Homeward bound.....

                                                                                                                    13th July 2011- 30th July 2011

22hours later we arrived in Melbourne to stay with my brother Nigel. After two mammoth sleeps of 15 hours we came right. Boy it knocked the socks right off us!!!
Spent the next two weeks hanging out and helping Nigel in his garden shop and catching up with some longtime friends Jan, Kaz and Dave.
Thank you bro for having us xxx

My gorgeous friend Jan and Eden 

The Miller Gang

30th July 2011

Hanging by a thread Sumner

 Eden and I have had an amazing journey thank you to everyone we met and visited along the way. Without you it wouldn't have been half as enjoyable. Thank you thank you thank you!!!!

Excited, anxious and happy to arrive home, but sot shocked and saddened to hear and see what has happened to Christchurch city and the people who went through the earthquake ordeals. The city is broken and still shaking and it will be a very long long road to recovery. The city has an eerie feeling it will never be the same.

Peace and love to all those who have died and who have lost loved ones my heart goes out to you all xxx

Madras St

Colombo St

                                                             

Hight St

                           

Shag rock, what's left of it

         

Lyttleton

Lyttleton

                                                                                 

Towers of London ......

                                                                                                                       07th - 13th July

After a night staying in Colchester from travelling on the Hook of Holland ferry, we grabbed a train into the heart of London.
We stayed just over a week Eden's Uncle and Aunty Luke and Cindy.

Luke and Eden in front of Buckingham Palace

Aaaaaaaah

Westminster Abbey

Tower Bridge

London Tower

Kew Gardens

London Streets

Big Ben

We had a great time visiting some of the sights, West Minster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, London Bridge etc.
Thanks so much Luke and Cindy for having us and showing us around!!!

Fabulous glorious Camden markets

Amsterdam......

                                                                                                                        2nd -5th July 2011
Destination Holland......

Surprise surprise another mammoth drive about 9ish hours. Destination Barrd just out of Amsterdam to stay with another couchsurfing family, Bella, her husband and her two girls, Celina and Leonie.

Spent a day in Amsterdam alas not long enough so much to see, to do and explore.  We took a peddle boat out for an hour and peddled around some of the canals, and generally spent most of our time just walking around soaking up the atmosphere.

We had a great time with Bella and the girls, they got on famously with Eden.
Next stop London!!!

Maxine a friend, Bella, Celina and Lizzy the dog.

The hills are alive........

                                                                                                                                   29th - 2nd July 2011

Destination Austria......

 We arrived at our 3rd couchsurfing destination after another mammoth drive of about 10 - 12 hours. They are becoming part of the norm!!! We stayed with Angela, Marcus, Jonas, and Lauren for three nights in a small village called Weissenbach very close to the German border. It is a beautiful valley surrounded by towering mountains.

The next day we thought we would do something very cultural by putting down a hangi. We had a great time preparing it and spent the evening under the trees waiting for our hangi to be cooked. A late start but by about 11pm it was ready. Well worth the wait if I don't say myself it was bloody good!!!!

preparing our hangi

The weather wasn't so good while we were there but the rain was a pleasant change form the heat.
Angela and Marcus have 16 sheep called Racka. They are nearly extinct a very rare breed originating from Hungary. They have exceptional horns!!!!

Thank you so much Angela, Marcus, Jonas and Lauren for your hospitality, generosity and great conversation. We had a lovely relaxing time with you and your family. Loved the dumplings!!!!
It wasn't long enough, we would have loved to have stayed longer.

Croatia ....

                                                                                                                                25th - 29th July 2011

Spent 4 nights in a small town called Fazana, a small seaside town on the Adriatic coast of Istria.

Opposite Fazana is the Brijuni National Park where we spent an afternoon going around it and it's several small islands by boat...lovely!!!

Our ride

Visited a town called Pula where there was a remarkable well preserved Roman amphitheatre. It is a venue for summer concerts and performances. It is built entirely of local limestone and was designed to host gladiatorial contests. Built in the 1st century wow!!!!

                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                                 

Italy Italy Italy!!!!!!!!

                                                                                                                                 21st -23rd July 2011

Arenzano, Italy, our next couch surfing experience. As it was only going to take about 2-3 hours we took our time driving there, it was an incredibly hot day so thankfully we found a great little bay on our way to have lunch and a dip.

On our way we decided to drive through Monaco just for a noisy. An ice cream would have been on the cards but finding a park was not so we drove around and around and out again. Yay!!!!

Monaco

We arrived in Arenzano after going through about 100 tunnels. Wow!!! We met our couch surfing host Stuart and his two daughter's Rebecca and Melissa.
Arenzano is a quaint seaside village about 1/2 an hour from Genova.

We spent the next day or so just relaxing, having some down time from all the driving. I learnt how to gut fresh anchovies and yum deep fried in egg and breadcrumbs, the best!!! There is a bakery that makes amazing focaccia it is made from polenta, melts in your mouth. The parmesan is amazing, the mozzarella is great, the coffee... aaaaahhh I just love Italian food in Italy!!!

Thank you so much Stuart, Rebecca and Melissa we had such a relaxing enjoyable time, thank you for your generosity and laughs!!!

The Family

                                                                            23rd - 25th July 2011

Venice here we come!!!! Very excited to see this city. We left Arenzano late after a scrumptious feast put on by Stuart and made our way to Venice deciding to take the motorway. I've had enough of long long drives trying to navigate via google maps.
Camping Fusina was our accommodation for the next two nights. It was across from Venice so we caught a ferry the next day to explore the city.

What can I say it was wonderful. Only having one day again to explore a great city we just walked and walked and walked our little legs off. Even after 9 hours of walking we didn't even see half of the city but at least we got a small sense of the magic that is Venice. It truly is a labyrinth of canals and tiny alleyways and yes we got lost but I think everyone does at some stage.
We saw some amazing art along the way the city is full of artizans and masquerade costume shops.