Last day of trip, Monday.

Tomorrow is the last day of our summer holiday trip! Tuesday I start work, and next week is the new school year for the boys. Ollie moves onto the next section in school, the CP. He's going to be getting homework. We're just getting used to the fact that he can speak.
An update on our cash problems, turns out that German train accepts credit cards. So we did a few day trips to nearby towns. We also found a huge pharmacy that takes them. We loaded up on muesli, corn flakes, milk, sunscreen, deodorant and other odd products. We also bought 3 pieces of fruit from a street vendor with our last small change. With almost no cash, Marie complained that she couldn't just buy things. Every cloud has a silver lining. It was less stressful than we'd thought in the end.
Then a couple of days later, the bank spat out 400 euros, and we all said yippee! The boys were really pleased. Our accommodation is always paid in cash, so it's good timing.
Currently in Torino on the way home. Last stop was Switzerland. Don't go there unless you're feeling stupidly rich. Will write up more once I load my 2000 odd photos onto the computer at home.

Gettin die euro sh 1 ts yah

Marie took off with the boys Thursday the 26th, and called up about 4 in the afternoon. How's it going? Not so good! She can't find her wallet, and last time she had it was in a service station about 200km ago.

After driving back to see if she left it on the counter when buying ice cream, they don't have it. I check online, and the card's been cancelled already. I didn't report it, and not her either, so it must be the thief trying to use it. Our best guess is that they took it from her handbag, since sometimes it floats invitingly on top of everything.

Of the things to be sure not to lose, car keys are one. Phone is high on the list, but the wallet raises problems like: how do I now exit the autoroute without money? How do we eat, pay for accomodation etc? After filing a police report, turns out you can fill in a form at the autoroute office to pay later. After that Marie borrowed from her cousin, who she met in Milan.

Other than that, they had a nice time on the Croatian coast, and then with the family in Slavonski Brod. Staying with family solves most problems. I catch 4 trains to meet up with them in Graz. It's been a relaxing, kinda boring two weeks, but I got a lot done, and had a couple of nice dinners.

First thing is to pull out some cash at Graz to finally pay the landlord. All is good until a visit to the Shlossberg hill. After that, Ollie wants to use Marie's phone to take a photo, but now it seems there's no phone! Louis borrowed it to play games on the hill, and some time it was lost, not to be seen laying around 30 minutes later. The employees of the funiculair couldn't care less when I ask if they've had one handed in. No it seems.

Now, how to block the thing without a phone to do it? I go online to try to block it. You have to log in first. This requires a new passcode, and the only way to get it is via sms. Skype doesn't work for the automatic system. We call our neighbour on Skype who is a nice guy, speaks French, and knows how to make an exception to the rule of only being able to cancel your own phone. We finally think to call the phone, and a nice German fellow answers "yah I got it!". Phew! Now it's back but just blocked.

So to today. I try to withdraw some spending money in Germany. The bank says I'm out. Turns out there's a 500 euro limit per week. Nice time to find out. What's for dinner?? I can still use the credit card. Me and Louis walk to find a supermarket, pick up some milk, pasta, chicken, cereal, eggs etc etc. The checkout dude says he doesn't take credit cards. So we leave all our stuff at the register and walk out in shame after apologising. Louis says, but we left all our things in there! I laugh, then get sad, then walk right across town to Aldi. Asking before going in, they don't take my card either. I wonder if I can buy someone a Montblanc pen for example, and then ask for the cash, but admit defeat and trudge home, wondering how best to spend the 2 euros cash I have left. Lucky we had some bolognese leftovers already frozen, so ok tonight.

Thank god the apartment is paid already, and the internet has a supermarket listed as taking cards. So we'll see what happens tomorrow. We can get another 400 in a couple of days.

The end of year school spectacular

Almost as exciting as going on holidays itself. Not sure what this is about, but it's good for sure.

Then they ended the show on a high point, albeit a 7 minute long high point:

and for a bonus, here's one from the beach that got video bombed halfway through:

Evonne visits!

The main fountain in the middle of town.

Evonne came over for another visit. The boys had a great time with their Aunty. We stayed around the local area, went to a couple of villages, ate a LOT of food.

The local beach.