Home again

Canberra has greeted us with some serious weather - yesterday was a max of 7 deg with light snow. After 35deg+ in Hong Kong last week it's quite a shock. Needless to say we are not having much outdoor activity but the house is always cosy.

Hong Kong was great - just enough time to catch up on some sleep, some early morning walks before it got too hot then ferry and tram rides later in the day to see the sights without getting too hot. One of the best sights was from our 11th floor hotel room which had spectacular views across the harbour.

Spent a great evening with friends from the Chinese Uni where Phil worked some years back - good to catch up with them again and hear about the way things are developing in HK since its return to China.

Homeward bound

It's our last day in Europe - we leave for Hong Kong tonight. We have been in East Sussex for the past week with Christy and Andy and had a great time. During the week Christy heard that she has passed her A & E specialist exams (only 35 of 115 candidates passed) and we were very happy for her - she has worked long and hard to get through them.

We had a couple of exhilarating and wet afternoons on the water sailing their catarmaran - it is lovely to be able to sail outside your front windows!! Also managed 4 long walks this week - mostly along the coast but 1 over the South Downs near Glyndebourne.

Now it's time to say goodbye and head home - always an emotionally mixed up time - nice to return to family and friends in Australia and to home and garden but very hard to leave the girls on this side of the globe. But then there is always next year!!

The day the beach came to paris

Parisians who can’t get to the beach over the summer have no need to fear because last week the beach came to Paris. For a month each summer, a section of road along the Seine – maybe a couple of kilometers – is closed and tons of sand is brought in along with a demountaqble 50 metre swimming pool, palm trees, deck chairs and the like to create a very attractive beach – a great place to sit and relax and watch the activity on the water from huge cargo carrying barges to all sorts of pleasure craft. There are also sections for beach volleyball, boules, art and craft, kayaking, rollerblading and music and performances of all types through the day and late into the night. People of all ages were having agreat time the day we went - it was hot and there were loads of water features to cool you down - from avenues of fine mist to walk through, to trickling fountains.

They use the roads by the river quite imaginatively – every Sunday the road by the river on the south bank is closed to motorized traffic and makes a great path for joggers, cyclists, roller bladers and just people out for a stroll.

Sunday July 17

Strolled along the river yesterday morning for the 11am service at our old church – the American Church in Paris – www.acparis.org. It’s 3 years since we worshipped there last and by the nature of such a church, there were only one or two familiar faces. All three of the ministers are new. We were chatting to a chap from Indiana over coffee who works part of the year in Paris – he says that when he comes here to church he always thinks that this is what heaven will be like – people from over 70 countries, from all sorts of Christian denominations worshipping together with no concern about colour or denomination.

In the evening we went to Notre Dame Cathedral – packed out with worshippers. Unfortunately my French limits my understanding of much of what is said but I can still appreciate the atmosphere of this beautiful place where God has been worshipped for over 800 years. The music on the organ was magnificent and the church was filled with the most delicate colours from the stained glass windows.

Another hot day so we ended it having a drink on one of the barges moored near Notre Dame watching the sun fade on its magnificent southern façade and then a Lebanese meal in what must be one of the smallest restaurants in Paris – just three tables with two places each, ours being on the very edge of the narrow road.

Hanging out on the Pont des Arts

Of all the bridges that cross the Seine in Paris our favourite by miles is the Pont des Arts. It connects the Louvre to the Academy, looks out over the beautiful Ile de la Cite. It’s a pedestrian bridge – no cars. Evenings this past week have been very warm and each night there are hundreds of people on the bridge. We often take a picnic meal and just hang out for a few hours. There are lots of others picnicking, but also people singing, artists painting, people on their own reading or just watching the world go by.

Last night we chatted to a guy from Sicily – his English was about as limited as our Italian but he was happy to share our picnic. The night before we met a young man from New York who had just come to Paris for the first time a few days ago – he has spent each night till about 3 am on the bridge and doesn’t want to leave. He has been building straw and plaster houses for low income families in South America for the last few years and wants to see about doing the same in Europe.

Earlier in the week a gorgeous young woman was singing jazz and blues for an hour or so accompanied by a very good guitarist – She told us she was from Russia and had been taking some singing classes in Paris – she is busking to get her fare home – at the rate people were putting money into her red straw hat, she’ll be back in Russia quite soon.

Eighty year old man + Swiss Army Knife = National Security Threat

July 14 was Bastille Day here so we took ourselves down to the Champs Elysees to watch the big military parade even though displays of war making hardware are not quite our thing. By the time we arrived, people were about 10 deep along the route and before we could cross the barricades to join them we had to have a thorough body- and pack-search – not surprising in the light of recent terrorist activity in UK. Phil had our back pack with the makings of our picnic lunch and before long our Swiss Army Knife was identified – we have remembered to remove it from carry on luggage on planes in recent years (alas several pairs of our scissors and nail files have already gone to the big sharps container in the sky) but didn’t think it would be a problem at a street parade. I was minded to comment to the gents in uniform that if they felt an eighty year old with a Swiss Army Knife constituted a security threat then they really were in big trouble but this didn’t seem the time for smart one-liners – tensions are quite high at present. HUGE numbers of people in uniform have been on the streets, at train stations and generally cruising about over the last week.

In spite of all that we enjoyed being at the parade. A lovely man near us had brought his step ladder and so we chatted to him and he let us climb up now and then for a peek.

The moral of this tale is that next time you go out leave your knife behind and take your ladder instead.

Addicted to Sudoku

Not sure whether newspapers in Oz have caught up with the number puzzles which are almost as big as Harry Potter in UK( Speaking of Harry Potter, JK Rowling is rumoured to have earned 25 million pounds on the first day sales of her latest book – no wonder she can afford to buy 150 miles of Tasmanian coastline – I wonder what she plans to do with it?). We love Sudokus because unlike crosswords which require knowledge to solve them, Sudoku requires only some number skills and a lot of perseverance. Most of the quality dailies run a Sudoku each day and you can buy books of them as well as getting extra puzzles from one of the many websites – try http://guardian.co.uk/sudoku I got fooled when I managed to solve the first one which I tried in about an hour – admittedly it was rated ‘easy’ – but we’ve failed dismally with the next two. The one in yesterday’s paper was rated ‘diabolical’ so we won’t even attempt that until we can restore a bit of self confidence.

Blogjam

What a disaster. We thought we had posted several blogs in the last few weeks only to discover that our non_existant command of the german language had resulted in our saving them as drafts rather than posting them _ then to add to our woes, the first cybercafe we used in Paris was run by a japanese couple who had all the computers set on their language and couldn,t change it either to english or french. Hopefully all is remedied and you can now scroll down to find out what we have been doing.

You will realise that we were not in London during the recent bombings but we still are very saddened by them. it is hard to understand why anyone would target innocent people going about their everyday lives. There is a particularly poignant report in today,s Guardian newspaper of a speech made by the mother of a 26 year old young man killed on his way to work. We appreciated text messages and phone calls from our family and friends to check that we were safe = strangely, that was how we first knew that anything had happened.

We have been in UNESCO today and look forward to Bastille Day celebrations tomorrow. Then one more week in Paris before going to UK.

Bad Wurttemberg

I am considering promoting Baden-Wurttemberg to holiday makers as a rival destination to Tuscany and Provence - OK, it doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily but it really is very beautiful. We have now completed two long walks - around 15kms each and they were just delightful.
We set off Monday from our village apartment and walked through wheat, barley, sugar beet fields and vineyards to the Schloss (castle) at Weiler. The village was cleaning up after a party in the square - we could see the fireworks from our window on Saturday night. On Sunday after church in our nearest town, Sinsheim, we’d strolled along the stream that runs through the town and there was a farmers market, jazz band and some sort of wine-tasting event happening. We realize how few communal spaces are left in our suburbs in Canberra. These lovely spaces in so many European towns and villages are constantly used for formal and informal community get-togethers which must encourage the development of social capital, fast disappearing in most developed countries.
Tuesday we drove to Baden Baden, the sophisticated spa town After the obligatory coffee and people watching, we took off on ‘PanoramaWeg’ - the 40 kms circular walking path through the foothills around the town. We walked one section and then took the mountain railway several kms to the top of a mountain - absolutely spectacular views back over Baden Baden and surrounding towns. Then we completed our bit of the circuit. Lovely to be able to walk through a northern bit of the Black Forest.
Wednesday we set off for the Tubingen, home of Germany’s oldest university (1477) - the town population is 8,000 but there are 25,000 students - it’s vacation at the moment so it was hard to imagine what it would be like in term time - it wasn’t clear where they would all live. The town is beautiful cobbled alleys, stunning half timbered houses, a Schloss on the hill in whose kitchen in 1869, Friedrich Miescher isolated the substance we now know as DNA. As I was saying, we set off for Tubingen but on the way saw some interesting buildings off to one side and drove into Bebenhausen - it doesn’t get a mention in our guide book. The whole village is now a national monument surrounding a 12th century Cistercian Abbey. It was substantially restored for use by King Friedrich in the 19th century and was the home of King Wilhelm II and his wife in the 20th.
The one failing of Germany as a tourist destination over Tuscany and Provence has to do with food. Traditional fare is hearty in the extreme - we had an excellent meal of Wild Boar in Bonn but it isn’t the sort of food you would want to eat every day of the week. Outside the tourist areas and the university towns there doesn’t seem to be the café/wine-bar culture where you can have a drink and watch the world go by - nor is there the abundance of fresh food street markets although we have been to excellent ones in Tubingen and Bonn.
On Friday we take the train to Paris so the next BLOG will come from there.

July 2 - Near Heidelberg

As you can see, we’ve been having just too much fun to get to writing our blog.
Just finished a week in Bonn where we stayed with Phil’s longtime friend and colleague, Rupert Maclean and his wife Michiko. Rupert heads up the UNESCO-UNEVOC Centre in Bonn - Phil is working on several books and also on some articles for Rupert.

On Wednesday we had an excellent meal with them overlooking the Rhine and each attempted to select the 5 best meals we’ve ever eaten. Here they are:

Rupert:
Rules, Covent Garden, London
Felix in the Peninsular Hotel, Hong Kong (make sure you get a table upstairs by the window)
Lord Jim in the Oriental Hotel, Bangkok
Hole-in-the-Wall, Bristol
Mum’s Indian cooking ( Rupert’s family were Scots who lived in India for 400 years =yes, that is 4 hundred= before coming to Australia in the late 1940’s so plenty of time to perfect Indian cooking)

Michiko:
Ritz, Paris
Bendick - I think in Luxembourg during their recent 10day E-Type Jaguar car rally
Sushi in Seattle
Hot Springs meals in Japan
Hang on Michiko, that’s only 4!!!!!

Phil:
Tour d’Argent, Paris
Foliage, London
Lamole, near Greve Italy
Guzzanello, near Lucca Italy

Kelli:
Stephanie’s Melbourne (sadly no longer)
Fee & Me, Launceston
The Three Chimneys, Isle of Skye
Louis XIII, Paris
St Julien, near Bordeaux

Yesterday we drove south along the Rhine through beautiful towns notably Boppard and St Goar but both beaten by the small town of Rhens perched neatly and unobtrusively by the river and with some lovely houses. The sequence is improbably picturesque with the river bordered by very steep banks on either side, and vineyards climbing the slopes to be crowned by castle ruins on the peaks. On to Bingen at the end of the Rhine sequence, the home of Hildegarde of Bingen, saint, feminist and musician, then at breakneck speeds on the Autobahn (climaxed by an hour-long traffic snarl at the end of our journey, traveling just 10kms) to our home for the next week - an apartment near Heidelberg. Weather is a bit dodgy at the moment so will postpone our long walks till it picks up a bit - might even find time today to locate an internet café and get this posted.

PS Weather has picked up considerably so we are now strolling around the wonderful town of Heidelberg and may stay on for the evening.

Midsummers Day

June 21 - Midsummers Day or Midwinter if you’re in the other hemisphere.
Our week in the west ended with an overnight stop at a B & B in Oughterard near Galway before returning to Dublin on Sunday. The B & B was run by a couple who had spent 15 years running a similar place in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney so were delighted to talk about their time in Oz. Along with the B & B they run a fishing business - Donal takes parties of fisherpersons out on the lake or fly-fishing from the shore - he says fishing on Lake Jindabyne came a close second. We would have liked to spend more time in that area - it is very beautiful country - lots of big lakes and good walking paths - maybe next year. On the way to Galway, we drove along the coast through an area called The Burren - an amazingly stark rocky part of the country - a real contrast to the rolling green farmland we had become used to in Kerry. Along the way we stopped off to walk along the cliff tops at the Cliffs of Moher - very dramatic.
Then on Sunday night, a wonderful meal with Richie’s family in Dublin. Never before have we had a garden deck built especially for our visit - made us feel like royalty! Actually, I think Richie’s mum used the occasion as leverage on his dad to get a long anticipated project completed - the weather did its bit and we sat on the deck in warm sunlight till close to 10pm.
Today we are off to London for a few days with Phil’s niece Bronwyn then a couple of nights in Oxford.

Light a candle

Most days we visit a church or two and often light a candle and pray for friends of ours in Canberra who were bereaved recently. Yesterday beside the candle holder at St Marys Cathedral in Killarney was this piece written by Bo Setterlind of Reykjavik:

Light the light of frankness
In the darkness of fear.
Light the light of justice
In the darkness of corruption.
Light the light of faith
In the darkness of denial.
Light the light of life
In the darkness of despair.
Light the light of love
In the darkness of hatred and death.
Light the light.

A interesting feature of St Marys is that it shares its architect, Augustus Pugin, with several churches in Australia including one at Berrima just 150kms from Canberra and Oatlands in Tasmania. Pugin is probably best known for designing the interiors of the Houses of Parliament in London. He was a devout Catholic and when a close friend of his was appointed the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Tasmania in the mid C19, he loaded a boat with architectural drawings, models, clerical robes, church furniture and communion silverware, all of which he had designed himself ( there was an exhibition of some of it in Canberra about 5 years ago) – his churches for the colonies were simple but with elegant gothic styling. So it was fascinating yesterday to see his work on a grand scale in Killarney..

Ireland - the south west

Picked up a brand new Citroen last Friday for 10 days of exploring the south and west. Nice little car – good size for the VERY narrow country lanes. Spent a few hours at Glendaloch ( thank you David O’Sullivan for the suggestion) – combines a beautiful valley with two lakes and the remains of a monastery which goes back to St Kevin, a 5th century hermit and priest who sought solitude in the area. Interestingly the local St Kevin’s Catholic Church has built 6 small hermitages for people who want to spend time in quietness and reflection. It is certainly a very tranquil place, between the coach loads of tourists.

We stayed overnight at Dungarvan which is a very attractive waterfront and market town. Our B&B was a 200 year old house built by the Duke of Devonshire asa holiday home, with great water views and an excellent breakfast mostly of food produced in its garden.

A couple of outstanding seaside towns on the Saturday – Kinsale and Glendore. Beautiful locations. Glendore is tiny but with a delightful location looking down across a bay. Then late afternoon we arrived at Kenmare where we have a cottage for the week – locating it was quite a challenge – just as well is stays light till well after 10pm – we would never have found it in the dark!! It is delightful – about 10 kms out of town, overlooking the sea and with everything we need for a comfortable stay – actually, with 3 bedrooms, it has much more than we need.

Over the past few days we’ve driven around the Ring of Kerry – a magnificent 180 km road around the perimeter of the Kerry peninsular, taken a boat to Ilnacullin Island ( a remarkable gardening feat dating back almost 100 years which turned a rocky barren island into a lush temperate garden thanks to the warm Gulf stream and huge amounts of money and effort – unfortunately we visited Sissinghurst just a week before – Sissinghurst is lovingly tendered by a few paid staff and a massive army of volunteers who keep it in tip top condition – Ilnalcullin by contrast could have done with a bit of TLC but is still an amazing achievement – Sorry, Malcolm Skilbeck, that we weren’t as enamoured as you). We have also completed a 5 hour walk along a section of the Kerry Way – an excellent walk – a bit steep in places but we took our time. Heaps of wild rhododendrons, fuschias and foxgloves looking just fabulous at the moment. The one negative about the walk was that we didn’t do the one we intended – the plus was that it was very good none the less – the map states “the waymarking is intentionally discreet” – invisible more like!!!!! Who cares if we did section 8 when we planned to do section 1?

More cloud about and the forecast looks a bit dodgy – max today a brisk 14 deg and its midsummer next week.

Dublin

Dublin

Last Tuesday we flew from London to Dublin with Ryan Air, one of the low cost airlines that fly all over Europe these days. We opted for the more expensive fare of 3.99 Euros each ( instead of the .99 cent flight which left at a rather unsociable hour) – plus taxes, of course – who will heed the messages of the environmental damage caused by flying when you can flit across Europe at prices like these?

Our arrival in Ireland coincided with the first real summer weather so far – temps have hovered around 20 deg with enough sunshine for many of the locals to get quite sunburnt. Dublin is a very lively and prosperous city of just over 1 million. The economic prosperity linked to massive amounts of EU money flowing into the country has had a huge impact – I hadn’t been to Dublin for about 10 years and can see the changes – cranes working everywhere putting up new buildings, constructing new roads – locals say that it has come at a cost – it is now the second most expensive place to live in the EU zone after Finland and life has moved up several notches to become more competitive and stressful.

Kimberley and Richie took time off work to show us around and we had a meal with Richie’s parents – a delightful couple whom we will spend more time with next weekend.
Kimberley has settled into Dublin very happily – they have a lovely apartment ( at enormous cost!!) just 15 mins walk from the centre of Dublin. There is a wonderful new light rail system called the LUAS which has a stop 5 mins walk from their home and drops K very near her work. Why can’t Canberra put in something like the LUAS – it is very efficient – runs every 5 to 10 mins for about 18 hrs a day, is quiet, clean and very popular. K is very happy working with Microsoft – she is on a 4 month contract at present and hopes to make that permanent.

Three generations of Richie’s family have worked for the Guinness brewery in Dublin so it was the first stop on our itinerary – they have created a very interesting exhibition centre in their original brewery – the tour ends on the 7th floor with a glass of Guinness in the magnificent circular Gravity Bar – glass walls allow uninterrupted views all over the city – it was wonderful on a clear sunny day – Arthur Guinness started the brewery in the mid 18th century and was a social reformer as well as an enormously successful businessman – her was the first employer in Ireland to give workers paid holidays, sick leave and retirement and widows pensions. He also provided good housing for his workers along with medical and dental services – much like the Rowntrees in the UK. It led to comments from family to their unmarried daughters of “Marry a Guinness worker – he’s worth money dead or alive”. Richie’s great grandfather was a temporary employee there at the start of the first world war. The company encouraged workers to enlist in the British army by promising them a permanent job on their return. Unfortunately Richie’s GG was killed at Flanders but the company still gave his widow a pension for life.

UK

Just spent two weeks with Christy and Andy at Seaford – about 10 miles east of Brighton. We have got into the habit of being lulled to sleep to the sound of waves lapping on the shingle. Christy and Andy both had some time off during our stay so we were able to enjoy some good long walks, meals out and generally relaxing together.

During our visit, Twixxy, a 14 foot catamaran was added to their stable of watersports equipment. http://www.hobiecatcentre.co.uk/pooleindex.htm We had several frustrating days of very strong winds but on Monday after work we were able to launch her and sail for about an hour. Very exhilarating. Hopefully we’ll be able to sail some more when we return at the end of July.

Spent a lovely day at Sissinghurst, http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/places/sissinghurst/ , Vita Sackville West’s magnificent garden in Kent – the gardens and fields are unbelievable green and lush – a real treat for the eyes after drought stricken Canberra.

On Monday, we brought our long time friend Ruth Beasley Murray across from Hove for the day. It was great to spend time with her. She is just as bright and lively as ever and it was lovely to see her looking so well.

Weather was fairly patchy – some beautiful sunny days but also some cool showery. We managed to get in several long walks – one of our favourites is along the Vanguard Way http://www.sevensisters.org.uk/ the fantastic cliff walk over the Seven Sisters.

On Tuesday we flew to Dublin to catch up with Kimberley and Richie – they are both doing well and look great - more about Dublin next time.

Singapore

I've been trying to post a photo journal here - I though it would be more interesting than just words but I haven't succeeded yet. Phil's grandaughter Nicky has a great one in her blog (peknk@blogspot.com) and I thought 'Anything Nicky can do I can do too' but obviously I was wrong. I haven't given up but will resort to words for now.

We had a great 2 days in Singapore - we had anticipated that it would just be a chance to sleep, exercise and catch up with friends before the 13 hour leg to london. But it was very enjoyable. We did a lot of local sightseeing - all the usual things like the Arab area, Little India and China town, dinner on one of the river boats, a Singapore Sling at the Long Bar in Raffles.

We spent our last evening with the Peppers, our neighbours from Kookaburra Ridge who have been in Singapore since January. It was great to see them setteld in their luxury 14th floor apartment complete with delightful Filipino maid, Angie - I think they'll want to bring her home with them in 3 years time - she is already part of the family.

Then on Thursday we came to England and brought some VERY HOT weather with us - 31 deg on Friday - doesn't look set to last but we'll enjoy the sunny days while we can. Yesterday we drove to Poole - Andy and Christy bought a new Catermaran which gets delivered on Wednesday so we'll have a bit of fun on the water with that. They are both looking great. Also spoke to Kimberely on Friday at the end of her first week working for Microsoft in Dublin. She had just got back from 2 days in London and was on a high - extremely happy with her new job and the prospects so that is good news.

Off to the local Baptist church with Christy and Andy shortly. Do tell us your news on our usual aol or anu email. Love from us both Kelli and Phil

Summer in Europe

We're off to Europe in a few days.

We are the only people we know on this side of 30 who have a blog. We enjoy reading the grandchildrens' so much that we decided to give it a go. Also we are off to Europe in a week so instead of emailing family and friends while we're away, they can log on here if they wish and find out what we are up to - that way we don't clog up their email inbox.
So here is our itinerary:
May 23 - Australia to Singapore
May 25 - Singapore to London
June 7 - Dublin
June 10 - Kerry via Waterford
June 19 Dublin via Galway
June 22 - London
June 24 - Oxfordshire
June 26 - Bonn
July 1 - Heidelberg
July 8 - Paris
July 23 - UK
August 1 - London to Hong Kong
August 5- Back to Sydney
August 8 - Home.

Please keep in touch while we're away - phone or text our mobile or email on our usual address.