Portugal, France and Italy

We arrived back in New Zealand on 2nd October, but more on that later. For now, we'd like to give you a potted summary of our journeys through Europe in August & September.
The first installment took us into Portugal, Spain (very briefly), the south of France, and Italy.

We flew out of JFK, New York, for Dublin on an overnight flight and, after essentially no sleep, spent the next 24 hours mainly sleeping in our Dublin airport hotel. We arrived at the hotel around 9am, (about 5 hours before check-in!) but they got our rooms ready by 10am, and in the meantime everyone except John fell fast asleep in the lobby!

The next day it was on to Madrid, to pick up our rental car and drive to Lisbon, where John was to attend a stats conference. Siena's bag did not arrive with our flight into Madrid, and our rental car was broken into on the first night, but all ended up fine, and we enjoyed our Portugal experience. Our first two nights were spent in the old Alfama district - delightful steep cobblestone streets, laundry hung out of windows. Siena turned 10 on our first day in Portugal, and we celebrated with a visit to Saint George's castle (see pics).









Andrea and the kids then spent a week in the Algarve, on Portugal's Mediterranean coast, while John attended the conference in Lisbon.

Caitlin loved the day at the beach. She spent most of her time collecting pretty stones.

Josh, Siena and Maddy had a great time too.

We left the Algarve and travelled an uneventful 8 hours to Madrid, in time to catch the overnight train to Biarritz in France.
We discovered that our sleeper car was TINY - 3 bunks on each side, with barely enough room for our luggage in the middle. But we squashed in, and had a good sleep. But before we got off to sleep, Josh decided to see if the experiment his Science teacher showed him with Coke and Mentos would work in the confined space of a sleeper car - from the top bunk. It did, with great effect. Dad not impressed at the time.


After the overnight trip, we hopped on a TGV train for a 20 minute trip to Biarritz, where we would pick up our rental car. Here Maddy and Caitlin are keeping an eye on our luggage.


Our first stop in the car was in Carcassonne - home of the Medieval City that appeared on Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. We had a wonderful day there, exploring the nooks and crannies of the city and castle.


One of the highlights of the day was stopping for crepes for lunch. Could have eaten a whole lot more, but at 3 Euros each, one had to exercise some restraint!

On the way out of the city, we hopped on the two storey carousel.

Then back to the car for another long drive to the town of Mougins (the last home of Picasso), just 10 minutes drive from Cannes, where we spent a week, chilling out, playing table tennis, mini golf, tennis and swimming, and exploring the French Riviera.


We also managed finally buy a birthday cake for Siena, so the celebration was complete!Siena, so the celebration was complete!

One of the highlights of being in Mougins was the day trip to Monaco. We took a little train tour around the city, which followed the Formula 1 circuit, and then wandered around the old city, visiting the church where Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier married (and were buried), and found a playground overlooking some of the homes and boats of the rich and famous..

We also found the most amazing bathroom - with automatic soap, water, and drying dispensers. Pretty flash! Washed our hands several times..

After a week in France it was time for a week on the northern coast of Italy. While there, we visited Pisa, and the medieval city Siena was named after, all on one very memorable day.


Gelati (Italian ice cream) became a regular feature of our trip.. here we are in Pisa trying to eat our icecreams before they melted.

Eating pizza in the main square of Siena, the piazza del Campo, as the sun went down, was unforgettable.

The times when we stayed in our apartment, Caitlin absorbed herself in playing with the stones she had found in the various Mediterranean beaches.

Here Josh is building a rugby stadium, while Caitlin finds more stones and the other two are making some sand sculpture..

Josh turned 12 while we were in Italy. He decided he wanted to spend his birthday in Rome, so with half of us suffering from colds, we drove down to Rome for the day, had a birthday breakfast in McDonalds by the Spanish steps, then went exploring the sights of Rome.

First the Spanish Steps,

Then the Trevi Fountain,

Then the incredible Pantheon - the kids were impressed with its super thick doors, and we were all amazed at its age and construction -

We had to get a photo of a smart car - they were all over the place.

A spot of table soccer before going to see the Pope at the Vatican museum. Caitlin and Josh are pictured here in the Sistine Chapel.

The highlight for Josh was visiting the Colosseum at the end of the day, before having dinner a short walk away.

So that was Rome, and we drove that night to Naples, and the next morning we drove 30 minutes to the buried city of Pompeii, in the shadow of Mt Vesuvius. Swealtering hot day, so we stayed just a couple of hours, but were amazed as we imagined what life would have been like in these streets so many years ago.

And believe it or not, that same day, we drove 7 more hours to Venice, spending a couple of hours there in the evening - time for more pizza, to see gondolas, a ride on the water taxis, then we hopped back in the car bound for Bavaria in Germany...!!!! We arrived in Schliersee, Germany at 4:30am, exhausted, but delighted to be staying in one spot for the next week.