loire - a lot no longer being used - but many being converted into B&B / Hotels + places to live

The contrast from all this was the Chateaux that formed the basis of most villages + towns - we visted Chateau de Chenonceau built across the river Cher + Chateau Usse ( which was the basisfor the storey of Sleeping Beauty ) and also Chartres Cathedral

R

Oradour-sur-Glane

Vouray accomodation

Chateau de Chenonceau

Chateau Usse

Chartres Cathedrale

Chartres Cathedral

Wednesday, 13 July 2011

Sarlat-la-Caneda

3rd July we drove up to the Dordogne Valley for 2 nights

Visited the beautifull Middle Ages village of Conques + the amazing cliff face village of Rocamadour on the way.
The Dordogne is a wonderful river valley peppered with chateaux, stunning villages + some outstanding foods ( including being the centre of foie gras production )

The owner of our B+B used to own an award winning restaurant in Paris - so the optional evening meal was rather delicious + shared outside by the pool with other Belgian and French guests

R

Conques

Rocamadour

Sarlat-le-Caneda

La Roque Gageac

Beynac

Dordogne River + Valley

Room 5 Quiz # 5

Hello from Berlin

We are now almost finished our trip. We are staying with my brother in Berlin.
Had a great time in France as you can see from the blog.
Almost holidays for you. Have a good last few days at school and a fantastic holiday.
I will see you when you get back to school.

Here is the last quiz! Some questions about France.

The Eiffel Tower

Question 1: What is the capital of France?

Question 2: Name 4 famous monuments and / or buildings in Paris.

Question 3: What is the Pont du Gard? What was it used for?.

Question 4: Who where the Templar Knights and what did they do?

Question 5: What is a Troglodyte house?

The Pont du Gard

Templar Church

Troglodyte House

Have a great holiday! See you on the 1st August

Lots of love

Mrs T