Mark’s trip home,

Hello all, well I am home now...back in sunny 14 degrees Melbourne...taking 35 hours from when I walked out the door of our warm Barcelona apartment until I walked in the door at home. Needless to say I slept very well in my own bed.

The trip went to plan. Train trip across central Spain took three hours on a very fast, new train which hit speeds of around 250 km and was fabulous, amazing country side of old towns, flat terrain with farming areas which looked like 5 star golf courses by the way they have ploughed the land to use every piece available and curved fields blended around the many rocky outcrops.

I had a few hours to kill once I got to Madrid so decided to take a small cab ride detour around the city on my way to the airport and the architecture and numerous tapas bars suggests that this would be a great city to visit another time. My taxi driver was perfect for this little tour.... I think he was a historian dressed as a taxi driver because he was trying to give me the origin of the word “Tapas” saying it was a lid to keep off the flies and a lid to stop the olden day coach drivers from drinking and driving!!!! Then he says the word is actually “Tapear” which means to cover...all I know is that eating nice tapas puts a lid on my hunger and covers my stomach.

The Madrid airport is huge, and from when I arrived to check my luggage it took nearly an hour and half to get to my gate via the many escalators, passport control, large walkways and sub train line.

On time I left for Dubai with a small stop over to Kuala Lumpur and then onto Melbourne. A very fast and extremely enjoyable holiday and very sad to be leaving Dominique behind.

Anyway, that’s it for now....will be in bed early again tonight.

Mark xxxxx

Early morning from the front verandah.

Well what a wonderful day or eating and sightseeing I had.

We drove through endless picture postcard scenery. With the turn of each corner anothr breathtaking view. After about 45 mins we arrived in the Gruyere region. First we went to the Calliers/ Nestle chocolate factory. They provide a bit of a tour (I felt like i was at Dreamworld) through many 'room's which tell the story of chocolate.
Next came the tasting room. Yumm!! So many varieties to try. I tried about 50% of them but often just a bite of one and the rest in the bin. After 15mins tasting we were getting the burning feeling in our throats from too much sugar. We then drove to Chateau de Gruyere. Here it is on the hill in the distance.

Walking from the carpark to the top of the hill - the walls opened up to this sweet village and street. The far end is the Chateau.

We went for a walk through the building which was incredibly old dating back to the early 1400's. This is the view of from the Chateau.

We found a great table for lunch in the village. We shared a plate of dried meat (delicious) and then this huge fondue for 3. It was so delicious and with each piece of white bread dipped in the cheese I was thinking this will be my last.... but.... I just could not stop. Combined with a glass of red wine then a shared bottle of red... I did suffer a little afterwards. My body is far from used to eating that much cheese. On average they provide 200gms of cheese per person! We figured a walk in the gorge was needed to help move some of the food through. What a lovely quiet spot. The water was running through though possibly not as much as usual. They have had much less than normal snow this past season and also little rain. So this time of the year should have snow melt and water everywhere. Whereas there was a lake in Gruyere that was very low with alot of the banks of the lake showing.
Silliness after walking through a tunnel.
On our way back to the car we suddenly heard this beautiful sounds resonating through the gorge. Before long we spotted these 2 practising on their long horns.

We then drove down to Lausanne to see a football game. It was the local derby of Geneva Servette (Chris’ team) and Lausanne Sport. It was quite entertaining particularly the cheer squad with up to 7 flares being lit at once and a couple being thrown of the sports track. The the fire officers dashed out to put them out. Servette won 2-0 so we left happy.


After a late dinner of vegetable pizza and salad (anything to move the cheese down) we headed home exhausted.

I was starting to worry that I hadn't heard from Mark that he had arrived home. Happily though, during the football game, I received an sms he had arrived. Exhausted but safe.

Switzerland

I arrived a little late into Geneva and was greeted by Gianina's lovely smiling face. After a game of 'where did I park the car' (very funny) we soon found it and were on our way. It was 25C and just beautiful. Not sure I will be needing the leather gloves!

We picked up Chris from work and had a late lunch and a beer near a marina on the lake. The locals were lapping up the sunshine and early spring.

We arrived in their beautiful village later afternoon. What a great place they have. Picture book views across a small valley with glimpses of the alps above the trees.

Chris cooked a bbq of sausages (delicious), marinated horse (not bad at all), and steak.

Last day Barcelona

On recommendation from Michelle & Steve, Georgina Mark and I went to a Flamenco dancing show. It was in a very intimate space which provided us all with close seating to the slightly elevated stage.
It was incredibly energetic with lots of passionate dancing by both the men and the women.
This morning was a visit to Parc Guell. This was by far the busiest tourist type area. Its set on a hill in the outskirts of the city giving great views to the see. Alas today the smog was quite bad and visibility was limited.

It is yet another construction designed by Antoni Gaudi who also lived in the park for the last 20 years of his life.
This mosaic lizard has been replicated in many sizes and can be purchased at endless tourist shops throughout the city.

It was quite hot outside and the temp seemed about 5C more in the park than it did in the city. This cave type construction was very cool and I can imagine is a great place to linger in the summer.

Atop the cave type construction is this large public area for viewing the city. There is this incredible seating wrapping around the whole space. The mosaics on it are beautiful and the shape to sit on was perfectly supportive. It was also cool to sit on, so again in summer would be great.

Tonight is our last night in Barcelona. We are not planning a big night as we all have to head in different directions in the morning.

For Mark it is early train to Madrid, then directly to the airport for his flight home.

Georgina will also train to Madrid though later in the day. She will then take her organised tour through southern Spain.

I am flying to Switzerland to spend 3 nights with Gianina and Christian in their home in Sottens. From there I will meet Michelle and Steve in Cork, Ireland for a week. They are heading straight to Ireland tomorrow.

Mark is a little melancholy with the idea of heading back to work. I am a bit jealous though that he will be seeing our kids very soon.

We are having a fun and varied holiday but look forward to seeing you all very soon to catch up on your news.

xD&M

More Barcelona

Staying only a few blocks from the Sagrada Familia we grabbed a quick breakfast and headed straight over for a visit. We were SOOO happy we did. It is a truly spectacular building that started being constructed in 1882 and will not be complete until 2026. I got the job of wearing the headset and reporting in shorthand to the others on what we were seeing. Check out the floor here which was under the side entrance with the Passion Facade. Its all inlaid stone.
This is the spectacular ceiling above the main aisle.
This is the altar. You can possibly make out the pipes of the organ at the bottom. They are quite large but our completely outsized in this space. The columns are to reflect as if you are walking through a forest. Note the way they split at the top to reflect banches of a tree.
From there we headed to the main street of La Rambla for a spot of shopping and some lunch at La Boqueria market. Well Mark was in retail heaven here as you can see by the photos he took.

It was a very large market selling predominantly fruit, vege, seafoods & meats.

They have great little bars to sit at, where they cook up some of the market produce to order. As we were 4 people, they suggested we sit at this table rather than have along wait. We enjoyed tuna steak, salmon fillet, shrimps, roast artichoke and mixed veges. All with a beer to help it go down!

Mark was very impressed with these giant scissors used for cutting up whole chickens into pieces with ease.

This was Lucas' last afternoon before he headed off in the sunset to Ibiza. He had done a solo pub crawl around the block while we shopped in town then we joined him for more beer and a feed of tapas. A bit of 'silly buggers' on the way home... with our apartment building behind us.

Lucas' marching skills from the police academy haven't gone amiss. He was busily trying to get us to do the 'Sargeant Peppers' march across the street.


Marching up to our front door. The apartment has no key. Just a code to get in the building and then another for our room. No worry about forgetting the key... just had to remember 2 x codes... of 4 and 6 numbers each!!!

Barcelona touring...

Well showing Barcelona in pictures is challenging.

It is a really great city. The highlight is the general feeling. The buildings are beautiful, and possibly it is that we are staying in the beautiful area of L'Eixample. About 4 blocks away are these 2 Gaudi designed buildings. (in the background).

Just one of the street intersections. They have cleverly designed their streets in a grid pattern. They have also chopped off each corner to make it a diagonal. This means each and every intersection is more open allowing for more air and light.. giving a much more open feel to the city.

Thanks to some clever gift giving for my birthday, I had tickets for the bus tour as well as a visit to the Casa Batlla. the building on the right in the first photo here) This photo is of a large public art piece done by local artist Joan Miro.

Another gorgeous building. On the left is an area that is built of the remains of roman ruins.

There was an existing market that they need to put a communal roof over. This impressive wavy roof covered in a large mosaic of tiles and just hidden down a street.

The next day we walked down San Joan through lovely gardens and then their' Arc de Triomph'. While not near the size of the the one in Paris its still impressive and we were having some fun there.

Close by we stopped and watched a group of around 20 older men playing bocce in allocated spaces within the street scape.

We then headed into the Barri Gothic area. A myriad of lanes it was great to wander through, do some shopping, and just lap it up.
We then took a funicular (yes Georgina was VERY brave) which gave us a great view over the extensive harbour and city. It was just a 10 min trip which dropped us off in Montjuic. This is the suburb where Barcelona has held many past world events. From World expos in the 1800's to the most recent 1992 Olympics. You may recall seeing the diving event with the amazing view behind the divers. This was just 100m up from where the funical dropped us.

Yesterday Lucas headed up the coast for the day and Mar, Georgina and I had a day of art. First up we toured the Casa Batlla. What an amazing building. Designed and built by Gaudi for the family of his main benefactor. This is the front lounge room. The house had the most clever ways of getting natural light in without losing their privacy. There was also hidden parts in the timber carvings on the walls and windowns that opened to allow airflow.

On the rooftop which is about 6 floors up. Its a very big house and water was stored on the roof. But only Gaudi would do these fab mosaics as well.


Looking down the central light well. If you look carefully you can see how the tiles toward the top are darker than the ones at the bottom. This was so that the light reflected more at the bottom where it was needed and was absorbed at the top so as not to be too glary. So clever!



In the afternoon we visited the Joan Miro gallery. A large gallery with an extensive collection of his works. From paint to textiles to clay... his large body of work really developed and changed throughout his lifetime.

Sick in Barcelona

Due to the change in direction in our cruising - from our end point it was a 1 hr taxi ride to Narbonne where we had booked the train from to Barcelona. This went easily as did the train ride to Barcelona. Beautifully clean double level trains. Much better than a plane! We need these trains in Australia... !!

Michelle’s friends Tina and Jim (who travelled from Ireland) were already at the apartment we had booked and Lucas and Georgina (who had flown in from Bordeaux) were nearby. We quickly went from 4 to 8 people and lots of laughs, drinks and catching up we headed out for dinner keen for some Spanish food. It was 8pm and the restaurants were either shut or setting up or just opening for the night. We were all a bit hungry and tired so keen to eat and get back. (Tina and Jim in particular had been up since 2:30am to get their flight). We spotted one that looked good and decided to wait the 10 mins being suggested by the waiter.

It turned out to be Argentinean food (!!! Bugger no Spanish) .. We all ordered 2 courses with Mark and Steve ordering the same. The meals were big...

Mark and Steve were the only ones to order steak for mains and it seems this was a bad decision. By early morning they were both unwell. By 7am the vomiting started.... Mark tried to convince himself it was reflux or alike and headed out with us to the tourist bus. He lasted until around midday and was back in bed... Steve wisely had stayed in bed.

Well it was illness in unison. Their temperatures spiked simultaneously then the headache hit. Michelle and I stayed in the afternoon nursing and plying with panadol, water and lemonade. There was barely anything open to even find a lemonade but we eventually had luck and also found ‘soppe de pollo’ (chicken soup) in a box....

Aside from this our first impressions of Barcelona are great. It is very big and a little daunting to get your bearings. We are an easy 4 block walk to Sagrada Famiglia ... Gaudi’s famous church which is still being built and won’t be finished for about another 16 yrs.

Well the boys are up this morning... and fingers crossed they just keep feeling stronger and up to eating more than soup and toast.

Pictures to come soon....

More Cruising the Canal du Midi

Next stop was Agde.


Many of the old buildings of this particular town were built with volcanic stone.


This group of houses is actually a large graffiti art piece on a blank wall.


The boys found a seat in the town square.
Our fourth night was in Marseillan. With only 15 mins until we would exit the calan and enter the canal we thought it wise to read if there were any special instructions to be followed. First was... don’t attempt a crossing after 5pm. I looked at my watch and it was 4:45pm! The next note was – don’t cross if it is very windy. To us it was quite windy.... but what the heck...we went for it! The water was choppy which meant a precarious crossing with Mark driving. After the calm of the canals he did a great job handling the boat in open water in windy conditions. He was wishing Lucas was here to handle it. We were all too scared to take any photos of this crossing!
We arrived to a beautiful safe harbour. The town is also lovely to stroll around unlike most others which have felt either deserted or not particularly welcoming.


We stayed until 3pm the following day.


All happily wandering around the lovely town or sitting on the boat in the sun. You may have noted by our clothes that it has been quite cold on the water. Marseillan was a delight to be in and beautifully warm.


Our trip back across the Etang was easy. No great wind to be concerned of.


Marseillan in the background here.


Mark is really starting to relax!


Our last stop was near the town of Vias. Michelle, Mark and I rode our bikes the 1-2km into town to find some champagne. We figured it being our last night in France we just had to do it.
We found this ‘cave’ which is like a co-op for local wineries. We thought this idea of bringing in your own bottles and filling up via the tap was fantastic.


All in all... we have just loved the canal cruising. It made us slow down and gave us the opportunity to see and enjoy the countryside of southern France.
Hope all are well... we miss you all.
xD

Cruising Canal du Midi

We were all early for our 5:56am train. None of us keen to miss it. Mark, Michelle, Steve and I got off in Narbonne for a regional train to Lezignan. Georgina and Lucas stayed on the train to Carcassonne and the next leg of their trip and we are seeing them again in Barcelona.
I had prebooked a taxi to pick us up at Lezignan. The driver was waiting at the door ready to drive us to the boat harbour in Homps. It took a little while to get all sorted with the boat and on our way. We are the boat company’s first booking of the season and are on the boat for 5 nights. Apparently the main season doesn’t really start until Easter.




We bought some groceries, got driving and lock handling lessons, picked up our push bikes and were soon on our way. On board there was a substantial basket of regional goods as a ‘welcome aboard’ gift. 1 x bottle of red wine, 1 x bottle of white muscat, jars of; honey, cassoulet, mustard, olives and terrine.


While this was appreciated, we were later to discover there was no dishwashing liquid or dish cloth was on board. An annoying discovery after Michelle cooked a delicious roast pork.
After a bit of lobbying by the boat company we decided to change our initial plan of going Homps-Carcasson-Homps. They offered us a one way journey in the opposite direction. After much back and forth discussion weighing up pros and cons we decided to take up their offer. So we are on our way to Port Cassafieres and it means no doubling up. We actually think we will go past it into the Etang du Thau which is an inland lake near the sea and be back at our drop off point.


Here is Mark strolling through one of the towns. It was VERY quiet here. Barely a sign of human life.


Canal du Midi is lined for most its length with Plane trees. It certainly felt like driving down a leafy street in Melbourne at times.


Here I am taking my turn to drive and ducking to get under and through one of the many narrow o arched bridges.


We spent our first night near Argens Minervois, the second at Capestang, We stopped at le Somail which was recommended. We enjoyed a good bike ride around town but basically nothing is open. So much for fresh bread!


There were a couple of times where the canal crossed over a river. It was very surreal to be as if driving a car over a bridge but actually to be on a boat, on the water!


See snails.
We had better luck at the Capestang weekly market.


A huge wok of buddling mussel soup. Smelt delicious but at 8:45am it just felt too early for my stomach. So we added fish, cold meats, salad, and pastries to the pantry just to be sure we didn’t starve.



We also made a stop at one of the many wineries on the way. The boys went in to see if it was open. When they didn’t return after 20 mins we figured it was open and they were having fun. Their report back was hilarious. The woman at the winery had no English and they no French. Hearing their description they realised they sounded like an American Indian in the old movies .. something like... “We travel... long way... many moons (Big arms waving included) across water... on a plane... on a boat... etc! They then spotted a world map and proceeded to point out the wine regions in Australia and explain why they don’t make wine in the north. Anyway.... they walked away happy with 8 bottles under their arms and delighted with their achievement.

We have been preparing all meals onboard and the facilities are great. There is a double bedroom with ensuite at each end of the boat with a separate kitchen and lounge in the middle.



We passed our final port of Port Cassifieres late afternoon of the 3rd day and on recommendation of the boat company headed toward the Etang and Marseillan.


A village we passed. As we had been going along Steve had taken on the job of leaping ashore to catch the ropes and loop them around the bollards. This was no easy job as the shore was often uneven or steep banks. At times with long grass which made it difficult for him to gauge where the ground was.


There is a famous section we had to pass through. It is a series of 7 locks in a row going down a hill. As it turned out tying our large boat to the shore took considerable strength. So the boys took this role while Michelle and I manoeuvred the boat in and out of the locks. For the 7 consecutive I ended up at the helm.


We gathered an audience as we slowly came down the hill. It was quite a challenge for us all and when we finally got the the bottom there was a group of teenage school kids watching. Michelle and I put a arm in the air and shouted ‘Viva Australie’! The girls of the group shouted ‘Viva la Damme’! So I guess they were proud that it appeared the women were handling the boat. The reality was the boys had to hold it in the locks via the ropes while the water surged out to lower us.


This was taken as our canal went over a road! You can see the cars coming through a roundabout to pass under us. Crazy!


A very cute little car we saw in Beziers. While this town was the largest and we were able to do some laundry and post a weblog in a net cafe, it didn’t have a great feel and we were happy to soon be heading out.