DUNKERQUE 20-22 April (with a touch of BELGIUM)

We arrived into Dunkerque late afternoon, not terribly impressed with what we saw.  We knew this wouldn’t be a quaint little French village but more an industrial port city, but we came here to see if there were more relevant WW2 sites/memorials/relics.  Unfortunately there wasn’t anything to see, except the sea!

The next day we decided to leave Dunkerque for the day and ‘pop’ into BELGIUM since we were only 33kms from the France/Belgium border.  Instead of just popping over the border, we headed into Bruxelles, capital of Belgium.  Bad decision.  We couldn’t wait to get out of this city.  It was dirty, nothing old and historic about it and there were so many beggars.  We gripped the kids hands as we walked down the cobbled shopping mall, dodging revolting stuff on the pavement and beggars wanting money.  One beggar we saw really frightened the kids, he walked on all fours, obviously couldn’t stand upright because his legs were all bent the wrong way.  He has clearly spent his life walking on all fours.  He was pushing a tin in front of him and calling out for money in his language.  He was dirty and smelly.  We definitely needed to get out of this city but first, Corky had to satisfy his quest for having a McDonald’s Big Mac in every country he visits in the world, he was not going to miss his opportunity in Belgium.  Once conquered, we got in the car and got out of Bruxelles.

Heading back towards France, we saw the turn off to Bruges.  We thought we would give Belgium one more chance at redemption so we turned off the freeway towards Bruges.  Wow, we were impressed.  This is more like it; a classy, historical, romantic, cobbled town.  Wow, wow, wow!  We wandered down through the crooked cobbled streets admiring the shops and smelling the waffles being cooked at every corner.  There were people everywhere enjoying the spring weather, restaurants and ambience off Bruges.  Wish we had found this earlier.  We sat as the sun set in a restaurant overlooking the large square and ate Belgium waffles with cream, chocolate, strawberries and ice cream on them – just the way they should be.  Corky and I enjoyed a Belgium cherry beer.  The bells of the nearby cathedral chimed at 7pm and they tolled for at least 15 minutes.  Soon it was time to leave this European glory and head back to Dunkerque for our last night on French soil (for a while anyway).

Corky and his favourite car

 Off to the UK tomorrow (Harry was pretty much over his chicken pox by now which was good timing – he just has little scabs all over him now)..... x

CHAMPAGNE REGION, FRANCE 17-20 April

We knew we had a long drive today so we tried to head off early but for us, early was around 10am (after all, we are on holidays).

Our little dashboard Sat Nav lady must have had a big night the night before because she got us little lost which added about an hour onto an already long trip ahead.  Once we had skirted around Bern, the capital of Switzerland – which is about ½ an hour from Interlaken, she wanted to take us up north towards Basal but we wanted to head west to France, aiming for Dijon for lunch.  We doubled back, wound around, across here, over there and finally managed to get back on track and crossed the border finally into France.  Ahh, how excited we were to be on French soil.  I could finally read and understand things, communicate a bit and everything just seems jolie!  I reckon in my past life I must have been French, it is just a shame that the accent, figure and style of the French woman didn’t come over with me into this life. 

We decided to give Dijon a miss because we had to make up time (had to leave something for another trip another time) and kept heading north towards the Champagne region, our home for the next 3 nights.  There were whoops of delight and the sound of corks popping (OK, I made that bit up) as we crossed over into the Champagne region and I reached into the glove box and got my champagne glass out and ready.  Sadly we still had a couple of hours to go so I popped it back for now.  Hang on a second, this surely couldn’t be The Champagne Region of France!  Where were the vineyards?  All we could see either side of us were fields and fields, some with beautiful yellow flowers, some with bright green grass type crop and others that were barren with sandy type soil.  Where were my vines?  I couldn’t blame the Sat Nav lady for this because I saw the sign myself as we entered the region.  I later learnt that this is typical of most of this area and it isn’t until you get into the heart of the Champagne Region ie. Epernay and Reims etc, that you start to see the vineyards.  OK, I will sit back quietly and wait.  We counted those huge 3 pronged windmills that popped up continously across the countryside as far as the eye could see and we sang songs in French (OK, I made that up too) until we finally arrived in Epernay.  Now we were talking – vineyards!!  Champagne Houses!!  We found our accommodation and shot off into town for dinner, umm escargots and wine.  Nup, we ended up at an Italian Restaurant.  I think Corky is seriously worried about me sneaking a snail or two onto his plate sometime.


Little Harry came out in chicken pox.  He seemed fine, not sick at all but had a mark on his stomach which I thought was a mossie bite.  Then I found a blister behind his ear and then sure enough a few more started to pop up.  Oh dear, we were due to see our friends in the UK at the end of the week and they have 3 young kids.  Sure enough, by the next morning he was covered in chicken pox from head to toe but he was fine otherwise.

I popped like a cork out of bed this morning, yes, with my champagne glass in my hand.  Let’s go!  We drove into Reims which was about 20kms from where we were staying in Dizy (Epernay) and sat in a cute little French Patisserie for breakfast, munching on Pain Au Chocolate and sipping Chocolate Chauds.  I watched the stylish French women swan by and reassessed my clothes that were now up to day 18 on our trip and wondered why I didn’t bring my faux fur stole and heels.  Never mind.

Madi in a French cafe

Reims is a big city but a very old city.  Cobblestones, ancient buildings and of course the piece de resistance (see, that’s the French in me again!), the Notre Dame Cathedral of Reims.  It is incredible!!  I had read about it before but to see it was amazing.  Unfortunately my photos just couldn’t do it justice.  On 18 July this year, it will be 800 years old.  It is in the process of a huge restoration and you can see why – I guess anything that is that old needs a facelift sometime.

Time now to visit a Champagne House.  Taittinger was open so we joined the tour there.  We wound down into the cellars which are kilometres long, full of fermenting and aging Champagne.  It is all limestone and old chalk quarries down there and this keeps the temperature at a regular 12-14 degrees all year round and a constant humidity of around 90 percent – all perfect conditions to prepare champagne.  We were taken around and shown many fermenting bottles and explained the whole interesting process.  At the end we were treated to a lovely glass of the Taittinger Champagne.  We wanted more … so off to Epernay to find Moet and Chandon and Dom Perignon.  The tour was exactly the same as the previous one but obviously a different champagne produced.  Once again, a lovely taste test of Moet at the end.

Back to Reims for dinner in a restaurant called the Hippopotamus (aimed towards children obviously) and then home.  As we were driving along a stretch of road through some forest, we narrowly missed hitting 2 deers which ran across the road – quite a frightening experience, the kids would never have forgiven Corky if he had hit Bambi.

Enough champagne, time for sightseeing the area.  We drove to the town of Chateau Thierry which is about half way between Reims and Paris.  On the way we stopped in to look at a Chateau and War Memorial at the town of Dormans.  This whole area was invaded by the Germans during WW1 and you can picture the troops storming through this landscape and old towns.  In one tiny town we drove through, there was a very old house along the roadside that you can still see the machine gun fire right up the side of the house.  The history this area must hold is incredible.  There were continual monuments and memorials all the way along, some for just a few people, others for many more.  Once we reached the town of Chateau Thierry, we could see up on the hill overlooking the town the large American memorial dedicated by the Americans who lost their lives in WW1.

From here, we drove back to Reims, through the beautiful countryside with all the rapeseed flowers for miles and miles.  We stopped and had a closer look, they smell beautiful (but unfortunately the pollen sticks to your clothes).  This rapeseed is used as canola, bio diesel and animal food amongst other things which explains why it is so prolific throughout the countryside as far as the eye can see.

Once we reached Reims again, we had a wander back around to the Cathedral and inside a church service was going on.  We watched for a while because it was quite a spectacular with the priests in robes and choir singers.  We left and went and had dinner in an open square.

The next morning it was time to put away the Champagne glasses as we headed off this morning for the coast of France.  We went via Fromelles, the most recent war memorial for Australian soldiers who died in WW1.  These bodies were only found almost 3 years ago in six mass graves, 92 years after they had died.  The memorial was very fitting and beautifully kept and very peaceful.  We stayed and had lunch here and then drove another kilometre on to 2 other memorials.  With the layout of the landscape and with the sun starting to set, it really instilled a great sense of sadness for what these soldiers went through and how they must have suffered.  It really was a solemn experience.

Off to Dunkerque .....x

INTERLAKEN 15-17 April

We decided that we didn’t want to stay in Munich another night, so we packed up and headed towards Interlaken, Switzerland a day early.  A few hours into the trip we crossed the border temporarily into Austria where we actually spent half the time there in a 7km tunnel and then straight over the border again into Switzerland – once again, 3 countries in one day but this time in a matter of 20 minutes.  It is interesting how you can now just go over any border anywhere anytime.  The old border gates and tolls are there but you are free just to drive through.  The only time we have been checked is coming into Switzerland but they usually just wave us on.  It is incredible how Europe has just totally opened up now.  Having the one currency is a bonus though (except in Switzerland where they still have the Swiss Francs).

For a late lunch, we stopped in the stunning Luzern.  What an incredibly beautiful and stunning city, obviously very wealthy too.  We walked across the 14^th Century wooden bridge that was actually burnt down on 17 August 2003 but has been rebuilt.   We didn’t spend much time here but enough to take some photos and admire the views.

Old wooden bridge

 

Lake at Luzern

If I can recommend anything, I highly recommend the 30 minute drive from Luzern to Interlaken – incredible!  You can never imagine that there could be anywhere so stunning, majestic and picturesque. We spent most of the 30 minutes saying ‘OMG, look at that’, ‘OMG, incredible’.  You’ve got to go and see it for yourself!

A beautiful view ... and background too!

We arrived into Interlaken and found our B&B run by Katy, hence Katy’s B&B.  Quite an interesting woman! 

View from our room

View the other way from our room

For dinner we found an even more interesting restaurant where the owner who I think was half American, half Swiss thought he was the 2^nd Arnie Swartzanagger.He was amusing and the kids got to try blowing the big Swiss horn (Jack proved to have a great set of lungs) and a Michael Jackson impersonator came out to dance.I think all the showmanship was to cover up the average food.

What a gorgeous spring Swiss day we woke to today (but quite cold still).  After having Katy’s B&B brekky, we headed out to see the sights.  We drove to Lauterbrunnen about 10 km away from Interlaken.  This idealic town is nestled in a valley surrounded by soaring mountains all around it.  It also boasts the most amount of waterfalls.  We ooohh’ed and aaaah’ed as we wound our way along the winding river through the valley to it.  We found a carpark and walked up a little incline to view the most incredible waterfall I have ever seen.  The icey water literally just came off the top of the cliff and dropped down the side of the mountain, it was as if the water was literally being thrown off the clifftop.  At the bottom, there was a large pinnacle of ice that was obviously there because the water hit it and froze again … amazing, it came from the frozen ice on the mountaintops, travelled a great distance as water and then ended up as ice again in the valley.

Ice at the bottom of the waterfall

We then wandered down through town and found a cute coffee shop to eat lunch and admire the scenic view, it couldn’t get better than this.  Even though I have now been to Interlaken and Lauterbrunnen three times, I am still wowed by its incredible beauty.  Mother Nature certainly was in a great mood the day she created this little pocket.

We then drove back into Interlaken and sat by a huge field and watched the Paraponters arrive at their destination in front of us.  It was nice just to sit and enjoy what was going on around us, relax in the sun and let the kids play in the grass.

Driving around the lake

 

I do love this part of the world however I am once again excited about heading off to our new adventure tomorrow – the Champagne Region of France. Oh la la.  x

MUNICH 14-15 April

We left Salzburg late morning viewing the mountain ranges with fresh overnight snow.  Thankfully on our way to Munich, the temperature started to climb back into the double digits and by the time we arrived in Munich (only 1.5 hours from Salzburg), hooray, we were at 11 degrees.  I wasn’t fond of being in this big industrial city, I much prefer the small, quaint countryside towns and villages, but we were here for one thing and one thing only …. WWE!  Yes, the exciting world of Entertainment Wrestling, you know, the 5 knuckle shuffle and all that!!  The current passion of a 10 year old and certainly the envy of his friends right now.  It was Jack’s turn to be giddy.  Not many people can claim they have gone from the Hills being alive to the Sound of Music one day to Slamdunking and Wedgies the next.  At least Corky got to sit in the Olympic Stadium when he accompanied Jack.

This afternoon however, we visited Dachau, the concentration camp just outside Munich.  Naturally Sophie and Harry skipped along without understanding where they were, Madi obviously knowing something wasn’t quite right but it really sank in for Jack.  He was quite awakened by what horror went on and was interested to learn more and try to understand why it happened.  It really is an eery place and it really doesn’t seem real sometimes that something so horrific and barbaric had occurred in such recent historical times.  To see the bunkbeds they slept in, to walk in the exercise yard, to touch the barbwire alongside the guardtowers and the most horrific, to stand in the gas chamber and cremation rooms.  The hairs on the back of my neck were going crazy.  Sadly Europe isn’t all about Edelweiss flowers and fat cows with bells around their necks.  We will see more atrocities from both World Wars later in our trip.

In front of entrance to Dachau

The Exercise Yard

Walking down between where the sleeping quarters were

Before we barely had our 2^nd eye open the next morning, Jack was stumbling over his words with the excitement of telling us about WWE last night.  Instead of the booked seats at the back of the stand, they got to go to the front row standing where the wrestlers came in.  Jack shook hands with Ray Mysterio, saw Big Show and another wrestler growled at him because Jack boo’d him.  He came home with the t-shirt, hat and autograph from Big Show.

Till next time .....

SALZBURG 12-14 April

After a late breakfast in Innsbruck, we packed up the car again and headed to Salzburg, Austria.  The trip was only about 2 hours but took us a little longer because the beautiful sunny weather we had experienced up till now in Europe of sunny days and averaging 25 degrees had changed to rain and fog.  The average temperature as we drove was about 13 degrees however it was still a beautiful and enjoyable trip and I still love having my face glued to the window and enjoying the views, trying not to miss anything and also trying to take mental pictures of everything I see.  I think the kids are probably sick of hearing me say ‘ohhh, look at that’, ‘look at that castle’, ‘did you see that?”.  It is incredible to take in the fabulous views and sceneries we were experiencing, you only imagine most of these in movies but incredibly these landscapes and villages are people’s everyday lives.  As much as I love Australia, I really feel it has become a bit bland with the views and images we are experiencing.  It really is picture perfect, the quaint little wooden houses with a snow capped mountain as its backdrop was too perfect to be true.  We crossed from Austria, into Germany and then back across the border into Austria as we arrived into Salzburg.

The Von Corcoran Family had arrived in Salzburg, the land of Mozart and the Sound of Music!

House where Mozart was born

Incredibly it was only 5 degrees as we checked into our hotel just after lunchtime but it didn’t stop us from wandering down through the town and seeing where Mozart was born.  We started to wander back along the river to our hotel however we had to break into a fast paced walk/jog because the temperature was dropping quicker than the sun.  It had started to rain by the time we got back to our hotel.  The kids needed some play time and Corky and I needed some downtime.  Austrian McDonald’s for dinner sorted that out!

The Hills are alive with the sound of music … The Von Corcoran family woke this morning to another overcast and cold day.  As we were having breakfast, it started to snow.  There were squeals and excitement in the restaurant and then I realised it was coming from us.  The temperature is meant to get down to -1 degree over the next day or so, no doubt with some more snow flakes and more squealing.  We went back to the warmth of our room and watched the Sound of Music movie (the movie is on 24 hour rotation which thrills Corky no end!) until it was time for the tour bus to pick us up for our Sound of Music tour.  Corky was the most excited about this and of course Jack acted all too cool to care though we are sure he is just as excited.

Due to our eagerness, we were prompt and on time for the tour.  We joined up with other people and all went on a coach together with an extremely hilarious gay tour guide (actually, when he turned sideways he looked a little like Julie Andrews!)  As I mentioned, we were very eager so we sat in the front rows of the bus, prime position.  The other boring tourists sat at the back and didn’t say a word the whole trip despite our Guide telling continual jokes and then saying out of the corner of his mouth to us when no-one laughed except us ‘gee, tough crowd!’

House and lake where the movie was filmed

Church where wedding scene was filmed

  

Gazebo

Mirabelle Gardens in the movie

  

Von Corcoran Family

The tour went for 4 glorious hours and we viewed many places where the movie was filmed and heard many facts and interesting tid-bits about the movie and the family.  We went as far as the lake district of Salzburg and Mondsee where the wedding scene was filmed – these were about 1 hour from Salzburg.  On the way there it snowed which once again us Aussie’s got all giddy about.

Starting to snow (not that you can see it)

When we finally returned to Salzburg with the realisation that our tour was over, we climbed out of the bus and into subzero (well it felt like it) temperatures again and went to find the old Monastery that was recommended for dinner by our new gay friend.  We finally found it and once again continued our ‘schnitzel and beer’ tour of Europe.  I gotta say though, I do hate the fact that with every meal you have no choice by to have a side of ‘passive smoking’.  I find the Europeans such a contradiction to themselves.  Daily (especially when travelling through the countryside) we see people enjoying the fresh alpine air, beautiful fields and lifestyles whilst they mountain climb, hike, bike ride and/or walk and jog.  They all seem such an outdoor healthy bunch of people … but then …. every single person seems to have a cigarette hanging out their mouths (OK, maybe not while enjoying the countryside, but every other person we see in every town or city does).  They just don’t care that we have 4 young kids enjoying their schnitzel right next to them, they may as well ash their cigarettes on our side plates!! I did warn the kids that the Europeans would be like this, but it really is horrible since we are so use to strictly no smoking in public places at home.  Anyway, enough about that (except, it really peeves me when we check into a hotel room and it smells like an ash tray … err).  OK, definitely enough now.

Hot chocolate and apple strudle

A cold Salzburg day

  

Salzburg Castle on the hill

Schnitzel & beer at the Monestery

Off to Munich, Germany tomorrow ... x