9th August 2012

Today is the day we start our return trip to Australia. After being away for 13 weeks it will be good to be home again. We have enjoyed most of the trip tough there were a couple of days that would rather forget, but I guess you get days like that and you just have to cope with them.

Today we drive from Potsdam to Berlin, where we catch a plane to Frankfurt. Late tonight we catch the next plane for . ingapore, then to Brisbane and finally Townsville.

Last week we were at a little town called Teterow where our hosts have their summer house. We swam in the lake, canoed on the lake and managed not to fall in, and went for a game of golf. We were also taken to Rugen Island to swim in the Baltic Sea, which to our surprise is barely salty at all, but still as cold as ice. We also saw a play there at a village named Ralswiek, the play is performed outdoors with the bay as the backdrop to the sets. The location was stunning, the sets superb and the play was good even if it was in German and we didn't understand a word. It was about a pirate from these parts way back when, and we had had the story explained to us before we went in.

This is the beach at the Baltic Sea, lots of people sunbaking but not too many swimming it was so cold in the water.

These are scenes from the play we saw "Stortebeker Tod"

20th July 2012 8.15pm

Today we visited the Basel Zoo. It was a good day, spent among the gardens and seeing the animals. Here are a selection of what we have seen.

Angel fish

miniture goats

storks in their nest

giraffes

yes well, a stripey thing(oh dear!)

cheetah

scarlet ibis

zebra

20th July 2012

Here are some photos of where we went yesterday, which was our youngsest son's birthday. We had a really good day and I hope you did too Ryan. The photo above was the first red squirrel we have seen. It was on the ground when we first saw it, and it collected a nut and went up the tree with it to eat. We were able to get lots of photos of it.

Here is Malcolm at the Basler Papiermuhle, that is the Basel Paper Mill. Here he is seen marbling a sheet of paper. This mill was interesting as it still uses the water wheel to power some of the machinery. It also had captions in English which helped. All the machinery was old, the tubs they soaked the pulp in was chipped out of a block of limestone.

Uta took us to Dornach for tea. The top photo is the view from the restaurant and the second is the restaurant as seen from the road below. I tried a local barley soup, was it good. I have taken note of the name and will try to find a recipe for it. While we were sitting here we could see the planes coming in to land at the airport. Shame we have to move along again on Sunday as it is really nice here.

 

This is Schloss Dorneck, a ruined castle we passed on the way to the restaurant. After tea we walked back down to it and had a look. The views here were just superb, you could see right over Basel and to the Swiss alps.

19th July 2012

Hello,
 Malcolm and I are in Switzerlandand have been here since Friday. It is all you could imagine it to be, it is just so beautiful. On Saturday we took the train to Zurich, it takes an hour to get there. We spent the morning looking through a museum, and the afternoon walking along the river banks which are all gardens and parks.
Sunday a friend took us to Laufen which was a half hour drive away. We spent the day walking in the mountains. There are paths everywhere, and it is obviously a very popular pasttime as there were a lot of people out walking. Some of the mountains are very steep but is so very beautiful.
Here are some of the photos from Sunday:

Monday we spent walking around the old town area of Basel, which is on the Rhine.

Until next time,keep well.

view from the lighthouse of Lake Como

                                                from the walk along Lake Lugano

view from the railway station in Lugano

this is a footbridge in Lucern

We are now in Switzerland, yesterday we travelled on the scenic train from Lugano to Lucern. Today we are doing a boat trip on a paddle steamer on Lake Lucern. More photos to be taken. Here are a few from Como, Lugano and Lucern.

29 June 2012

Here I am in Paris on the Pont AlexandreIII, and it is a lovely day. Not too hot or cold, I certainly did not need the coat I carried. There was a brief shower as we were about to leave our hotel so we took the coats just in case. We walked from our hotel to the Place de la Conorde, crossed the river and then followed it along to the Eiffel Tower. Then crossed over another bridge and walked the other side back to where we started. Then we walked into the gardens in front of the Louvre, but there was such a crowd there waiting to get in we decided to try early tomorrow. We went to lunch instead and had a lovely meal of duck and potatoes.

28th June 2012

Tonight we are in Paris. For a while I wondered if we would be. We were due to fly out of Dublin this morning just before midday, but it was 1pm before we left. We arrived at 2.35 Dublin time, but it was 3.35 in Paris. We were able to find our driver to be taken to our hotel, and what a shock. If we thought the traffic in Ireland was bad, they have nothing on these people! And it was hot too.

Tomorrow we are going to walk from the hotel to the Eiffel Tower, I have googled it and it is 3.7kms so that is not too bad.

The first photo is a squirrel in Hyde Park, I know that was weeks ago but it is cute.

The second photo is taken at the top of the Blarney Castle, and no I didn't kiss the stone. It was bad enough being that high up without going closer to the edge.

Tuesday 19th June
Today we have spent in the north of Ireland. We visited the Giant's Causeway, walking the long sloping road down to sea level, then back up the path up the hill followed by the 162 steps of the Shepard's path back to the cliff tops. Some really spectacular views of the coast, we could see Scotland from the top. We could not have asked for better weather. Like yesterday when we came over on the ferry from Scotland, the sea was as calm as it was possible to be. I could see the reflections of the cliffs on the sea.

After the Giants Causeway we went to Bushmills and visited the whiskey distillery of the same name. It is the oldest distillery in Ireland, celebrating their 400th year in 2008. After the tour we were given a choice of drinks to try. I do not think I will take up drinking whiskey any time soon.

Late this afternoon we drove the coastal road, and visited some of the beaches, seeing the chalk cliffs and several lime kilns from times past. There is so much flint on the beaches here but very few sea shells.

Today is Monday the 18th June, and I am sitting in the first class lounge of a Stena Line ship going from Cairnryan in Scotland to Belfast in Ireland. We have finished 5 weeks in England and Scotland touring around. It has been an experience with all the roundabouts, some of which we went round three times before finding the right exit! Still it has been worth it to see the history of the area, and to walk through the old oak forests, which we did a couple of days ago. Today we hope to see the Titanic exhibition when we arrive in Belfast, and then we will be off north to see the Giants Causeway. After that who knows?

4th June Monday.
It is the Queen's diamond jubilee weekend here, and a four day weekend (Saturday to Tuesday) Yesterday we saw the end of her flotilla on the Thames live on the TV. It was so cold and wet that we elected to spend the afternoon at the B&B we are staying at.

Today is fine and sunny again, although they are saying it won't last. We went to the safari park at Bewdley today, arrived early and parked the car with ease. Then took the tour bus around the park to see the animals roaming free, and didn't have to join the procession of cars doing the rounds. The minibus was on the grass to the side of the cars and we got a commentary too. This afternoon we returned to Stourport-on-Severn for a late lunch, then walked along the river path almost back to Bewdley. It has been a good day.

Monday 21st May.  I am now in Stevenage and it is still cold, although it is supposed to be warming up. It is really pretty here and I am glad to be out of London. We took the train to Welwyn Garden City this morning then drove here and only took wrong turns about three times, not bad considering that the distance is only about 10 miles.

 

During our last days in London we visited the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Natural History Museum, the Tower of London and walked miles along both sides of the Thames from Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge and back again.

Here we are in chilly London. We have been here for four days now and done a heap of walking and visited some of the great museums they have here. We have also visited Harrods and watched the squirrels in Hyde Park.I always thought they were cat sized but they are so tiny.

 Wish it would warm up a little, but at least it stopped raining 2 days ago.

Hello

Hello, and welcome to my blog. My Fibres friend Arlene is helping me to get started.

The postcard pictured above is one I made and sent to my friend Joan through the Fibres and Fabrics postcard challenge for May 2012.