Slideshow of Dubai ... (highlight text, right click and choose 'Open URL')

<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" bgcolor="#ffffff"><tr><td><a href="http://smilebox.com/play/4d6a59304d5449354f446b3d0d0a&blogview=true&campaign=blog_playback_link" target="_blank"><img width="386" height="303" alt="Click to play this Smilebox slideshow" src="http://smilebox.com/snap/4d6a59304d5449354f446b3d0d0a.jpg" style="border: medium none ;"/></a></td></tr><tr><td><a href="http://www.smilebox.com/?partner=google&campaign=blog_snapshot" target="_blank"><img width="386" height="46" alt="Create your own slideshow - Powered by Smilebox" src="http://www.smilebox.com/globalImages/blogInstructions/blogLogoSmileboxSmall.gif" style="border: medium none ;"/></a></td></tr><tr><td align="center">Customize your own digital slideshow</td></tr></table>

DISNEYLAND, PARIS - 10 -14 July 2011

SUNDAY 10 JULY – THURSDAY 14 JULY- DISNEYLAND, PARIS, FRANCE

We had 5 days at Disneyland.  One day we didn’t go but instead went to the Outlet Mall, went swimming in the pool and also finally dropped our car off to the Peugeot Dealership in Paris.  We had had it for 99 days and did a whopping 15,939 kilometres.  It was covered in bugs and filthy inside and we were really sad to say goodbye to it, it had been our lounge room and home for 99 days.  We then had to get on the train back to Disneyland.  We went for dinner at Planet Hollywood at the Disney Village.

Each day we went to the Disneyland Park or Disney Studios, we arrived around midday but stayed till it closed at 11pm each night.  We went on pretty much every ride and met every character.  The kids had a fabulous time and never tired of it.  Each night we collapsed into bed exhausted, the four kids clutching their Mickey or Minnie Mouses.

We finally had to tear ourselves away and back to reality.  We were booked onto the Eurostar to London at 7.37pm Thursday night.  The trip took just over 2 hours - it was sad to finally leave the Continent, we were slowly on our way home.


Till next instalment ... x

GENEVA, Switzerland - 9 July 2011

SATURDAY 9 JULY – GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – DISNEYLAND, PARIS, FRANCE

First thing this morning was to find breakfast somewhere.  We were thrilled to be in Switzerland, in particular Geneva which is such a stunning city.  We headed towards the lake and found a restaurant with croissants and hot chocolates for breakfast.  We then wandered down to Lake Geneva and fed the swans and ducks as we admired the beautiful scenery before us.  Across the lake were fabulous hotels that lined the lake and behind them in the distance was a beautiful range of mountains that would look incredible in winter with the snow on them.  We sat by the lake for a while, the warm sun was lovely.  It has been 12 years and 3 months since Corky and I were here last on our honeymoon – I am still wearing the Tag Heuer watch we bought here.

We were keen to get to Disneyland however we hit the world’s longest traffic jam it seemed.  We sat in it for at least an hour, all because of road works.

We finally arrived into Disneyland.  Each kilometre we got closer, the squeals in the car got louder, we were all on the look out for the first sighting of the Disney castle.  We went straight to our Hotel; The Explorer Hotel, checked in and went to dinner.  After dinner the kids wanted to go swimming in the indoor pool with slides so we got changed and had a late swim.

Till next instalment .... x

SORRENTO, Amalfi Coast, Italy - 5 - 8 July 2011

TUESDAY 5 JULY – SORRENTO, AMALFI COAST, ITALY

When we opened the curtains on the two enormous windows this morning we were greeted with the most stunning view down the coast of Sorrento and also of Jack’s nemesis, Mt Vesuvius.  ‘Why didn’t you tell me we were staying near a volcano’ he worriedly stated.  ‘Ah, it’s nothing’ we reassured him however later Corky and I did some research on it and realised that it is classified one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of the millions of people living on its doorstep.  Of course the most famous eruption was in AD79 when Pompeii was destroyed and since then it has erupted at least three-dozen times, the most recent was in March 1944.  It was clearly due for another eurption ‘they’ reckoned.  All this we kept to ourselves, Jack already was freaked out by being so close to a volcano, even if it was currently dormant with no signs of activity.

Jack keeping an eye on the volcano from our window

Unfortunately the day was overcast with large storm clouds out to sea (and over the volcano which didn’t help Jack).  Never mind, we got our cozzies on, had breakfast in the beautiful dining room that overlooked the glorious coast and then raced up to the pool.  It was on the rooftop of the Hotel with even more spectacular open views.  We grabbed some deckchairs and settled down just as it started to rain.  It was only raining slightly so we let the kids keep swimming however as the black clouds continued to head over us and then the thunder and lightening started, we decided it was best to head inside.  Thankfully there was a Playstation and the kids entertained themselves with this while  Corky and I sat in the public lounge with the news on the TV and our computers.  We kept an eye on the weather and ventured out to the pool again to only need to go back under cover when the rain started up again.  Next to the pool is the Hotel café and we sat here and had some lunch while we watched the storm swirling in from the sea.

Hotel Bristol foyer

The storm did finally clear up so we went to Positano for dinner.  The drive is only 20 minutes from our Hotel but it took us over the hill and to the step coastline on the other side of the little peninsula.  We were stunned by the incredible beauty of the coastline and its shear cliffs.  The road wound and wound its way along the cliff edge with many hairpin turns and blind corners.  The horror of some of these corners and turns with barely any barrier to the cliff edge was juxtaposed with the incredible view.  Every now and then as we poked out around the edge of a cliff, we could see Positano. 

The Italians either have no fear or are just plain crazy the way they drive, in particular on their mopeds.  We have seen so many hair-raising incidents and plain stupidity that we now just laugh at it and realise that this is the way they drive.  It was all so evident again on this coastline road as motorbikes sped past us on blind corners and even towards us on our side of the road right towards us as they overtook, most times we had to move out of their way!

Soon enough we were arriving in Positano, evident most impressively by the restaurants that lined the roads in which our large van had to squeeze through, we could almost reach out and grab their lobsters off their plates.  No-one seemed to mind a van squeezing past their tables.

Down below off the beach, we could see many boats and yachts anchored in the small harbour of Positano.  What stuck out the most was an easily recognisable boat to us.  It was the Arctic P, James Packer’s boat.  It use to be his Dad Kerry’s boat and is an old icebreaker that has been transformed into their holiday boat, this is why it was so recognisable, you don’t often see icebreakers in the Mediterranean.  Apparently every June James and Erica go to the French Riveria to celebrate their wedding anniversary (they were married in a civil service in Antibes) and obviously they decided then to head around to Positano.  We found out later that they had been there and gone and that Russell Crowe had joined them onboard for a while. 

We wound carefully down the narrow one-way road towards the beach below.  This road really makes you become one with pedestrians because there isn’t much room for both to comfortably share so we had to mingle; man and car.  We wondered where on earth we would park and then right before our eyes a man jumped out and waved us into his parking station.  Perfect.  It was only 4 Euro an hour and they securely parked the car for you, no worries about us having to squeeze a large van into a small hole so to speak.  Relieved of our parking duties, we walked around the bend and found the first lovely restaurant for dinner, Il Fornillo.  Fortuitously our waitresses name was Margarita so the boys just had to have a pizza by the same name.  I had a lovely clam spagetti and Corky had a seafood risotto which he later blamed for him being sick at 3am that night.  While we ate geckos crawled on the walls around us and a cat strolled under our table.  While we waited for our dinner, we marvelled at the incredible view down to the beach and out to the ocean.  The weather was really balmy and once again we had to pinch ourselves to believe we were really here in Positano with these beautiful surroundings.  I wander what the rest of the world was doing right now.

The dinner was definitely one of the best we have had and the seafood so fresh and delicious.  As we wound around the coast home the kids fell asleep, definitely satiated.

WEDNESDAY 6 JULY – SORRENTO, AMALFI COAST, ITALY

Today we had a wake up call for 6.45am so we could fit breakfast in the dining room with a view to die for, before we got on our tour bus to Pompeii.  Our Tour Guide was an Italian lady called Lia and we were on tour with about 20 others of varying nationalities.  It took about 30 minutes to get to Pompeii in which you could clearly see the monstrous volcano that had caused all the devastation of this city just under 2000 years ago.  Our tour took about 2 hours with Lia giving a very detailed explanation and storyline of this ancient city.  Once again, this is a place I had been before but I didn’t have a guide that time so it was good to learn more this time. 

Only 2/3rds of the city has been excavated and at the rate they are excavating, they are only discovering one building approximately every 20 years.  The reason it has slowed down is because they are now putting their resources towards maintaining and preserving what they have so far uncovered.  Of the couple of hundred buildings they have uncovered, only about a dozen are able to be entered and seen by the public due to the rate of decay that they are facing.  We saw evidence of the bright colours they used on their walls; reds, yellows, oranges and of the intricate details they painted in their pictures.  Most houses were two storey but all top stories were destroyed.  You could also see evidence of ornate tiling on the floors.  The main road had large cobbled stones which had been worn away by the chariots.  We saw many shops and so far 68 bakeries had been discovered.  Inside these bakeries you could still see the ovens they used and when they were discovered, many had bread that had been baking in the ovens at the time of the eruption and therefore the archeologists discovered 81 carbonised loaves of bread.  We saw amphitheatres and images of their beloved dogs, many who use to be chained to the front door to ward off unwelcome visitors.

The heat was incredible so we were grateful to find natural spring taps to drink from.  We finally entered a large open forum area which clearly was the town’s central area, including banks and large columned buildings.  From this central area, the view of Mt Vesuvius in the background loomed.  Over to the edge of this area was a secure area where we could look through and see all the findings from the excavations.  There were hundreds of pots, some wooden carts, statues, tools, kitchen equipment etc, all now plaster-casted by the lava and ash.  Most interesting though were the plaster-casted remains of several people, all clearly frozen in the act of terror by what was happening to them.  One man was sitting with knees bent up and hands covering his face, another was a pregnant woman lying face down and her face in her arms.   There was also a dog who was bent around and clearly had been trying to free itself from its chains to escape.  It was all surreal.  This ended our tour and we all headed back to the cool comfort of the bus.  Most slept on the way back to Sorrento.  We arrived back at lunchtime and we headed straight up to the pool for a cool and refreshing swim.  We stayed here all afternoon.

It was inevitable that we would end up in Positano again for dinner since we had enjoyed last night so much.  This time we drove further down the hill and parked in a parking station at the furthest point we could closest to the beach.  There were numerous laneways that wound the rest of the way down to the beach and all these laneways were filled with various shops, all obviously geared towards tourists.  Once we came out at the bottom, we were amazed by all the restaurants that lined the black beach and were spoilt with choice as to which one we would choose.  The one we went to was right on the beach and looked straight out to the sea.  We had a bird’s eye view (also with the help of a zoom camera lens) of the Arctic P and all its goings on – little did we know at this stage that the Packers weren’t onboard anymore but it was exciting to speculate.

Once again the dinner was spectacular with fresh seafood pastas and calamari’s.  The kids enjoyed playing on the beach after dinner before we headed back to our coast on the other side for the night.  Unfortunately the windy roads got the better of Jack on the way home and he vomited across the back seat.

THURSDAY 7 JULY – SORRENTO, AMALFI COAST, ITALY

We were looking forward to a day by the pool today with nothing to do but doze and swim.  It was going to be our last day of relaxation until Singapore.  From here we were spending two days driving back up to Paris where we were going to Disneyland, then to busy London and finally Singapore.

View of Sorrento from our bedrooms

We arrived just in time before breakfast finished at 10am and then off to the pool to resume our positions for the day.  It was a sunny and hot day so the perfect place to be.  Jack and Madi spent a lot of time with some new friends they had made, a boy and girl around their age from Ireland.  They swam together and played Playstation together.  Sophie perfected her underwater swimming technique and Harry continued his impressive swimming with his floaties.  We moved only to roll over on the deckchair and to cool off in the pool.

Positano for our last night was an undisputed decision.  We headed off a bit earlier tonight so we could catch the most of the fading sunlight, especially since the sun rose on the coast over Positano and set on the coast over Sorrento.  The Arctic P had left.  We wandered through a few of the shops and then found another lovely restaurant on the beach and an equally lovely meal of fresh seafood’s and pastas.  After dinner while we finished our drinks (wine and beer) and the sun was setting, the kids played in the sand and on the water’s edge.  It was a perfect ending to our visit to this paradise.

FRIDAY 8 JULY – SORRENTO, AMALFI COAST, ITALY

Up early today, we had a very long drive ahead of us.  We were hoping to get up to Switzerland, maybe even France today because we had a total of almost 1700km’s to cover from Sorrento to Paris Disneyland.  We hadn’t booked any accommodation because we were going to try and drive as far as we could today.  We left at 9am and the Sat Nav estimated the drive would take us 15 hours straight there; without stops or traffic jams.  If we could do 9 or 10 hours today that would be great.

The time seemed to fly and we stopped at the outlet mall near where we were staying in Tuscany, for lunch.  Corky just had to get a few last items before we left Italy.

It is amazing to see the transformation of the landscape as you head north of Naples.  The general area for kilometres surrounding Naples is very run down and almost decrepit in some places, very poor looking but as we went up the A1 north the scenery very clearly changed as we approached the Tuscany region and beyond.  Everything seemed much cleaner, the buildings were in better shape and the fields were beautifully kept with large rows of vines and olive trees.  The old farmhouses were beautiful restored and preserved or falling down gracefully.  The roads were much nicer to drive on too and we felt safer.  Even at the toll booth on the freeway leaving Naples, there were beggars who wanted to help you with your payment at the toll machine.  Even though the machine took coins, funnily enough it didn’t work and they told us we had to use notes, in other words, they hoped that they would get some of our change when it came out.  He wanted to help but Corky refused, told him to get a job and drove off.  Let’s get out of the south and back north.  I didn’t have a good impression of Naples anyway since many years ago when I was here on the beach with my two friends, my girlfriend was robbed right in front of us (of course we didn’t realise till later that her bag with her wallet, credit card and airline ticket home were gone).

We drove up the A1 freeway past Rome, Florence and then headed towards the coast near Pisa and at Genoa, we then turned inland and north towards Switzerland.  As we climbed up from the Italian coastline and into the surrounding mountains, the skies seemed to close in on us.  We have had beautiful weather all the way with the temperature rising to 37 degrees at one stage and now the clouds were circling and low and the temperature dropped by about 10 degrees.  We still had our suntans to remind us it was summer.

As we went through the Italian Alps, the scenery was incredible.  Hard to believe we were on the Mediterranean Coast this morning and now here we are in the Alps with incredible mountains around us and snow on top.  As much as I love the coast and the ocean, you can’t help but be impressed and in awe of the incredible views and monstrosity of mountain ranges, they really are majestic, even eery. Everything looked very Swiss with the chalets on the mountainsides and you could see the ski chairlifts.  We wound through many tunnels until we finally came to the tunnel of all tunnels; the Mont Blanc tunnel.   Before we could go in the tunnel we had to pay a 38 Euro toll.  It was also the border because half way through the 11.6km tunnel we crossed from Italy into France.  Out the other side we pulled over and you could look straight up to the view above of Mont Blanc however unfortunately it was very cloudy and we couldn’t quite see the top.  The traffic coming into the tunnel from the other side was kilometres long.

We made it to Geneva, Switzerland, 11 hours and about 1300kms after we left Sorrento, Italy.  We arrived at 10pm just as it had got dark and it didn’t take too long to find a hotel for the night, a Best Western in the centre of Geneva.  Of the whole 15 weeks we are away, tonight was the only night that we didn’t have pre-booked accommodation.

At 10.45pm we finally sat down in a Chinese restaurant to eat dinner.  Finally something other than pasta and pizza and it was truly the best Chinese we have ever had though unfortunately the staff were very unpleasant, maybe because they had planned to go home just as we arrived.  We were back to Swiss Francs which we didn’t have but luckily they took Euro’s.

Some more stats so far:

• Two more suitcases have needed to be purchased (total new suitcases now = 3)
• 15,243 km’s driven
• An extra 5 new pairs of shoes, therefore a total of 35 new pairs of shoes
• Two pairs of worn out shoes by Trine, now both have gone to shoe heaven (or the tip)
• Three visits to the same Outlet Village in Tuscany
• Roman relic sightings; infinite
• Margarita pizzas eaten; even more infinite
• Shocking Italian drivers; even more infinite + 1
• Corky’s top driving speed; 170 km/h
• Hottest day so far; 39 degrees
• Increased knowledge of foreign languages; zero.

Till next instalment .... x

ROME, Italy - 2 - 4 July 2011

SATURDAY 2 JULY – ROME, ITALY

We were sad to be leaving Montemerano today, we have had a great time with Francesco and in this beautiful area.  We slept in very late this morning till 11am because we had such a late night and by lunchtime we were ready to head to Rome.  Francesco and Lorenzo were having lunch with Francesco’s brother Gino and his wife at the restaurant Il Nibbio nearby so we stopped via there to say our goodbye’s.  Francesco will be in Sydney from October for several months so we will look forward to catching up with him and Alison again then.

Saying farewell to Francesco and his son Lorenzo

It is only 1.5 hours to Rome and we arrived there mid afternoon.  Our hotel was in a great spot near the main train station, so very central.  The hotel was very nice and once again we had 2 rooms because nowhere seems to be able to fit a family of 6 in one room. 

We settled in and then went to the Hard Rock Café for dinner.  We just couldn’t eat another strand of pasta or slice of pizza.  It was a 1.5 hour wait for our table so we went for a walk and a drink in a café nearby.  We realised we were close to the Spanish Steps so we went for a look.  As usual it was very crowded with many people sitting up and down the stairs.  The kids couldn’t quite understand what was so special about the Spanish steps, ‘they are just steps!’

Soon enough it was time to get back to the Hard Rock for our booking.  We were very happy to go to sleep tonight without mozzie’s waiting for us like vultures.

SUNDAY 3 JULY – ROME, ITALY

Today we decided to see Rome on one of the open top tour buses.  It was extremely hot but we enjoyed the view from the top of the bus and listened to the commentary in our headphones.  We went past all the usual sites; Colesseum, Roman ruins, where the chariots raced and gladiators fought and the city in general.  We got off at the Vatican.  Being Sunday, the Pope had come out this morning to address and bless the crowds so by the time we got there there were a lot of people leaving the area.  We wandered up and had a look around the forecourt in front of the Vatican.  The queue to go into the Vatican snaked for a couple of hundred metres so we decided against that and wandered around the little touristy shops nearby for a while.

We decided to get back on the bus and head to the Trevi Fountain for lunch.  The crowds around the Trevi Fountain were incredible but we managed to get to the edge and throw our coins backwards over our shoulders into the fountain and make a wish.  We were hot and tired so we had some lunch and then caught the bus back to our hotel.  We rested for a little while and then went out for dinner.  We went to the Pantheon and ate in the open square at a lovely restaurant.  The mood was festive and we had a great view of this ancient Roman building whilst we ate our delicious food.

Making a wish at the Trevi Fountain

We ran into Natalie Taylor and her family near the Pantheon (she was in Jack's class last year)

MONDAY 4 JULY – ROME, ITALY

We had tickets booked to see the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Museum for 11am so we didn’t lie around too long this morning but were up, dressed, packed, breakfast eaten and out the door by 10am to get the open top tour bus again to the Vatican.  We just made it in time for our tour.  The tickets cost a bit extra than queuing up yourself, but this ensured that we skipped the queue to get in and went straight to the front of the line.  The queue snaked right around the building and we estimated at least a 2 hour wait.  The extra cost was worth it.  Once we were inside we were left to explore on our own.  The museum was packed!  We had to shuffle along with the crowds with not much space to move, they really had a problem here with excessive numbers of people inside at one time, no wonder the queue outside was so long and definitely more people were coming in that going out at this stage.

We were here to see one thing and one thing only and it took us about 30 minutes to get to it; Michelangelos ‘Creation of Man’ – La Creazione di Adamo.  Being a holly place the Sistine Chapel, no-one was meant to talk or take photos of the incredible painting on the ceiling but of course everyone did (discretely).  The whole Chapel was packed and you had to shimy around people to get directly under the painting for a good look.  We stood eyes to the skies and admired the painting for as long as we could before we felt the need to escape the crowd.  Once again we shimied and skimmed past the crowds to get out of the Museum where we jumped in a taxi back to our hotel to head off to our next destination: Sorrento on the Amalfi Coast.  But first we needed to go to the Outlet Village outside Rome.

We loved Rome and the kids were extremely interested and intrigued by the history of Rome especially since we could physically see where the Romans lived and remains of their lifestyles.  They couldn’t believe the barbaric behaviour of the gladiators who fed Christians to the lions and also at one stage burnt 250 alive and then cooked St Peter’s meal over the flames.  Only 2% of gladiators survived their battles at the Coliseum.  The history of the Romans is a fascinating yet bloody one.

Time to leave the blood-shedding and start the money-shedding.  The outlet village was only about 45 minutes south of Rome and we were there in no time.  We had a wander around for a couple of hours, Corky enjoying the most success in shopping and then back in the car for a few hours south again to the Amalfi Coast.

We arrived at 10pm in the darkness into Sorrento so we missed the dramatic coastline as we wound around the coast but we got an idea from the lights around the Bay.  The roads were very windy and we were tired once we got to our Hotel Bristol but we got our rooms and then wandered down the road to have dinner at the local restaurant.  The guy who owned the restaurant seemed like the typical 'Italian Stallion' (well maybe in his day once upon a time).  He had his white linen suit with the black shirt buttoned down one too many and the gold chain with small coin on it.  Hair slicked back.  Maybe he was one of the Mafioso!  Didn’t matter, we had a nice dinner and then back to collapse into bed.

Till next installment ... x