9.5.08 to 10.5.08

9.5.08
Au Revoir France, and we headed to Barcelona, Spain.

I referred back to my diary and saw we made a few stops before reaching Barcelona. 1st stop was at Montelimar (still in France, which is famous for Lavender and nougat) There's multitude of things sold which is related to lavendar and nougat). One thing I noted was the squat toilet at this stop. I thought squat toilet were only to be found in less developed countries.

2nd stop was at Pont Du Gard which was an aquaduct built during the Roman Empire. To me, it's a good photographic spot and I don't think much about the whole construction.


By the 3rd stop, we had passed the Spanish border. We didn't get to the campsite until 7pm. My feelings of Spain was it's 'terracota' and dusty. Don't ask me but that's the two thing I think of when we past the border. It's also started to drizzle after we crossed the border.
Below is our campsite. We get our own room this time.Again, room is basic. it was like a terraced cabins. This time toilet is in adjacent building so we do have to walk there. Our campsite is located by the sea, we checked out the beach but the weather was bad that I only snapped a quick photo. The camp rep welcomed us with corn chips and guacomole and salsa dips, and sangria. Dinner was taco with spanish rice and salads. From memory, we think the food in this campsite is not that great.

10.5.08
Next day it was still raining. We packed our umbrellas and off we go to the city of Barcelona. First stop was at the Olympic complex where Olympic'92 was held.
Then we had a 'walkabout' tour at the Gothic Quarter. GQ is the 'old town of barcelona'.Many other tours were also covering the Gothic quarters, amongst them was a biking tour. We were shown previous royal residence, church, town halls, etc..Some walls even showed battle scars (bullet holes and cannons perhaps?)

Then it was up to us to roam the city. We were given a map and the pick up point tonight was at Port Olympic.

We started on our own at La Ramblas. It is like the centre of Barcelona. It's an interesting 'mall' strip ..It sells all sorts of things from pets (tortoises), souvenirs and paintings ,to flowers. We then took the metro to the Sagrada Familia.

What can I say ...Sagrada Familia is a huge majestic stone cathedral which is still work in progress and has the oddest shapes. It's chief designer is non other than Antonio Gaudi. The man is a genius and there are so many of his works in the city of Barcelona. We only covered Sagrada Familia as the rain was really stopping us from going to the other spots.

We were wanting to go up the spiral of the Cathedral but the trip was cancelled as the weather was bad. so We were extremely disappointed. We still went 'inside' the cathedral to check the unfinished work. Jake said he felt a little cheated to see scaffolds and little forklifts inside the cathedral.

Anyhow, below are more facades of Sagrada Familia. The old one has intricate sculptures on them and the new facade has a more futuristic sculpting style. According to the museum of the cathedral, each chief architect who took over will incorporate their own style into Gaudi's existing design (hence the futuristic sculptures in the new facade). Gaudi also incorporates natural elements such as animals (seen in turtles on the huge columns) and fruits on his sculptures.

We then took metro back to the La Ramblas area. We went to the San Josep mercat(St Joseph market). It's totally recommended. IT's the most colourful place which sells everything from meat, seafood to fruits and candies..The place were jampacked with locals and tourists. We decided to have lunch in a tiny restaurant in the market. It sells seafood and the seafood looked absolutely fresh. The waiting time was a good 15-20 mins just to get our seats. The seafood platter was absolutely delicious. Seafood was succulent, sweet and so fresh.

Below is more photos of the markets.

After lunch, our mission was to get some souvenirs. We decided earlier in the trip we will try to get a small toy for N from each country. There's lots of Gaudi inspired type souvenirs (mosaic lizard, colourful ceramics). I ended up with a soccer ball for N and a gaudi inspired type Cross for myself. Bought a cape thingie for my mom too.

The shopping were pretty good in Barcelona too. there were MNG, and the Sfera department store and all sorts. Anyways my only little regret is I couldn't find the El Corte Ingles department store. I saw nearly everyone (the locals)on the street carrying a shopping bag from that department store. Jake and I kept our lookout for the dept store but we didn't find it. Maybe because we couldn't read Spainish properly, we didn't find it:S We tried asking but were having difficulties being understood and understanding the people.

We managed to stock some groceries at Carre Fourre though. Found out Ferrero Rocher was cheap in Barcelona so we stock quite a bit of that for our 'junk' supplies. After putting the supplies in our coach, we were on our own again. We decided to venture the city a little further before meeting the rest of the tour group at Porto Olimpico (Port Olympic).

We took the metro to Port Olympic but got kind of lost because our map didn't really say where it was. We asked several locals who all gave us different directions. The rain were getting pretty bad and the wind was unbelievably strong. Our umbrella broke by then.Took us nearly 2 hours to get there. Gosh, it was a tad scary but God was good. We got there in one piece despite our umbrella in several pieces. We were drenched though.

Above was our tapas and paella dinner. Jake's comment: Not recommended. Unreasonably expensive and the worst part, they are not tasty and too Salty.

I was really glad to be back to camp for a really hot shower later that night.

7.5.08 to 8.5.08

7.5.08
For the next 2 days we spent it in the Beaujolais wine region. We arrived at Beaujolais in the afternoon. 3 other contiki buses were to arrive later that day. Contiki owned a huge chateau in that region and it's a big sandstone house with its own swimming pool, bar, and lots of room.(Dorm style).

After we arrived, we went to a cellar for wine tasting. See pic below. Leon attempted to push the 'grape crusher' thingie.

Around the Chateau, the views are very rustic. Unfortunately the pool was closed for maintenance. Luckily there's nice outdoor sofa on the chateau compound.

Dinner on the first night was pork ribs with salad. It was very yummy and it was one of the places were the tables had table clothes and kinda restaurant like. I had fond memories of dinner here. With the tour, everyone's expected to help out, so everyone volunteers to help in the kitchen once through out the entire tour, some people twice. (I am not sure what the arrangement is like in shorter tours). Ours run for 45 days so they expect fair bit of volunteers.

Below are just floras from the region.

8.5.08

Today we were divided into groups and we were to launch to go to a picnic at a location known as 'top of the world'. We were supplied map, and our lunch.

It took us 1hour to get there. Some ppl took 30mins? It was quite a hike. We passed by a town called Theize where the houses are all brick and clay looking. and Some people's window has pretty heart patterns on it. Nearly everyone plants gerbera on their window box.

When we got up, we were tired. Gianni, our rockstar even brought his guitar with him. Imagine going up rocky paths ...Lunch was baguettte and ham and brie with orange and water. Everywhere we go, french baguette are just so good to eat ...We can store it for a day or two and it still tastes fresh and soft.After that it was free activity, so we explored the area a little before going back to the Chateau.

Below is a collage of our dinner (chicken and veggies and dessert was sorbet) , our dorm like room. It was very small room but good thing is we can lock our own doors. My bed looks out to a big tree which leaves rustled each time the wind blows.

6.5.08

6.5.08
Today, breakfast was cereal,scrambled egg and bacon with baguette.
We are heading to Versailles, the royal chateau for half day then the rest of the time (of nearly 2 hours in Paris) and followed by going back to camp ground and then depart for our first excursions (Dining in a french restaurant).

Below is excerpt from my diary:
"Versaille was quite disappointing for me. I think it's to do with the overall crowds. It looked like a huge bus station with so many tour buses and thousands of tourists. Again, lots of street hawkers with the effiel tower key rings and scarves with 'paris' written all over it.

We decided not to enter the palace due to the long queue. I checked out the bookshop and only limited literatures are in English so I left."

We did a quick scan of the garden and snapped some pics. Weather was pretty hot, so we were lazy to walk further into the symetrically pruned gardens.

We then went to explore the town of Versaille and bought our lunch from this lovely patiserrie shop. I nearly want every single cake in the shop. But we bought ourselves custard tarts and something more practical for lunch.

Following Versailles, we drove into the city of Paris again. It was really only for 2 hours and to enable us to do what we have not covered in the previous days. We decided to buy some treats from the Paul shop. We bought some macaroons and pastries and etc..

So we walked from Avenue des Champs-Élysées to the D'orsay Quay. D'orsay Quay is where we will get picked up again. On our way to pick up point, I saw a model posing on the middle of Avenue des Champs -Élysées doing a photoshoot. The photographer had a huge SLR camera and kept pointing to her and instruct her. The stylists were standing next to the photographer and the model was at least 6 ft tall and she was in heels.

We nearly ran out of time going to the pick up point. I felt like I was on amazing race. I really don't want to miss the pick up time. FYI, the coach will wait for 10mins max and if you don't get in the coach on time, the tour manager will assume that you have your own plans and you will figure out your own transportation to get back to the camp site.

Back on the campsite, we prepared to go out on our first excursion.In a contiki tour, there are extra excursions that one get to choose to sign up. The first excursion was dining at french restaurant. Below were our dinner. Entre was escargot and fish terraine. For main, I had cod with cream sauce while Jake had orange duck. We were entertained by the man in accordion too. The toilet left much to be desired.

After dinner, it was the next excursion to see cabaret show. Me and Jake did not sign up for this and decided to check out Statue of Liberty by using the metro/subway.

We were dropped off at the Moulin Rouge area. See inset in the sampler below.

Photo sampler showing a french florist shop, their cinema with the billboard in french, typical french balcony on their building and the Moulin Rouge area.


Above were the metro that we use. We were a little apprehensive given that everything's in French and it was very quiet and uncrowded, compared to London tube. We didn't get to Statute of Liberty as one of us had tummy bug. We were half way there and turned back to Moulin Rouge area.

That ends our night.

4.5.08-5.5.08

Below is my long overdue travelogue of my Euro trip. Originally, I meant to update prior to the anniversay and then it's on the anniversary and now post anniversary.
I dedicate this travelogue to A. Hopefully you find the photos captivating enough to visit some of the countries.
We had a few options to choose with regards to our Euro trip. Earlier on, we have narrowed it down to using guided tour to avoid too much plannings and worry about connecting rails or flights, accommodation etc etc . Then it was to narrow down what tours to join. Cut long story short, we were down to Tralfagar vs Contiki after reading other people's travelogue and also speaking to somebody I know who joined many years ago. Tralfagar group stays in hotel while Contiki stays in a mixture of accommodation.
Finally the decision factors lie on:
-Most countries visited
-Duration of the trip (We wanted the longest possible tour given our time frame)
-Most value for money

Tralfagar did not meet the first and second factor. So we chose Contiki in the end.
4.5.08
Our tour departed real early in the morning from London to Dover. We stayed in Royal National Hotel (nearest tube is Russell Sq) which is like the 'hq' for Contiki in London.

We were gathered by 6am and started to get our bags weighed.( we were allowed 20kg)
Our tour members were made up of 50% aussies, 30% canadians, 18% NZers, 1% Americans,1% Korean. Our tour manager is Kiralee from Aussie and our coach driver is Attila from Hungary.
First destination was to get to Dover to board on ferry to France. In Paris, we stayed approximately 20mins (10km) away from the city. The area is called Joinville Le Pont.

We were greeted by the camp rep with escargot and french champagne. Below is our accomodation, basic and small but clean. One unit has two rooms with one ensuite.

5.4.08
Free day in Paris. We decided to forgo dinner at camp ground and optimise the time we had in Paris.
Our coach stopped us at a few spots (namely the Les Invalides, Eiffel tower )and we get dropped off at Avenue des Champs-Élysées .We were provided with a map with places of interests.
The places I want to tick off my list to visit were:
LV Shop :P
Arc de Triumpe
Place De La Concorde:Obélisque de Luxor
Cathedrale de Notre Dame
Musée du Louvre
Eiffel Tower
Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, Paris (Sacred Heart Cathedral)
There're so much to do and see in Paris, to me, everything about Paris fascinates me. The fashion, the language, the architecture.. hehehe..to start with, it isn't even my favourite country but it is easy to fall in love with this city.

Walking along Avenue des Champs-Élysées and saw these sculptures. Below are just random pictures I took while we walk on Avenue des Champs-Élysées .

Above are the Place de la Concorde. It is famous for the Eygptian Obelisk. Below is again photo sampler I took on the way to Lourve Museum. More pics of Musee Lourve. Again, there were throngs of tourists and we decided not to queue to see the famous Mona Lisa.

Photo collage of around Paris. Below is my random sampler.

Cafe bistros aplenty in Paris, and we were told, the seats outside are double the price as it also serves for people watching. The rental bicycle in the city. The pigeons by the Notre dame. The hotel near Notre Dame (typical french architecture with the little balcony), trees on the street and finally the narrow thoroughway at the Musee Lourve .

Below are the places on our checklist.

On Republic Avenue, it was filled with chain shop type stores. Bata being one of them. heeheh I can't help but take pic of me inside Bata store. Had lunch nearby (had suzette crepe)
On the way to Notre Dame, we passed by this flower market. There were all sorts knick-knacks and I also saw orchids kept in glasshouse.

Cathedral of Notre Dame is littered with tourists and also pigeons. Tourist have to watch out for gypsies. They would ask for monies or pick pockets.

After Notre Dame, we proceed to walk to Eiffel Tower. We past by Musee d'Orsay that house the famous Monet and Renoir paintings amongst the ones that I know of. The museum had closed by the time we got there. We then past by obviously some government building as they were waiting for VIPS to come out. We decided to nose around together with some other people and wait to see if we could catch a glimpse of the VIPS but after like 15 -20mins, the VIPS still had not come out of the building. We are obviously no papparazzi material , so we continue our walks to the Eiffel Tower.

The must go place for us, the Eiffel Tower. Again I wasn't comfortable at the Eiffel ground because there're lots of street hawkers trying to force you to buy cheesy 'eiffel related souvenirs'.

Note: There are 2 levels of lifts to get to the Eiffel Tower. The queues are long and we are advised to buy our level 1 and 2 tickets from the ground levels.

That ends Day 2 for us.

N's 2nd haircut

N's hair is getting long so we decided to give him a trim. This time, we commissioned his uncle Jo to cut trim the hair. We did this all in the backyard with modified bib and pegs. Not bad for a DIY job eh?

What's growing in my garden

I have been killing lots of plants in the last 2 years, thanks to me neglecting them.
This year, when anything blooms I felt really excited as it felt so rewarding watching the plants grow despite me giving them very little care.
The chilli plant this year has fruited, and for the first time, my succulent bloom a brocolli looking flower.
The lemon grass has also successfully survived in the veggie bed.
Lastly, my one and only blooming cymbidium orchid. (this year it gave out two spikes).
What's growing in your garden?

Quinoa, Rice, Pumpkin and carrot porridge

Here's my attempt to cook healthy, wholesome food for N.
I used organic quinoa (pronoucned as 'keen-wa'), organic pumpkin and carrot and cook them together in lots of chicken stock.

Splish Splash

March '09

Taken at South Bank, Brisbane.

N the parrot

Pic taken at Southbank.


N's like a parrot now. He would copy whatever we say. Below took place last nite.

Me: Dear (to Jake), take him (N) to shower.

N: Dear, Dear..

Me: !?!?!?!?!

What do you do in your swimming tog?

Obviously to go swimming in.
N managed to do several other things besides going swimming in his tog. He helped me weed, then checked out my plant, checked out the fish, and played with the moth.