Sunday

Sunday 21 July Sunday morning we woke refreshed once again for the new day. We didn't rush at all, and it was nice to just relax at home. We listened to two sermons from Rev Anderson, which took us to about lunch time. After lunch we went to visit Oma at D'Amandelboom. She was in a fairly good mood - we were able to sit outside with her and play Triominos or so. She was quite happy with us, though a little uptight as she thought she was in her own house and had to serve us. The phone rang and she thought she had to pick it up, or she would turn when she heard voices inside because she had to know what was going on. She had to get used to the idea of sitting outside before she focused more on us and the game. Though Oma is getting old we can see that God still looks after her and allows her to remember Him. In the middle of one of our games Oma started singing along to one of the songs playing inside. She recognised the tune and could put a name to it immediately - 'The Ressurection of Christ'. It is a comfort to know that she has not forgotten everything that is important, and that she has the best carer in the world. After an afternoon with Oma we came home and had some alone time for ourselves. We then had dinner and Aunty Anneke and Uncle Johan came over for a drink and some gezellig time. That pretty much sums up our Sunday :) Emily

Saturday

Saturday 20 july A day to catch our breath a little. Off to Amersfoort for shopping! Even during a holiday one learns and develops. Steven and myself had been very accommodating during shopping sprees over the past week in Holland. In practise this meant that both of us would walk ahead of the female section of our party sine they kept insisting in zig-zagging maneuvers through the shopping lanes. No shop was safe from them if it even remotely had something to do with clothing... Inevitably Steven and myself would have gone the distance of the shopping street waaay before the girls had finished with the second shop. We would usually seek consolation in one of the many food shops; they were easy to find and offered the kind of eye candy more appealing to the males. But this Saturday we decided to leave the girls to what they do best and we were off to a very large electronics store. There Steve to his immense delight found a WII (say 'wee') set up as display. It took him about an hour before becoming less interested in it. By then I had walked around the whole store and compared the wares and prices. So we were off again Now any well meaning dad visiting Holland with his son, would feel compelled to enrich his sons experience of life by visiting Manneke Bunt. For the uneducated among this audience, this is the uncrowned, best chips shop with crockets and fricandellen. Well aware of these duties I took Steven there. We enjoyed a bun with an extra large crocket which found its way into our stomachs rather easily. Then the two of us went through the long shopping mauls, oops: malls. An interesting thing happened in 2 stages. On our way to the meeting point, Steve and I got a little peckish again (did I mention it was a long walk?) On the Saturday morning markets one can buy a variety of foods. The safe bet was the bakery. They offered these lovely croissants 4 for 1 euro. So we chose the correct ones and consumed these on the last leg of the 10 min walk ahead of us. We made it to the Koppel poort where we were to meet the girls. Special highlight: HannaLee had her ears pierced! Other special highlight: The Candy Shop!! Wow what an assortment. In the end it ws easiest to not choose too much; just take some of everything instead! As we walked back we passed the markets and on our advice the girls also bought some nice warmed up buns of another sort. They ate them on the spot. While doing so I spotted the family with little kids that had just before me bought some of the same croissants as Steven and I ate. A sudden screech of "getsie" was followed by some involuntary convulsions of the 6 or so year old girl. Curious as I was, I went over and asked what the matter was; after all we had eaten the same food a short while before. I was shown a hollow part of the croissant in question. A healthy brood of lively but young maggots was wagging tails in the sunlight. A quick check revealed that the sign at the baker shop only made mention of cheese and ham content so these fellows were definitely uninvited guests. The girl did not take long to reverse her eating habits. The father needed a bit of convincing from his adamant wife and myself that he ought to return the extras and make the merchant aware of the unpaid extras they received. Sure enough, the merchant did not charge them; well I saw him shake his head rather indignantly. Somehow it seemed better not to reveal these details to Steven till a few hours later.. After this successful hunt and gather morning we headed back to fill the fridge and visit Oma once more. Another good visit! We had to go back on time because we had a bbq (Dutch style) invitation at Johan & Anneke's where Anja would be as well as Friso nd Will and Gerrit Koolsbergen. Arend Zwarteveen even made time to come and visit for a while too; he is an old friend of mine We enjoyed it very much and the mr Bean imitations were at times better than mr Bean's performance himself. Then home for rest and sleep. Tomorrow is Sunday! g'night all. Dad Friday - Alkmaar

Friday - Alkmaar

Friday 19 July For today we had planned to go to Alkaar for starters. Since it is above Amsterdam and a fair drive, we decided to get up on time because the cheese market enactment was said to start at 10AM So up on time; perform our ritual cleansing ceremonies, followed by the feeding of the inner man as well a the spiritual man. That done we participated in the pollution of our planet by driving our vehicle to Anneke. From there we were off to Alkmaar. The SATNAV was very helpful and accurate and Anneke had insider information on a good parking spot. We took a brief ferry ride across the river and very soon joined a big crowd which enveloped the traditional cheesse market. It was a warm day and shade was hard to find. So to was a good vantage point. But we were able to satisfy our hungry cameras with exposures of the very interesting cheese market ritual. We had a drink on a terrace we walked around in the inner city for while. Then it was back to our trusty polluter and we decided to drive back to Amfersfoort via the coastal road along the old Zuiderzee. We came through old villages like Volendam and Marken. After some brief sightseeing we drove on and ended up in Amersfoort. Since Amfersfoort too has a lot of history we deemed it very interesting to have a short board ride through the canals with a guide. We learned a bit again! Johan Veenstra had prepared nother culinary delight in the form of lasagna this time. We at what we could and were well filled again. Then off to Oma. A nice visit and good time with her was the result for wich we were very thankful again. Then home again, dishes and bed..zzzzz love from dad

Thursday

Today.... Thursday Our Holland experience continued on today. We got up on time and made our way to the shop to get some chocolate to share with Oma and the other ladies, as well as some flowers, before heading over to d'Amandelboom. We got there about 10:10 - here we met for the first time our Aunty Joke, Sem (12) and Raf (10). It was interesting to meet them and finally put a face to some of our cousins from Dad's side of the family, especially since we have not met really any of the cousins except the ones that come to Australia. Oma was not in such a good mood today- she was a bit weepy, and not as happy as the night before. That didn't matter though, as we know she is not the same as she was, and not everybody is happy every single day of their lives. We just had to sit and tell her that we loved her, and talk about the weather and that she looked well, and what we had been busy with. We shared around the chocolaades we had purchased, and also were treated by the staff with cake and biscuits. Eventually, about 12 we started to say our goodbyes. We had a picture taken of all the family, and then we all left to go our separate ways. The five of us headed home for a quick bite to eat. Then we drove to Bilthoven, where we parked our car and walked across the railway to the bike store. We hired 5 bikes, got our seats comfortable, and rode off into the sunset(just kidding, the sun sets at 11pm or so here). Due to our pathetic internet connection and the problems we have encountered with wifi and such, Aunty Anneke did us a favour and looked up a bike path for us to ride along. Mark, if you're reading this -- we did a tour de Utrecht -- 24 km long. We have to admit, we did stop a number of times when we got butt/saddle-sore and when we needed a drink or an apple or so, but now we do appreciate a lot more what your men do in Le Tour de France. The paths were not all very comfortable where we rode - there were hobbles and bobbles, knobs and logs, holes and knolls. A few times Dad very cleverly positioned his tires so that he would experience every single lump and bump in the path, resulting in some painful memories. We rode through some beautiful forrests, with trees on either side. There was little to no wind, so the birds in the trees could be heard rather clearly. We crossed a number of bridges as well, over the freeway and along the train line where we found a small shopping centre that sold some nice icecreams. It was actually a fairly warm day today, so an icecream really hit the spot as we stretched our rear ends and had a drink. We then dutifully followed the instructions which took us back to the bike hire place. We then headed in for a short excursion to Amersfoort to get some groceries. We were told that the shop we went to was the same that Mum and Dad had gone to with Angela and William a few years back. We had some dutch delacacies for dinner (Fricandel and Crochets) as we went along, wandering around and just enjoying ourselves before heading home. We are treasuring our days as they go - I'm not sure what I would like to do really... stay longer or go home. It would be nice to stay here, but then again all good things must come to an end :) We still have about a week, so we will make the most of it. Wishing you all the best back in Australia. Em

Wednesday

Wednesday 17 July Well this was one of those early mornings again. Anneke was working today so we did our own thing. Rotterdam was on the radar today. Now our bathroom has the toilet in it as well. Normally not a problem but when the room needs to be shared with 5 people, you can imagine that it is not only the room that we share... On top of that, the time limitations we have due to wanting to depart on time, means that the air-freshening system is not given enough time to get breathable air back into the room. So far trying to give us all a rating from 1 to 5, 1 being the worst, has not provided a clear leader. Anyway, we all survived again and after nutricious breakfasts we loaded the car. Kinderdijk is where those famous 7 windmills are. We decided to go for that first. During the drive I made use of the fact that the children could not walk away: I gave some rudimentary explanation of dijken and the workings of windmills in pumping water away. The drive toward the mills, gave nice views of the many houses built on the side of the dijk. Very unique. It was one of those days when the temperatures were pleasant but there was high cloud which caused it to be rather sticky. Pictures turned out rather bleak as well. Nevertheless it was a sight to behold. We were however not the first once that mourning. There were a significant number of aliens around already; two or 3 busloads I think it was. I was not the only one to notice either. Two young women driving past us later: one commented to the other that it seemed they were the only Dutch people there. I could not help comment back that it was not all that bad. after all our different cameras had immortilised identical pictures as many thousands of cameras had done during the last 50years or so before them, we decided to move on to the Spijkernisse Straat where the GLO School is where I went to the primary school. Following that we went to the Melissant straat where I lived. Some of the childhood stories that came to mind were related to the available offspring. They politely nodded and listened for a while and probably had some vain attempts to imagine me as a small child, doing the things I just told them about. Who can blame them? Since it had come close to lunchtime we started looking for a place near the river Maas where we could sit and eat. That proved a short adventure in in itself but after a tunnel under the Mass and several bridges, we parked the iron horse and found a spot closer to the water. A memorial we passed on the walk to the river edge, reminded of the many Jewish children, some as young as 1 year old, that were shipped out from that warf to the destruction camps. We appreciated our freedom all the more... Next we headed for Zwijndrecht where Oma Amoraal used to live. Tante Gera's place was a bit harder to find. When she did not respond to the door bell we asked next door if they knew where she was. Boy they were very helpful and when the older chap found out there was some sort of distant family, we received further help and even free drinks. The free use of the toilet was also appreciated to provide much needed relief from internal pressures. In Dordrecht we bought some lunch, and chocolates for Oma. Then it was time to head back. On our way to the freeway we noticed tho funny looking ship somewhere. On closer inspection it turned out to be the replica of Noah's ark. It is built by a private individual but it was done in reaction against evolutionism. His story had been in Creation Magazine last year or so. It is a big setup and dimentions are closely according to the biblical information available. It is used as an educational tool to show people the Bible can be believed. We hope to go back there for a visit still. After an uneventful ride home we took in some dinner and were then off to Oma Amoraal again. Oma was very attentive and alert. We talked about her past and she remembered a fair few details. It helped that she was nearly on her own in the sitting room because ten she does not get distracted. After some organising and relaxing we turned in to give our weary bodies a much needed rest again. Another day to be thankful for to the Lord our heavenly Father. signing off for the Amoraals-in Europe dad

Monday and Tuesday

Monday morning we were home. We went to the head office and internet room to do some research, answer and write emails, and also do some washing. That took up our whole morning. That was probably the first real sleep-in we've had these holidays... After some lunch, Aunty Anneke joined us. We drove to Utrecht to enjoy an afternoon of shopping. Dad generously gave us each some money to spend so we enjoyed buying clothes and more. We also heard church bells as we walked. There was a shop to buy croquets - Steven got one :) I think it was at Manneke Pis! Then we went home and had dinner. After dinner we left the dishes and jumped in the car to visit Oma. When we got there at 8.15, the room where Oma spends her day was almost empty so we took chairs and formed a circle around her and she was very happy - smiling and talking a bit to us. We shared some chocolates with her, and she asked us some questions. Emily, Hanna and Steven also tried to talk with her and she seemed to understand some of what they said, and we translated some, then she would answer and we had quite a nice conversation. The nicest thing was that she was so relaxed and happy, so we spent at least an hour with her. Then as we left she asked if we were going to drive past the window so she could wave. It was so funny. We drove past and she was waiting, then we got to a dead end and we had to go past again; she got off her chair smiling from ear to ear and rushed to the window to wave again. It was so nice to have fun with her! We were very thankful to have this time with her. Though we know she won't remember, we will! Tuesday we got up early again because we planned to pick up auntie Anneke and visit Amsterdam with her. We took the car and drove towards Amsterdam, then parked it at a Park and Ride station and caught the bus to the Central Station. Of course we made beautiful photos of the canals and the station buildings. A tram took us to the Waterloo Place where there was a most interesting market! Lots and lots of stalls with all kinds of interesting things for sale. We bought some souvenirs, Dad bought some organ music!! Steven found a nice watch, Hanna found a dress - change room in a caravan behind the stall! I found a James Michener book, and some souvenirs, Emily and Hanna found a new bag and Auntie Anneke found some gifts. So you see there was something for everyone. We were also treated to - a large paper cone with chips and mayonnaise! Yummy! William will remember!! After that we caught the tram again and made our way to the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum. This museum has apparently been closed for about 10 years for upgrading and renewal of the premises. We bought some tickets - under 19 free! - and enjoyed several hours of looking around the museum. First we tried to stay together but it was very busy and everyone has different ideas of what they like to see, so we split up. Hanna and Steven wanted to see firearms and ships, Emily and i wanted to see the paintings, the etchings and historical things , Dad and Auntie Anneke headed for things in a certain time period. So after we all saw the famous Nachwacht of Rembrandt and his other most famous paintings we split up. We could have spent much longer there. The museum had so many rooms - so many interesting dis[plays. So many interesting things from history. w saw the paintingd of Jan Steen! Opa and Oma Eikelboom will remember - Het is een huishouding van Jan Steen! And Van Gogh. Its hard to remember but I wish we had this museum a bit closer to home. So interesting. Emily and I took some photos of things we wanted to read and later read them off our cameras. At 3.30 we joined up again and caught the tram - we walked along another market street and then went back to the central station. When you walk right through to the other side of the station you come to the river called Het Ij. We had a free ride with a ferry across to the other side. We were amazed by the volume of people going through the station, using public transport, using the ferry with bikes and motorbikes - riding on and off the ferry again on the other side. By now our legs were ready to drop off so we walked to the bus, then to the car - another walk because we got off the bus too early by mistake!! - then in the car and home. Actually to Uncle Johan and Auntie Anneke's place for dinner because uncle Johan had made delicious macaroni for us. Right behind their house is a little path which you can follow to the supermarket. Dad and I quickly did some shoppings, then we had coffee and made some plans for the next day. Auntie Anneke had to work so we organised for the next two days without her. It is daylight till 10.30 so we had no idea it was so late by the time we left. Unfortunately the freeway was closed in the direction of Utrecht so we drove another 20 minutes in circles and got home near 11 o'clock! Then tumbled into bed. From Mum

A little post :)

Hi everyone,
Thanks for reading our blog and thank you for your comments and well-wishes. We are greatly enjoying ourselves, and it's also nice to be in Holland now. We've seen Oma a few times now, and most of the time she is quite happy. Time has gone so fast, so now we have just under a week left till we hope to fly back again! :( But it has been good.
We still have some more blog posts to write - Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday... hopefully they'll be posted sometime soon.
Unfortuantely, we don't have wifi in our little house, so we have to go inside the actual hostel to use the wireless. There are some computers here, but they are awfully slow :( Ah well. So be it. :)
We hope you're all safe and we often pray for our dear family at home. The Lord willing, we'll be able to see you all again soon! (If we don't get stuck in Chiina again... :P)
Love from the Amoraals :)

Sunday - 14 July

Sunday was a most relaxing day. After a sleep-in, we had showers and breakfast and listened to a sermon from Reverend D Anderson about Exodus 6 - Moses and Aaron with the sign of the rod becoming a snake. It was a nice sermon and was good to see a different focus of that chapter. Afterwards, we had coffee, some lunch (Cup of Soup... mmmm) and then hopped in the car to pick up Oma. When we arrived, she was waiting for us, a bit nervous to go out as she wasn't really sure exactly where she was going. In the car, she relaxed a bit, stating that it was nice weather and asking some things. When we arrived at our house again, we sat down, had a cup of tea and some sausage rolls and talked a little. We commented to each other that all we'd done that morning was eat...first breakfast, then spiritual food, then coffee, then sausage rolls. :)
Then we played a game with Oma - Rummikub. She's played it before with us when she visited Australia so she did know how to play mostly. She was still a bit confused but we still got to play 2 games. By then Oma was getting tired so we thought we'd better bring her home again. Overall, it was nice for her to come over, and to talk to her without everyone around in the hostel.
We left the Amandelboom and drove a while to see dad's habitations of his childhood. However, before that we went past the graveyard to see the grave of Opa Amoraal. Here, we shed a few tears. In a way, the graveyard is a sad place but as Christians it is a happy place as we know that only the body remains, not the soul because that is in heaven with the Lord.
Afterwards, we went to the house in Hoeverlaken that he lived in from when he was about 14. Dad himself told us that only now did he realize how small the roads and his house was. It's probably because in Australia things are more spaced and a bit bigger than Holland. It was nice to see where he spent his teenage years though... :) After our nice Sunday drive, we drove home again.
We had some dinner, had a relaxing evening and then had a kind of early night :)

Saturday - Driving from Germany to Holland

Saturday....

We woke up at 6:00 o'clock and got prepared for a morning walk in the misty haze. ( or the misty mountains) :)
It was fabulously, amazingly, beautifully, picturesque . Fog on the horizon and not a soul in sight. Dad got us out and we got dressed warmly. We also had to beware of stinging nettle. Mum managed to have a nice experience with it when she was trying to do a wee in an uncivilised place. Anyway, it was lovely. We went on an ashphalt path at the front of the house, ( we were surrounded by fields and forrest) and when we had our shoes wet enough we went to the back of our house, (there were pigs, goats, chickens, rabbits and horses) and went through the forrest at the back. It was great fun and the birds music was magical. We all loved it and it was a good start to an exciting day. We ate breaky and were on our way soon after. We wanted our GPS to take us to Holland via the autoban but it didnt so we had to alter our path a bit. We had good fun and dad broke a record and we ended up with a top speed of 190 kmph. After that speed, 120 kmph seems slow. :)
We continued on the autoban with dad having sudden bursts of speed. We soon reached Holland and we quickly settled in to our house. It is at an old peoples home :). We put our luguage away and travelled to Oma. She recognised dad and mum, and we introduced ourselves. She was very happy and in a good mood. Smiles all around. We were able to take her outside for a cup of tea and Mum and Dad talked with her for a while. The language barrier was a bit annoying we it wasn't extremely bad. We talked with her for a full hour and then we went inside. She even remembered my name. She said "Dagg Steven". I was suprised :S. We then travelled to Uncle Johan and Auntie Anekes house and said hi to them. We even managed to see Uncle Kees before he left for France. He is going to see the Tour de France Mark :). Auntie Anja was there as well :). We had a lovely dinner of nasi goreng and then a nice desert of a milkshake. With full tummy's we left for home and a good sleep. All is going well here and hope you are all having a great time.

This is the Amoraals with Steven typing, signing off.
Shalom.

Friday - Vianden Castle and travelling

Today we left St Cyr L'ecole and put the address of Vianden Castle in the GPS. We were directed to take the main road along the south of Paris and gradually towards the north east through gently rollong hills and valleys till we got to the Ardennes in Belgium. There we had to think of the wars which were fought in that area, and wondered about the difficulties that would present in the difficult terrain, since it was very heavily wooded! Thankfully today the area is beautiful and peaceful, and we entered the country of Luxembourg, where everything is orderly and neat, and we travelled till we arrived at the beautiful valley where Vianden castle is situated high on a hill above the river and the village. We parked along the main street and walked along a narrow winding cobbled street, squishing ourselves against the walls of houses to get out of the way as cars made their way down the main street of Vianden. At the bottom of the hill we stopped to make photos of the beautiful scenery, and to visit the tourist bureau and ask for instructions on how to reach the castle. With the aid of a map we found the chair lift which took us across the valley; Steven and mum, Emily and Hanna, and dad by himself. It was a scary experience, over the river, over a road and up a steep mountain to the top. There we got off and an unpaved, steep, zig zaggy path allowed us to make our way to the beautiful Vianden castle, where dad used his excellent German to buy us some tickets. We proceeded to the gates of the castle and entered to explore this magnificent relic. Archeological discoveries show that it was built in about 360 AD and since then has been changed and added on to over the years. Models have been made of the various stages of progress, and family trees of people who lived there are displayed on the wall. A major work of restoration has been taking place over the last 40 years and the castle is truly wonderfully restored although even that work is not complete. William of Orange owned the castle in his days and lived there - there is a section called the Nassau wing - and we noticed quite a few Dutch people touring the castle.
We made many photos to help us keep this beautiful place in our memories, and then we had to move on to our final destination for the day - Hellenthal in Germany. Actually it was just on the border of Belgium and Germany, and to get there we had to follow many winding narrow roads through many tiny villages where each time our speed had to be reduced, which made life difficult for dad - our driver - but which we really enjoyed because we could see something of the scenery and see the houses of the locals. Once we had to drive slowly and our nostrils were filled with the earthy odours of farmlife - a farmer spraying fertilizer over the soil. Pooey!! Sometimes we got stuck behind tractors and dad had to use skill and dexterity to overtake these slow moving vehicles which of course he did with patience and cheerfulness!
Eventually we reached our destination - a lovely peaceful place called Ferienparadijs Heidehof. The owner was a Dutchman and his wife who lived in the back of a large farmhouse, and rented out apartments plus our separate little cottage. They also kept some ponies, some chooks, goats and pigs. He told us we could go out the back gate and find the marker stone which indicated the border between Germany and Belgium and he said we could stand with a foot in each country. Of course we went to have a look but couldn't find the stone - there were many stinging nettles around - so we just went for a walk in the beautiful forest and made some spectcular photos. When we got back dad had dinner almost ready and we sat down for our meal. We planned to get up early the next morning to go for a walk altogether in the forest - so we set the alarm for 6 am and went to bed.
From Mum

Paris

Thursday morning we woke up at 8, after a small sleep in. We went through the normal routine of showering, eating and dressing, then began our walk of just under a kilometre to the train station. Driving in Paris is crazy - Dad'Thursday morning we wok, so we went by train instead. After getting our tickets, from the not-so-helpful-information man, we weren't sure which station or platform to go to. So Mum asked a guy who had just hopped off a train. He told us where to go and was very helpful. We had to go up some stairs to get up to our platform. At the bottom however, was a lady with her daughters and all their suitcases. Dad, being such a gentleman, offered to carry one of the lady's bags since she was struggling. She was very happy that he offered, and he also grabbed one the daughter's suitcases on his way up the stairs since she was also struggling. At the top she thanked him profusely. Mum used this chance (since she was a local) to ask her about the trains and where to go. After only 5 minutes of waiting, our train came. Believe it or not, it was a double-decker train. You could choose to sit on the top or the bottom. We arrived in Paris Montaparnasse after about half an hour. Then we took the underground to the Eiffel tower. The train didn't stop right outside it so we did have to walk a little bit to get to it of course.... :)

As we walked, men with lots of small model Eiffel Towers tried to sell their products to us and the other people walking along.It reminded us of the people selling things in Rome near the Collosseum. Between the trees we caught glimpses of the Eiffel Tower as we walked till finally we arrived at the structure itself. The first thing we noticed was that there were SO MANY PEOPLE! The lines for going up lifts were very long. Luckily, that's not what we wanted to do... else we could've been there for hours i'm sure. Instead, we lined up at the line for walking up the stairs. It wasn't too long luckily, so after getting our tickets and going through a security check, we began our ascent to the first floor. At first we were all fine, but getting up to half-way, we were pretty tired already. So far on our trip we've done a lot of climbing up and down stairs so by then we were very sick of stairs :) However, we kept trundling up the stairs, stopping now and then to catch our breath. But we made it and the view was good. We stayed there for a little while, rested our legs on the bench, and then began our ascent up to the second floor via the stairs again. On the way up, we met some fellow Aussies - a man and his wife who were also making their way up. Dad had a bit of a chat to them and told them a bit about our trip :) When we reached the second stage, the view was even better. From there, we could see the Arc de Triumphe, Notre Dam and a church - Mont Martre. Above us still was the third floor - the summit which you couldn't walk up but could only be accessed by the lift. Dad and Mum didn't really want to go up again, because they've already been there, and Steven also didn't want to go up, so Emily and I got tickets and then waited in a long line. The line was for the lifts to the top and of course, there's a limited of people that can go up at a time. Since it was nearing lunchtime, our stomach's were growling a bit, so our amazing Dad bought us each a croissant.Heil lekker!! :)

Well, when finally we did reach the top, there was a great view. Around the top the walls, where wall met ceiling, there was a display all around which showed the direction of different capitals around the world and the distance to them. We found some that we recognized - Sydney, 16900km away! Amsterdam - about 400km away. We wandered around the room, squeezing between people now and then. There was also a few stairs that led up to the place where it was more open, surrounded by wire. Em and I were taking a selfie, when a man asked us if we wanted him to take the photo. So we let him, and Em offered to take a picture of him and his wife too. We enjoyed the view for a while then went downstairs again to find a longish line for taking the lift down again. :( So we waited...and waited... till we could finally come down again. Dad, Mum, and Steven were waiting for us and were very happy to see that we'd come back. :) We made our way down again via a lift. At the bottom again, we were in need of food since it was already at least half past 1. So we walked away from the Eiffel tower to find a supermarket. However, before leaving we took some photos of the massive structure of metal and ourselves, since one does not simply leave the Eiffel Tower without taking photos! :)

We ate some lunch next to a small pond in front of a museum then began to walk in the direction of Napoleon's tomb and the war museum. It was a fair walk, and by the time we arrived, some of us desparately wanted to visit the restrooms. We eventually found them. However, they were actually inside the museum itself, so we could've acutally walked around the museum without tickets! But we didn't of course.. the honest people we are :) We walked to the building where Napoleon's tomb rested. In past history, this building was open to anyone for free, as Dad and Mum have been inside before. Unfortuantely, it has now been made a building which you must pay to enter. We looked through the door but we couldn't really see anything. We weren't really desperate to pay money to go in, so after looking at a map, we made our way to the nearest metro and travelled to Notre Dam.

The first thing we noticed was how many people were there. You can definitely notice that June-August are the most popular tourist months! We went to sit down on benches arrayed like a section of a footy stadium and gazed at the impressive building. It had so many ornate engravings, many stone statues, patterns and details. As we sat there, resting our legs, we saw a guy put on a mask. He was a bit of a stand-up comedian you could say, but he made us laugh by his actions. He crept up to people, tapped them on the shoulder or held their hand so that when they turned around, they immediately saw his scary mask. One lady gave a loud shriek as she saw his mask, and made many of us laugh. We soon had to leave again - we didn't go inside since the line was SO long. (Long lines sound familiar?) We stopped at a little shop, bought some postcards and paintings, then made our way to Arc de Triumphe via the metro again :). We had such tired legs then, but we perservered. After taking a few photos, we walked under the road through a tunnel which led to the middle of the roundabout (the actual Arch is in the middle of a roundabout), and then to the other side. However, these people wanted to pay to go up in the centre of the roundabout. Oh this annoyed us. It's like they have to find ways to earn more and more money by making people pay to see things. Instead, we walked to the other side, took some photos and then went back to the metro to Lafyette. Lafyette is a bit like Harrods in London. We arrived on the floor of shoes....wow. We hardly realized there were so many designs, styles, colours and different types of shoes!!! :) We had a bit of an exploration through the buidling, but soon felt like going home for food and rest. We caught the train home again, feeling tired and hungry however, we had seen much and walked a lot. We hopped in the car when we got home, and drove to the restaurant we had ate dinner at the day before, since it was easy enough and lacked too much effort to find. We ate, then drove home, rested and slept well. God is good and continues to bless us with good weather and our plans too are blessed.
Love from Hanna.

10th July - Wednesday

The rooster crowed at 6.45, calling us out of our stupour. We were well on the way by 8.20, flying along the autostrade to Paris. Along the way we saw that the French had attempted to make our journey more colourful by putting different coloured bridges across the road. We amused ourselves by trying to guess what coloured bridge came next. I always won of course, though some would say otherwise.

The traffic was fairly good, but you could notice the difference as you got closer to Paris. A number of drivers were a little rude, but I guess its a dog eat dog world. Though the internet site for Priemere Classe motels/hotels said that we couldn't check in till 5pm that evening, we made record time and checked in about 12. We dropped off our baggage in to number 223 (and were relieved to find we had good internet) which was to be mum and dads room. We also finished off the last of the bread and cheese and stuff which made up our lunch.

Our plans for the afternoon was to visit the Chateau of Versailles - during lunch we looked up ticket prices for Versailles and the F.A.Q.s with it, just to be sure we didn't miss anything they put in the fine print. In the end we drove to the palace and decided to wing it. We parked in this really tight place, just down the road. Dad was quite chuffed with his parking, till we realised that the parking pole said you could only park there for 90minutes for 2.8 euro. Thankfully there was a tourist information office right by the road near us where we could ask. Dad and Mum went in while us younger three guarded the car from predators. They returned shortly with 3 maps, 2 places to park and also 2 tickets to get into Versailles, and apparently skip the lines.

The parking lot where we parked was a bit of a joke. The roof of the car nearly got scraped - obviously didn't get the memo about small cars only. To get around the corner we nearly had to do a bit of reversing to get the right angle, and only just made the tight corners. The first two levels were full so we hesitanty made our way down further into the den. There we found a spot that would do for us.

We had to walk for 5-10 minutes to get to the palace now, and along the way we bought a few apples to eat along the way. The lead up to Versailles was pretty spectacular, and the palace itself was very grandiose. There was a massive line to get in that we still had to wait in before getting into the palace. We found out later that they have full on customs to go through. They needed to check our bags (took our pringles away from us) and made sure we were the correct ages by checking passports or any other form of identification. The chick there realised I was 18 so technically I needed a ticket - however at the info office where mum and dad got their tickets they reckoned we didnt really need to so we didn't get one. They let us through, but said not to do it next time (like we are going to go back there again the next day?)

Anyway, we were quite stunned by the ornate decorations on the inside and outside of the palace. The attention to detail was phenomenal, unlike anything you'd see today. There was a whole wing of the palace dedicated to its history, like who developed what, and when this part was added on, and who stayed there. I could recognise quite a few names of people from my Revolutionary Europe course I just did at Uni this past semester, and it was really interesting for me to see Versailles and connect it to past events. I was hoping to hear more about the French Revolution of 1789, or even the 1848 Revolutions, but there wasn't such a focus on it. There was more about Napoleon though, who was also nice to learn more about.

Another wing was dedicated entirely to war paintings, depicting the major battles right from 1512 to Joan of Arc right up to Napoleon. Was really incredible to see them, and the way they depict the victors in each painting. One highlight was the Hall of Mirrors. It was enormous, containing mirrors that covered the wall on one side, and windows looking out over the gardens on the other. From the ceiling hung great big chandeliers. The room is remembered as the place where the Treaty of Versailles was signed at the end of the first world war.

We wandered mainly through the palace, though there was another set of buildings located about 3km away from the palace. They were the buildings which Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette used as their own places. The gardens surrounding these smaller 'chateaus' were immense. from the palace to the end of the grand canal (yes, a canal which boats were floating around on) was 3.5km, 1 hours walking. Each garden was carefully tended, and each had been given a separate name or person who it was dedicated to. Absolutely crazy. I doubt the royals would even have time to wander around all the gardens, and the upkeep wouldn't have been cheap either.

After we had our fill of hedges we made our way back to the car to head back to our hotel. We did some speedy shopping and had to go out for dinner as the rooms did not have a kitchen (Dad misses his coffees sorely, so we can tell what is going to happen when we get home... "put the water on please!"). We did our speciality of pizza, and were served by a lovely French lady who put her best foot forward to feed us :) It was delicious, and we were all bloated but satisfied afterwards as we headed back to our temporary home for bible reading, desert and sleep.

Tuesday 9 July

Tuesday 9 July
Today we had to leave Les Houches, Chamonix, Mt Blanc. The views were so beautful! We so much enjoyed watching the little cable car travelling up and down the mountain! We had trained our eyes to pick it up easily and with our cameras we could make pictures of the cable car and even of the structure on top of the mountain. The previous day I had picked our hotel from the top of mt Blanc and got it on a photo, our cameras double up as very good binoculars!
Anyway, sadly, it was time to leave and we cleaned the kitchen - saved ourselves 35 euro- and packed our bags and set off for Geneva - about an hour's drive away. The city was very busy with traffic and quite stressful for the driver! - without any previous knowledge of traffic conditions, roads, and driver temperaments!
However we found the Parc des Bastions, where the Reformation Wall has statutes and memorabilia of the Reformation. We read the plaques - made some pictures and very happily met some tourist guides wandering around who suggested a parking tower - underground, and gave us a map - hurray!! - and we parked our car and made our way to the Reformation museum. There we did a tour of the museum - very interesting and good information about the start of he Reformation, but rather disappointing towards the history of more recent years. We listened to some beautiful music in a little music room -Ps 92, Ps 9 Ps 68 a beautiful fugue of bach, and then listened and watched a video presentation of the Reformation. Towards the end they said "have you not seen any evidence of the reformation today? Surely you have heard of the great theologian Karl Barth and (some totally unfamiliar other names) .... " We were rather disappointed. The museum also ended with a display of many ecumenical churches throughout the world from many different countries but what they showed was not what we recognised as Reformed.
Although they told about John Calvin there were essential element of the Reformation missing.
They had some beautiful old Bibles and some beautiful pictures on display but we were not allowed to make photos.
Nevertheless it was very special to walk around where John Calvin had walked, see the church where he preached and we later also could give thanks for being able to see where God had worked for the preservation of his church. The many Christians had fled later on and spread the gospel to many other countries.
We left the museum and a friendly gentleman walked with us to a supermarket where we bought some bread for lunch, then we took our car out of the busy city - our trusty nav system led us safely to Beaune where we booked in, then went to find a laundry to do some washing. That done we found a supermarket and did some shopping, some talking in french!! and looked for some where to eat.
Now begins a very interesting episode!!
We walked into a restaurant - kind of like a help yourself, but we weren't sure how they operated. So I guess we kind of blundered around a bit, looking here and there, and enquired about pizzas, sizes, prices, how many 1 pizza would feed etc.
Well we soon had 3 people running around for us, so we paid for 2 large pizzas and sat down at a table not sure what we'd get. Next a smiling young lady brought us 5 plates with forks and knives. then she reappeared and brought us each a glass of wine. We were totoally flabbergasted, but she didn't speak good English - just smiled and nodded. So we said Merci beaucoup! and smiled back.
Then .... the pizza maker brought us an enormous pizza, and told us ... wait for it... the next one will be gross! meaning even bigger. So we said Merci and tucked in! It was very very good! mushrooms and all! Then he came again and the pizza WAS bigger! Wow! We thanked him profusely, made a photo of him holding the pizza and tucked in to show how much we appreciated it. We managed to eat it all ...just .. then thanked them and asked about paying for the wine but they said No No it was a cadeau! Well that was sooo nice. We went back to ur apartment veery thankful and with full tummys Together we finished off with bible reading and prayer and went to our beds!!
Mum signing out :)

Chamonix - Sun+Mon

Sunday 7 July
This day of rest was used as intended.
We did not get up too early and after having dressed in our best clothes, we listened to a sermon of rev Anderson.
It was about Exodus and we were well fed by the Word he brought us.
In the afternoon we relaxed and later on went for a drive. We found a nice zig zag road right down into a valley. Scary and interesting!
After an evening meal we retired on time.


Monday 8 July
After the day of rest we had planned for busy Monday again.
After all, we did not come to Mont Blanc for nothing!
Some of us did not have a good sleep and myself, I woke up a umber of times.
Due to that the alarm clock was beaten by a fair margin. After forcing a lay-in till 6.15am, enough was enough.
But crawling out of a creacky bed over the top of your wife is quite a feat when in a groggy state that time of the day, more intent on reaching the WC then on being very quiet.
So I admit failure to make the trip from bedside to toilet unnoticed.
My white t-shirt, doubling as pj top, combined with the lack of matching boxers, may well have meant an early grave for the weak hearted but the girls and Steven handled my early morning appearance fairly well. Mum of course is more desensytised to this phenomena.
Since we were all in varying states of awakedness we decided to move onto breakfast and the ritual cleansing + dressing.
Much to the others relief, my appearance was now in a more acceptable format.
Our appartment has magnificent views of the mountais so a quick look was to establish the state of the weather at the top.
There was much cloud but during breakfast the visibility was changing by the minute.
By the time we were walking to the bus stop for a free ride to the base camp (sounds pro doesn't it?) it all looked much more positive.
We were not the only ones catching worms and the bus filled up rather rapidly.
Human beings of all ages seemed to want to make us look like silly amateur tourists: you should see the gear they had on and the pro picks and walking sticks! Boots and designer
shirts shone all around, well except on us. The only thing in our favour were the jumpers and coats with wich we tried to indicate that at least we knew it was cold up top...

Anyhow, after paying our fares we lined up for the gondola ride to the top, roughly 2.5KM higher.
We narrowly beat a large group of tourists who appeared to have been practising for the very bright conditions on the snowy mountain top.
The main gondola packs up to 72 people and travels at a speed of 10 m/sec we were told. That equates to about 36km/hr
Most of the people inside gave relief to their tension when the gondola went past 2 main-stay masts because this caused the gondola to rock and jump violently.
This relief could have been mistaken for a bunch of people expecting to die very soon....
But there we were, on the halfway point, alive and well.
The seond gondola took us up to the top.
The coats and jumpers came in handy although some alpha males seemed to be more intent on gathering an admiring crowd then to care for the cold.
The views were stunning!!!!!!!!!
We took many pictures and even entertained each other with a treat of icy-cold-snow-down-the- back-of-our-jumpers. It is amazing how agile an over 50yo can be when confronted with such a cool treat.
After spending much time there and enjoying ourselves greatly, standing in awe of our Creator's power, we descended and came down to earth again.
Our tickets apparently included a free train ride and visit to the Mer-du-Glace, a hollowed out area in a glacier. So after our customary supermarket visit for bread and the stuff to go on it, we found the train.
It was one of those mountain trains with a large cog which drives the train on. It climbed steeply and took us to a great height again. From memory about 3km above sea level.
After a short walk we came to the small cable carts that took us lower.
BUT... There awaited us a frightening array of steel stairs all the way down to the glacier. The way down would have been more pleasant if we did not continue to come across people who had already been below and now forced every fiber in their bodies to make the journey back up again. Some would have been confirmed to have suffered minor heart and respiratory problems if a doctor had been available. Fortunately such a professional was not around so red faced and gasping for air many managed to make it to the top on their own steam (literally)
It made those descending very busy with the impending return trip....
What looked like a rocky valley turned out to be a glacier in which they had made a tunnel. Inside one could observe some simple carvings of structures and animals. Not an awful lot to see really. What was striking on the way down was the indicators markings of where the glacier used to top in past years. The current level is way way lower then some 20 years ago. That explained why the gondola stopped so high and a long walk was needed.
After making the appropriate stops on the way back up, in order to get the body a chance to get back to some form of normality, We enjoyed the ride down again in the train.
We were all drained of energy and mum found us a nice train ride back to the apartment. We crashed for a while, got shoppings and fuel for the next day together with some stamps.
Mum made us dinner and we relaxed for the evening and went through the details for tomorrow.
Geneva comes first and then we travel to Beaune in France as a half-way mark to Versaille.
Signing off for the Amoraals in Europe.
dad

More photos :)

Here are some more photos :) We hope you enjoy them :)
Again, I'm sorry if they're a bit muddled up and in the wrong order but its not really working very well :(
Here they are:
1. Mum in our kitchen in London
2. Steven, Hanna and Em
3. Going up the escalator for London underground. The escalators were very steep!
4. In front of the gate at Buckingham Palace
5. Hanna in a telephone booth :)
6. The Colosseum at night! :) Very beautiful.
7. Somewhere in Rome...
8. The Big Ben
9. The Tower Bridge - in the sky were trails of clouds from planes flying by :)
10. Somewhere in Rome...
11. Eating lunch in Venice, with the pigeons eating the crumbs
12. A canal in Murano
13. Boats in the canal
14. Steven, Dad, Mum and Em looking down the canal
15. Standing on the busboat
16. At the Vatican in Rome :)

Photos so far

Hi everyone,
Here are some photos of our travels so far...there are not very many, as we have had a bit of trouble uploading photos to the blog. The photos may be a bit muddled - I'm sorry but at least it's something :)
I haven't been able to add descriptions under each picture but here are some:
1. Beds in our hotel room in China
2. Steven in the aeroplane
3. Hanna and Steven trying to rest a bit in Beijing airport
4. The view from the aeroplane
5. At Harry Potter Warner Bros studio - the cupboard under the stairs
6. Costumes of the actors
7. A saying in Harry Potter
8. Steven, Hanna and Em on a life size structure of a bridge - looks like the one from Harry Potter :)
9. A shop from the movie made real life size
10. Tiny paper models of the buildings in the movie
11. Hogwarts (the school Harry Potter attends) model
12. Em, Hanna, Steve and Mum
13,14,15 are repeats
16. Steven, Hanna and Mum waiting in Beijing airport
17. Inside the Great Hall of Hogwarts - life size! :)

Venezia till Mt Blanc

Yesterday was a beautiful day when we visited Venezia - otherwise known as Venice.
We were again woken up at 7.15 by Emily's crowing phone. (Her alarm is set as crowing :) ) We ate breakfast outside on our little verandah and then walked to the outside of the camp to the shuttle bus which would take us to Venice at 9am.
The bus dropped us off at Tronchetto - the first part of the island where all the cars are parked - so we still had to walk a while to our first busboat station. Dad and Mum went to print out our tickets while the three of us waited. We watched many tourists being dropped off by big buses and were quite amazed at the amount of people being brought to this smallish island. Even while we were driving to Venice, there were many buses around us with many people in them.
Dad and Mum have been to Venice before and said that there are many tourists there. So they suggested to go to Murano - a neighbouring island which is still part of Venice where they do glassblowing. We took a vaporetto (water bus) to the island. As soon as we arrived there, we noticed how little tourists were there and how quiet it was. While walking around, we looked in the windows of shops, examining beautiful glass art such as birds, jewellery, and much much more. We even saw a bit of a demonstration of glassblowing that made us marvel. A man sat there with a ball of soft glass and using some tools he molded and pulled parts of it to form... a horse! It was really cool and didn't even take him long. There were also many different colours in the models too which was so impressive. It was very interesting to look at what they could all make with glass.
Murano was very beautiful - Dad and Mum remarked that it was cleaner and quieter than Venice, without so many tourists. The buildings were quite the same level, very colourful and there were some quite detailed ones too. While walking around there, I tried to imagine what it would be like to live there... I'm sure at first it would be very interesting but you could get a bit sick of the tourists, and maybe a bit lonely there.
We found a supermarket - it was called COOP - where we bought some lunch. Sitting by a church, we ate our lunch and soon were surrounded by many hungry pigeons who scurried around our feet eating the crumbs we dropped. There was one pigeon which seemed a bit loopy - you'd throw a bit of bread at it and it would scurry away, scared. Other pigeons all fought for pieces of bread while the loopy bird stood on the outskirts. There was also a pigeon with some tape on its foot which we tried to get off but couldn't since it kept walking away.
Taking a different route than we came from, we walked heading towards a waterbus stop. We walked through quite a few alleyways and narrow streets till we found our stop. Before we left however, Emily wanted to buy something as a souvenir which she had seen before we had lunch. Luckily the place she remembered wasn't too far away or hard to find.
Then we hopped on the waterbus back to Venice. We decided to take the vaporetto to San Marco - where there is the famous Marco Polo square. There were many people there, and many people were also lining up for St. Peter's basilica. We just walked around there for a while, took some photos and then walked away. Just outside of the square is many different alleyways lined with shops and stalls - good ones too - we even saw a Gucci shop! :) We zigzagged our way through them, feeling sure that if we were alone, without a map or anything, we would be lost in no time! :) It was very interesting, looking around, seeing what was for sale. There were also quite a few shops that were selling Murano glass. While walking between shops, we noticed there were some small alleyways - not road but water alleyways too. :) We saw some gondolas sailing through some and other boats too. We did buy some small gift/souvenirs for family back home while we were there too.
The bus which would take us back to our house (Camping Jolly) was going to pick us up at 5.30 from the same place, so we had to soon make our way to a waterbus which would take us back.
Unfortunately, we had to wait for quite a while in a line for a boat, and when it finally came, some people got off it, but more wanted to go on! Most people, also the ones behind us, pushed and shoved a bit so that they could get on. We had to stand on the boat, VERY crowded, body-to-body almost, for quite a while. It was also very warm and uncomfortable.
Finally, we arrived at the stop close to where we were to be picked up from. The bus was on time which was good and we arrived home about 20 minutes later. Mum and I went for a dip in the pool for a little bit and then went back for dinner.
Overall, it was a very enjoyable day of sightseeing and walking around. God blessed us again with warm, sunny weather which made us very thankful. Venice is a very impressive town which made us marvel. It's amazing how it survives on water and functions well. Tourism is definetly their main income though I'm sure. :) Venice is an amazing place to visit.

Now we are in France, just over the border from Italy. We left this morning at 8 after waking up at 6.15. We had a pretty good drive, a bit boring at first because it was very flat. However, after about 3/4 of the way it became very interesting to look out the windows. There were many mountains around us, and as we went further, there was even snow on top of some mountains.
In Aosta valley (still in Italy), we went to Fenis castle for a tour. It was not a very big castle, but still quite impressive. We took a tour through it - in Italian unfortunately, but there was in each room explanations of what room was used for in French and English.
Then we drove on towards the tunnel through Mt Blanc to France. Before that tunnel though, we had to drive through about 5 other tunnels through the mountains, each about 1-4 km long! As we came out of one tunnel there was between 500m- 1km and then we went into another one.
Finally, just before entering the tunnel into France, we stopped, just after some toll gates. From there, we had a BEAUTIFUL view of the Aosta valley. We took some photos, had a little look in the shop there and then drove to France! We're not sure how long the tunnel was, but it was about 10-15km long! Arrivederci Italy, and Bonjour France! :)
We had to burn some time before checking-in to our apartment (you could only check in between 4 and 7) so we drove around for a while, did some shopping and then came back. Now we are sitting here in our loungeroom, having some tea and admiring our lovely view of Mt Blanc! :)
Its very light here still, feels like 4pm still or something but its already 7pm!
Tomorrow we hope to have a relaxing day and listen to a sermon.
So long for now! Lots of love from Dad, Mum, Em, Steve and me :)

Thursday 4 July

Hi all, This morning the alarm went off at 6am. That seems a bit early but we had some travel ahead of us: The plan was to go to our Jolly Camping near Venice, a fair hike of over 500km After some packing and breakfast mum and dad went to pick up the car which was parked along the circus maximus. That is a long, large area where they used to do the horse and cart races, you know with those 6 or so horses in front of them and those sharp blades on the wheels. It has side walls sloping up where the populus would sit and a large building presumable for the dignitaries to sit and overview the races. Truly and inspiring environment to pickup your car and head for near sudden death in the Roman early morning traffic. Mum was aid to the satnav and some how we managed to negotiate other carriages and men on horseback (scooters defying death and laughing in its face) and arrived at our humble abode. We double parked, just as the Romans do! We got the hang of it. It seems it was not our day to die in the circus maximums after all. After loading to cart and whispering into the satnav ears of the horse where we wanted to go to, it took us there pretty well. The early contact with the autostrada however showed an accident had happened further up and the familiar files of stationary carts appeared out of nowhere. As it happened mum was able to convince the satnav to take us out via another route. Soon the open road beckoned and our chariot soon got used to its average top speed of around 130km/hr About 2.30 we arrived safely in our Venice site. The scenery was beautiful all along the way. First the landscape increasingly turned hilly and on the latter part it all flattened out again. A beautiful part of creation! Once unloaded at the camping we went to look for a shop and as it tuns out there was large shopping mall close by. Food was bought and the thirsty horse was given a good drink. The shuttle bus into Venice is booked for 9AM and the return for 5.30PM Now all we need to do is wait for coffee water to boil and a technician to bring us a fry pan for our frozen pizzas to be heated up in We are thankful for another fine day received from our Heavenly Father! Mum, Emz,Hanz,Stevo and dud

Roma, Italy

Hi everyone!! :)

It has been busy here.
We have entered Rome, seen the colosseum and visited the catacombs.
We also have seen Constantines Arch as well as things like the Trevi Fountain, the Vatican and the spanish steps. Here is the recount.

 Tuesday
We woke up late while Mum and Dad went and moved  the car. They have a policy that between 10pm to 8am have free parking in the  blue lined  parking lots. In between 8am and 10pm during the day, you have to pay if you are in the blue parking lots. If you are pivarked in a white parking lot you dont have to pay kannyedat all. After parking the car, Mum and dad came back to our apartment to check on us. Well, as you might expect, we were still lying in bed slacking off and sleeping. Mum and Dad decided to let us be for a while and went shopping.
When they returned, we went to the Colosseum and went inside it. It was fascinating and you could see the setting of the movie Gladiator and of Ben Hur. It was not like what everyone tells you. It is pretty good but might be a bit exaggerated. We walked up to the Piazza Venetia which is a large monument with horses and statues. There were ruins and other old things that were surrounded by fences. We walked all the way up this path to find it was a dead end. It was all uphill too! :) There was a church at the end ( Roman catholic) and we went in there for a bit.  We went to a supermarket and bought some lunch. We ate it next to some ruins and we also found a fountain that constantly flows outside our house. There are heaps of them in rome. Everybody uses them as well! On the side of the road were some men and women spray painting little images. They turned out to be remarkably good. There was an "Egypitian Mummy" that stood still for almost a full five hours. It looked like a statue. Our poor old legs felt like jelly so we decided to head home. We had a sound sleep with dad performing remarkably well on the trumpet.

 Wednesday
We woke up this morning to the sound of an alarmed roster due to Emilys phone alarm. We decided to take the bus to save our legs the really long walk. We first went to the Trevi Fountain where people throw a coin into the water and make a wish. It looked pretty snazy and well kept. We then travelled to the Spanish Steps. They weren't very impressive and they were a bit of a letdown but we saw some pretty good paintings at the very top. There was one man who had been painting for 52 years. Emily was impressed and even bought a piece of his art.
We then travelled on to the metro to travel to the Vatican city. On the top of the Vatican building are all statues. It was pretty good. Afterwards, we went down the street. On the streets were quite a few shops and stalls selling souvenirs or clothing and we noticed that many sold the same sort of things. Hanna and Em searched some of the clothing stalls and tried to find dresses without much luck. We then searched and searched for a Mc Donalds but could not find any. Then, I Steven, in my sorrow went and sat down, started to cry and that is when i saw the Mc Donalds sign.It was too expensive there but we did get a pizza from a pizzeria. It tasted good despite the 10 minute or so wait. We then caught the metro to the bus station to get back home. After a bit of searching, we found our bus and were homeward bound. We got home, had lunch and prepared to go to the catacombs. We caught a bus as close as we could and then followed a German man to the catacombs. We bought tickets and headed down with the tour. Along the tour, I went down one of the side passages and had a look. Afraid of getting lost i raced back to the main tunnel and almost gave a stranger  heart attack. We cracked up laughing and then followed the Guide lady. We ended up at the end of the tour above ground in St Sebastianos basilica and  left it with disgust - everything in it was very people centred, focussing on the dead 'saints', images of Jesus, decorations, candles and so on, rather than focussing on Christ, His death, and the fact that He is our Saviour. We caught the bus almost to our door step and then here i am writing this blog. Dad, Hanna and Em and currently doing shopping and Mum is doing dishes. Hoons on motorbikes and in cars are flogging past and so are trams and busses. We've also noticed quite a few ambulances driving through the city; unfortunately they seem to have very annoying sirens - droning and whining.

Lots of love and wish you were all here with us. God has been gracious to us and we have not had any injuries. We are thankful for that. Also the weather has been in our favour. What a blessing that is. This is all for now.

Love From us all
Dad, Mum, Emily, Hanna-lee and Steven signing off.

Saturday and Sunday in London

Saturday we caught the bus into London again. The bus has a recorded message at each sstoop saying the destination of the bus and the name of each stop, so by the time we got to London, we really knew we were heading for Tottnham Court road! The buses are intensively used, and we enjoyed sitting on the top level of the trditional big red london bus. At the end of the line we got off and made our way to a shop called Primark. Back in Australia Hanna-Lee had researched the London shops. This particular shop is particularly cheap -selling latest fashion clothes for ridiculously low prices. Em and Han and I enjoyed sniffing around and the girls picked some clothes, then Dad and Steven came as well and found some interesting things to buy. Emily would go to London just for the shopping she reckons!!

We took the tube to Harrods and stood amazed at the size of the shop, the lavish decorations, the high prices, the variety of items, expensive looking toilets - with several choices of perfume and body spray! The sweet section was amazing, and we bought a harrod labelled sweet tin. At lunch time we sat on a kerb in an expensive looking area - the park we selected was for the residents of the area only and locked for others! We saw a plaque which told us Jane Austen had stayed in that house once upon a time, with her brother. Of course our cameras were put to good use everywhere.

We caught a bus with our trusty Oyster card, and found ourselves at Hyde Park corner, from where we wondered down to Buckingham palace and photographed the guard standing outside his booth! and ourselves in front of the gates. Amazing how many people are standing around, taking photos and sight seeing. The weather was absolutely beautiful. We saw Wellington's Arch and walked through. There are lots of war memorials in the area, and everything shows the richness of the history of Europe. That day was a special remembrance day for the armed forces and there were many officials around and people in uniforms; also demonstrators against the war efforts.
We walked through St James Park and along the Churchill museum, passed Downing street where some young men in uniform were standing to attention and alowing the public to take photographs.

Next we admired the Westminster Abbey, the houses of Parliament and the Big Ben - which always feature on the news from GB. The London Eye was doing its faithful turning stunt, ripping people of their pounds and giving them a beautiful view (we're told) of London.

Our legs were dropping off by now so we held our noses on our way down and into the underground - such a pissy smell! that's what comes of making people pay for every toilet stop; some obviously don't have the money - and we made our way to King's Cross station. We remembered there was a Maccas there to try to get on the internet. We bought drinks and ice creams and sat and rested our weary legs.
At station 9 and 3/4 we tried to force a shopping trolley through the wall and Em Han and Steve had photos made as they made their efforts!

At 221 Baker Street we visited the home of Sherlock Holmes and his trusty friend Watson but unfortunately they were unavailable so we just made some photos outside their home!

This completed our sightseeing for the day, and we made our way home on the maze of the underground and the faithful red bus heading for Penge.


On Sunday morning (30th June) we woke up at about 7-7:30, showered, dressed, ate breakfast, packed the backpack for the day and went out the door to the bus. We were going to London Presbyterian church which started at 11am. Dad and Mum have been there before so they sort of knew where to go. We did a little bit of walking to get to the actual church and saw a few more interesting things such as St. Paul's Cathedral. It was very big and detailed. The bells sounded very nice too as we walked past. Despite the fact that it was Sunday, there were still plenty of people around. I guess the fact that there was beautiful sunny weather was extra inviting for people to be out and about in the city.

The church ended up being tucked away between some business buildings and right next to Postman's Park which was very cosy. The church service was not very formal, and quite different and similar at the same time to our own church in Armadale. The congregation was very small and there were no elders, deacons or organist. Instead of an organist to lead the singing, there was a lady from the congregation who sang in front of the microphone the whole time. There were collections, singing from a psalm book, bible reading and a sermon about the consequences of the Fall into Sin from Genesis 3.

After church we went to the remaining parts of London Wall which was just down the road. We found some benches by a bit of a lake and fountain with beautiful green shady trees and sat down to eat some lunch - sandwiches which we had prepared that morning. Then we walked to the millennium bridge which was relatively close by. It was quite nice to walk over the Thames River and take pictures. The Tower Bridge was further down the river but we still walked all the way there along the side of the Thames, taking many pictures as we went along. The Tower Bridge was quite a sight too where we also took plenty of photos.

We had to walk a little further to the underground station which would take us closer to London Bridge, since we wanted to get some good photos there.
Sitting down again in the train was good so that we could rest our legs and feet a bit. We arrived at Angel Station, sat there for a while and then moved on towards London Bridge itself. When we got there, our legs were quite tired and our feet sore, so we decided just to let Emily run and take some photos of the typical London features (the Thames, London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament House) which were nicely close enough for good photos As we waited for Emily to come back, we saw our bus drive past that would take us home. So we walked to the bus stop which we could see in the distance, which happened to be on the other side of the London Bridge, which we weren't planning to cross before. We had to wait at least 10 minutes before the next bus came since we couldn't catch up to the bus we saw drive past. We were all quite tired and happy to go home a bit earlier than previous days.

The beautiful sunny weather added to the fact that it was a very nice day of sightseeing and admiring London.

While we were sitting in the bus, there was a man who seemed either drunk or simply loopy. When someone came up the stairs of the bus he would try to shake their hand or say hello.When someone went down the stairs to leave, he would say 'take care' or 'have a good weekend' or 'behave yourself'. While there was no one going up or down, he would just talk out loud saying things... 'there's a nice pub out that way' 'i love that man' 'beryl...Beryl!' 'Bye mum!' It was quite humorous and made quite a few of us in the bus chuckle a bit.

When we got home, we just lazed around a bit at home, Mum got some rice in a pan and began to boil it and then we had a cup of tea. For dinner we had rice and sausages, a little similar to the night before but was still very yummy :)

Tomorrow we will have to clean up the apartment, pack our suitcases, and then make sure we are at the airport on time for our flight to. . . Rome, Italy! :) We're so excited... :)

We are thankful to God for the many things we have been able to see and do since we left and for His safekeeping. We're also thinking of our family back at home and hope you don't miss us too much ;)
Love Dad, Mum, Em, Steve and me :)

From Amsterdam to London

We arrived in Amsterdam Friday morning at 6am. Some of us had a good sleep with the aid of sleeping tablets. We also had Economy+ seats - an extra 20cm near our knees BONUS and we were all comfortable.

Anyway, it was such a relief to be in Amsterdam - with people who spoke a language we could understand. Dad especially felt at home and enjoyed speaking Dutch - saying hello to all :) We managed to get some tickets on easy Jet - hopefully our travel insurance people behave and refund some of our travels costs. the lady who helped us - even gave dad a fast boarding privilege that saved us wasting time standing in line to get rid of our luggage. We were done in no time - getting envious looks from other travellers.

So next Dad looked for a place to have a bite to eat and we enjoyed English breakfast and crossaints. Yum! The waitress fast tracked our order so we could board on time.
Then we were off to easyJet, take off at 9.15 and arrived 5 minutes later at 9:20 - local time though :) It was actually a 45min-1hr flight :)

At Gatwick airport, we took a taxi to Dulwich. The apartment was ok - a bit musty, smelly and old but hey, this is London. :) Across the road there was a small supermarket so Dad and Mum quickly bought some provisions.

After a quick lunch, we walked down to the bustop on Lordship Lane - caught bus 176 to Tottenham Court Road (after almost every stop there was an automated voice reading it out so we got it drummed into us well now (: )and at the underground station 'Elephant and Castle' we took the underground to Euston station and then the overland train to Watford Junction.

Back in Australia we had booked a tour for 3.30 at... HARRY POTTER WARNER BROS STUDIO! This was to see how a film (movies) are made and developed from start to finish. The studio was set up to show how the Harry Potter movies had been made.

A shuttle bus took us from Watford Junction to the studio. There we were dumbfounded at the incredible amount of work and detail undertaken in making these movies. Totally astounding! But then of course, this movie was at worldwide hit. We spent several hours exploring the studio. By the end, we were tired and ready to leave.

We took the underground from Euston Elephant and Castle to do some shoppings at a shop called Tesco. There was a man who was walking around with a lollypop sign "Can I help you?" He was jolly and fun - and when he heard we came from Australia, he asked what we thought of our PM. Then he told us Julia Gillard was out and Rudd was in! Wow! We didn't even know and even now it hasn't been confirmed for us here.
Anyway, we completed our shoppings and moved on - took the bus back to Overhill Road - staggered up the hill :) and warmed up the pizzas we'd just bought..
After eating, we fell into bed for a first - uninterrupted, decent sleep since we left Australia....

China Experience

So time for an update. A lot has happened since the first official post. We waved goodbye through the gates in Perth, and when straight on to experience for the first time customs. Soon we were sitting in the plane, ready for our first leg of the journey. For Hanna and Steven it was the first time flying, and I think they quite enjoyed it. Take-off was better than landing... towards the end of our 8-hour flight from Perth to Guangzhou we were getting restless. the descent was also a little bit nauseating but we got through it.

We didn't need to collect our baggage till Amsterdam so we had time to spare between our flight from Guangzhou to Beijing... 3 hours or so. We sat in the airport (which is quite a reasonable size compared to Perth :) ) and had a substitute dinner of crackers that we had brought along from home. It wasn't that filling, but we expected to have a meal or something on the next flight. It was quite a strange experience, being surrounded by Chinese people. We were often stared at as they walked by us... I guess its just the same as inAustralia when we see Chinese people walking by, or doing something strange that we have a look at them as well. It feels very strange to be the foreigner in another place, when you're so used to being 'normal'.

After our snack/lunch/ dinner we made our way to the terminal where our flight was supposed to take off from. That was about 6.30 or so. Our flight from Guangzhou to Beijing was scheduled to leave at 8.30 that evening (26th), but when we reached our terminal an announcement came over the loudspeaker that our plane had been delayed. This was a bit of a worry for us, as our next flight from Beijing to Amsterdam left 1.5 hours after our touchdown in Beijing. With nothing left to do but wait, we found a corner somewhere and settled down.

One thing we have to mention was that the airport was VERY warm. When we sat down to wait, we all took off our shoes because our feet were soo hot. It didn't help that we sat down in a corner with little airflow, but it was quieter there and out of the way. When it became apparent that nothing was going to happen soon, Mum lay down on the ground and used her jacket as a pillow. Hanna soon followed for a little doze, while Steve sat down and played on the pad and Dad and I sat guard. Each time the speakers came to life we listened for announcements relating to our flight, but it was a bit hard when they only spoke Chinese.

We did ask around what was happening, but as we came to learn later on in Beijing, there are a lot of Chinese people standing around, but none of them really know anything at all. In the end we found that our flight was delayed due to bad weather in Beijing. 3 hours later our plane landed, and we were able to board (and this was without anyone telling us what was happening). (Dad talked to a few guys who were also in the same situation as us... they later joined us in our crusade against China Southern in Bejing) We got onto the plane, all excited that we were finally leaving... but when we sat down we got told that we would still need to wait. So this was about 11pm on that Wednesday, and none of us had slept since that morning when we got up at 5.30am.

We waited an hour and a half or so before we were finally ready for take-off. The delay cost us our 10 hour flight to Amsterdam, so that meant we needed to organise another flight ASAP in Beijing to make it to Amsterdam in time for our Amsterdam-> London flight.

The plane ride was uneventful, but we were all very tired. In Beijing we had to collect our luggage, since the flight for Amsterdam had already left. We went to the China Southern help desk, to see what flights were available for Amsterdam. There we met Harry and the Spaniard who we had met in Gangzhou. We also crossed paths with a Dutch girl who was traveling by herself to Amsterdam. She had had problems in Gangzhou with her ticket, but was allowed on at the last minute (in Beijing we found out that her luggage had also been lost by China Southern). There was also a German who we met, who we later came to know as Vulcan. Two dutch guys were sitting in the lobby area when we reached the help desk, who also needed to reach Amsterdam. More were stuck in Beijing from other flights as we found out later.

We found out that the next flight for Amsterdam left 11.05 in the morning. in the mean time, they offered us some compensation by providing rooms in a hotel for us all, where we could refresh ourselves. By the time we reached our hotel (called the Golden Phoenix) it was about 3.30. We slept from about 4.30 till 7.30, and were in the lobby and had breakfast by 8.30 when the taxi/van/shuttle bus came for us to take us back to the airport.

There we met more people who came to be close acquaintances over the next 12 hours. There was Yadi, who was our Chinese interpreter, and Shong-hun (apologies on spelling) who also helped to translate. There was also Harry, the two dutch guys, Vulcan and the Spaniard from the night before, as well as a few new people that we met, like another Australian, and a couple from the UK. All together there were about 15-16 of us stuck in Beijing. When we reached the China Southern counter and asked about tickets for the 11.05 flight, we were most horrified to find out that there were "no seats left".

Our whole group was most upset - yet we were told 'don't worry, it will be fine... just go to hotel and come back at 9.30 for the 0:50 (10 to one in the morning) flight'. We stood at the counter from about 9-12, arguing and demanding tickets for the next flight. We asked for the manager, and insisted on having guaranteed seats.11.05 came and went, and our hope of leaving Beijing on that flight was gone. Apparently there were no seats left for anyone so we couldn't get on to it.... which was a lie, because the Dutch girl we met in Guangzhou came to the counter and told us that she was trying to get onto that 11.05 flight but her ticket was rejected. She said that people were on standby, and a number of them were able to board the plane after all the other passengers were boarded. This only added fuel to the fire, which didn't help us get anywhere any faster.

Hanna and Steve, as well as Dad, Mum and I, were getting sick from being tired. Dad began to get a woozy head while Hanna got a little nauseous. Steven just lay on the ground or played on the pad, just chilling. In the end, at about 12 we got the manager's guarantee that we would have seats on the flight that evening, and that we would be given rooms at a hotel again. It was the best we could do - our proof of seats was a piece of paper showing which flight we would be on which was not very promising. Shong-hun, Vulcan and the British couple got the same offer.

There was also another offer made, that you could fly back to Guangzhou (where we had just come from), and try and get the flight to Amsterdam from there. That flight from Beijing to Guangzhou left about 2.30 in the afternoon lasting 3 hours. Then in Guangzhou you would have to wait 5 hours and see if you could (not guaranteed but better chance of getting) a seat on the plane from Guangzhou to Amsterdam. Yadi, the Dutch girl and guys, Harry and Australian decided to do that, but we chose to stay in Beijing. We were taken back to a different hotel and were able to sleep 5-6 hours or so.

We caught the 8pm shuttle back to the airport, a little refreshed but eager to be on our way. When we got there we headed to the check-in line in good spirits. When the counters opened, we gave our papers over, but were told that we were actually on stand-by, and did not have seats on the plane. 'Don't worry', they told us. 'Just wait'. We had had enough of being told to wait and not worry. Dad got stuck into the guy, and told him to get the manager. Thankfully it was the same as we had in the morning (they do 24-hour shifts!). He looked quite nervous when he saw us there, but could not do much for us. We were joined shortly by Shong-hun, the UK couple and Vulcan. They told us there was nothing we could do because we were on stand-by. Again we were told to just wait and not worry. I was fed up with them, so both dad and I made a bit of a scene. We were told we had to wait till 10 to 12, an hour before departure before they knew whether or not there were seats (which was stupid because we were told there were definitely seats for us).

Anyway during the time we spent together with those in the same situation, we quickly developed friendships and we shared travel experiences and family circumstances. We laughed and joked and sat and talked together. Especially Shong-hun was invaluable since she was our interpreter and kept us informed of what the officials said. She didn't push for herself but very generously helped the others in our group. It was a very special sharing time with several totally random people from different backgrounds.

In the end 5 seats were 'released' for us and we were able board the plane with everybody else. We put our suitcases through and hurried through customs, just in time to board the plane with everybody else. The other four were able to get seats on a flight to Paris instead, but we were sorry to see them go a bit as we had been through the whole experience together; yet we were also glad that they were not to be left behind in China to stay another time in a hotel. We did not hear anything else from those that had flown to Guangzhou... however, Shong-hun said that they were in the same situation, that they were only on standby with no guarantee to fly out that night. We hope that they are now out of China at least, and on their way to their final destination.

Well that was our experience of China. As of yet we haven't been able to upload any photos yet. It is a bit of a struggle to try and find free wifi that is good enough to connect to the blog and upload things.

At the time of writing this we are in London, safe and sound, still recovering from our journey. We will try to update you on London and whatever we are up to next time we have internet.
Lots of love from the other side of the world,
Dad, Mum, Em, Han and Steve :)