Touchdown!
Our plane lands in the great heat,
We collect two trolleys full of luggage,
Tired with not much sleep.
Everywhere the horns are honking
While the smog blurs the views away,
the Arabian Sea ripples while the red sun sets,
And it’s getting darker and darker today…
Some new and unpleasant smells
On the dangerous roads with no pavements,
Mumbai, we have arrived,
What surprises do you hide?
Nilay
As always its the people that make a place, and so leaving Ham, a place which we had made our home for the past 10 years, was more difficult, and I suspect we will only realise what we have left long after our lift off from Heathrow. As well as tying up a few lose ends, we were all able to see some of our friends in Ham one last time. Nilay also had the opportunity to visit his school class (now year 5) at the Russell School and share some of the highlights of our european trip.
For Milan and Nilay to leave Ham is to leave a place where they have lived practically all of their lives, and they will always remember their childhood friends and primary school days. But as I’ve said previously, we’re not looking at this as moving far away down under, but creating an opportunity for all those in the UK & Europe to visit a nice part of the world! It was great to have a final round at the Hand & Flower on Saturday evening as we remembered the good times in this great little part of the world. I also felt however that a departure wouldn’t be complete without a final burst in Richmond Park on a clear and crisp Sunday morning, which along with the River had been a rambling ground for the past 11 years. Thank you, we will miss you, and hope to see you again soon…
JR
After our arrival back in the UK last Wednesday, our immediate focus was to find Clifford a new owner. Despite our emotional connection with the van we had to of course approach the whole thing with a rational mind. With a good level of interest after posting on e-Bay a week earlier, we were hopeful. It must have been fate as the first person to come and look at Clifford gave us a good offer and the deal was done!
Friday would be our last excursion into London where we had planned one last drink to say goodbye to the city in which Maria & I met 21 years ago and one which I seem to never tire of. We also decided to mark the day with a trip on the London Eye as Maria had never had experienced this aerial view. The drizzle cleared for a few moments and we were able to reflect on our time here and capture some last images as we also contemplated what lies ahead. In the evening it was great to meet with a few friends whom we’ve known since our Tent City days all those years ago, as well as some whom we’ve got to know since. Thanks for a great time…adieu!
Tired of London, Tired of Life!
JR
Last week we were staying in my home village of Windenreute in Germany. It was good to spend some time with my family and Milan and Nilay were happy to see their grandparents, their cousins and of course Viktor, Leonardo and Elena again.
The highlight of the week was our Farewell Party on Saturday to which we had invited my entire family, all aunts, uncles, cousins, kids and also all our local friends and family friends. Guests had arrived from near and far.
As I am blessed with a wonderfully creative, musical family, we enjoyed many performances of music and poetry throughout the afternoon and evening. We thought we could see the start of an international family band emerging. Another highlight was the fantastically varied buffet dinner to which all guests had contributed a dish. There were delicious salads, quiches, chicken drumsticks, cakes – a great feast. The Windenreute Heimathaus, a little village hall served as a perfect venue.
It was sad to say good-bye for an unknown length of time, but we hope to be back every now and then and maybe some of our relatives will come and see us in New Zealand.
for some photos, please click on the link:
https://www.icloud.com/iphoto/projects/#3;CAEQARoQkm3q2wuk9Px8MDzdW_flOw;AB61BC32-3751-4AEC-BF76-6541F1E6207B
Maria
On Saturday & Sunday we spent time in the city that shares my name, Milan! It’s home of the Milano Duomo its cathedral, (or the Sagrada Familia II as we called it because it reminded us of it). Also a fashion rival with Paris, our experience in Milan can be represented by our photo collection below. Milan, our last stop before going back to Emmendingen, is also home of the original of “the last supper” by Leonardo Da Vinci (maybe appropriate as later the second day we had our last supper in the van!).The famous inventor and painter was also featured in the MUST (Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Technologia) museum that we went to on Sunday after going to a fascinating cemetery which on each grave stone was a sculpture. Milan was a short but fascinating experience for us, extremely different to Venice, and sadly the only other place in Italy we’ve been to on the trip. The city that shares my name, a great start to the slowly but surely coming end of our European trip.
Milan
On Friday we decided to spend another day in Venice. First we went to a cafe and did some reading to learn a bit more about the city and decide what we’d like to do. There was an interesting looking glass shop opposite the cafe so went in to have a look inside. We saw a man making a glass ring on his desk with a gas flame and some glass sticks which he melted into shape. We had decided that we wanted to go on a walking tour so we got tickets, a had a bit of pizza for lunch at a restaurant, then headed towards St. Mark’s Square where the tour started. The tour was called “Discover Venice”. The guide took us around the town and told us about gondolas and how the boat was built to lean to one side and the gondolier stood on the other side to keep it balanced and rowedThen we went on and the guide told us why most of the houses had its main entrance going into a canal, because they needed to ship stuff into their houses from the canals. As we walked, we saw a roof with smoke coming out of it and we guessed it was a fire but we weren’t sure. The guide also told us that because Venice was a lagoon, and therefore unstable, every single building was leaning (the leaning tower of Pisa was a joke to them!) The buildings are built on wooden piles and need to be flexible so they are made of bricks. When we came to the end of the walk we had a look around St. Mark’s Square then we wanted to start walking back to the bus stop and find dinner on the way but we ended up walking in a circle back to St. Mark’s Square because we couldn’t find where we were on the map. Then we tried again and finally managed to get back to the bus just in time!
Nilay
Dusk falls on Venice
Taken by JR.
After our night in the motorway stop, we headed, after an hour or two of driving, through Slovenia to Italy. On the way our van clocked 100,000 miles( altogether not just this journey). Once in Italy we arrived in a campsite not far from Venice where we planned to spend two nights. Although it was late(ish), we took the bus from the stop just outside the campsite into Venice for our first taste of Italy on this trip. Once arriving in the lagoon we chose a route taking us towards the Rialto Bridge, Venice’s most famous bridge where nearby, we had dinner. Nilay And I chose a delicious 4 cheese pizza to share while Mama and Papa had various pasta dishes (finally, eating Italian in Italy!) The way back to the bus stop was a race. Unless we caught the 9:28pm bus back to the campsite we’d have to wait another 40 or so minutes till the next bus. Luckily we made it, although Nilay tripped on the stairs of one of the bridges near the bus stop (fortunately he was OK). After a long day of driving and walking we finally got a good nights sleep, Papa tried sleeping up top for once swapping places with me.
Milan
October 23rd was our last day in Dubrovnik.
In the previous days we had looked at the old town from different angles – from the sea by kayaking around the old town, above from Mount Srd, and within by walking around the streets of the old town with a local guide as well as on our own.
We had not yet seen the town by walking on the famous wall which surrounds the old town. This wall walk is such an attraction, that one has to pay to access the wall walk. As my guide book was praising this wall walk as one of Dubrovnik’s most important attractions, the boys and I decided that we really wanted to do this walk before we departed from Dubrovnik.
We were not disappointed, the 2 km walk on the town wall was fantastic. The views on one side onto the roofs of the old town which have nearly all been repaired since the destructions suffered in the 1991 /1992 attacks, and the endless blue of the Adriatic Sea on the other side were just beautiful.
As it was a very hot day, we were longing for a dip in the cool sea when we got back to our apartment just before lunchtime. So we walked to the nearby beach to enjoy a quick refreshing swim (probably our last swim in the mediterranean sea for a while). We then had to think about packing up the van and start our journey back north.
We spent the afternoon and evening driving with a stop for dinner in a really nice restaurant near Krka National Park. We decided to spend the night in the campervan on a motorway stop in northern Croatia.
Maria
Yesterday, while we were walking around Dubrovnik we noticed the amount of cats, many more than we were used to.
For pictures of them (taken by Nilay and I) click on the link below:
Milan
ramblingramas 