Julia and Maryanne's here!

It's always blue skies around here, but as soon as Mayanne and Julia's plane was due to land, a big storm came in. They landed a bit over an hour late. Their plane did a big plunge at one time, "the tower of terror"and their bums got off their seats. All the attendants ran for it, to get back to their seats. Not good just before expecting to land, some screaming all round. Then the turbulence made Maryanne sick. She looked more dead than sick to me after 24 hours odd. Julia seemed ok!

This morning they were trying to beep through our front gate. We finally got the right code, then I told them to run! After making sure they got on the bus, Marie pointed out that we didn't tell them how to get back home again, no way to contact us and no keys. They got back fine though at about 3.

Apparently day one went well enough. They're still jetlagged, so the homework was slow going.

I had a medical checkup at work, and weighed in at 83kg. I thought I'd write that down, as I'm pretty chuffed, and may not get skinny again ever.

Tan man and Stephane visit

Stephane and Tania.

Really nice to have Tania, Stephane, Sophia and Chloe pop in for a visit, and stay. They were in our neighbourhood as Stephane was visiting his family. He got to speak with the boys. After two years, they can talk now. They had the chance to get Stephane read them a story book in French, but they chose The Cat in the Hat. So they got a regular story book with a strong French accent. We went for a walk with everyone last night, as always. Stephane tells us that although it's annoying to be here, when you can't find things, when we go back home, it'll be the same as we won't be able to find the stuff we buy here and break road rules as you need to etc.

The kids got to sleep eventually.

Apple picking at Chateau D'Astros
And in other news, Ollie went apple picking today for a school excursion. He has been over excited for about a week! We got 2 or 4kg of apples afterwards. We'll be making a few apple crumbles, so stay out of the area for a bit. Might have calmed down by the time Maryanne and Julia get here. In three days!!! We have heaps of visitors in the next while. It's something to look forward to, but it'll be depressing once it's all over.

Camping

Car racing track next to our tent.

We finally tried it, and it all worked out well. We got rained on the first time around. Marie froze, and ended up on the boys sleeping mats.

The boys helping the pot to boil.

A bad idea! Turns out, the coffee pot can sit straight on it.

Louis getting in the change room.

Before the second time, we bought two more thermarests. These are warm, give a nice soft layer, and roll up afterwards. This time we got the boys to stay out of the tent while we put the bedding in, much easier. There was a nice patch of dirt to run cars around.


The first one was at Saint Martin Vesubie, where I lost Louis's camera, damn it, and these photos are from Saint-Vallier-de-Thiey.

The long drive back home again.

Louis wonders how to do this one, but walks it, Basel. 

So then it was time to drive back home again. We went through Switzerland, which is nice but pricey. Finally across the top left corner of Italy, and home. Torino has some strange awful suburbs, and a really beautiful town centre. Sorry mum, the shroud is only visible every decade or so apparently. Cuneo is small but lovely.


And school hols were finished, along with summer. The boys were excited to get back to school again. Ollie's in the "big" school this year - the CP.

After going to jump in the lake, Montreux.

Torino has a beautiful town centre, and bizarre suburbs.

Italy's in a bit of trouble for now... Torino.

Couldn't agree more! In Cuneo.

Technikal Museum Sincheim

The Concord is still impressive after so many years.

It has the Concorde supersonic airliner, and the Concordski, the copy from Russia. The Concordski, aka Tupolev Tu-144 is a monster, hugely impressive, loads of seating and supersonic, with amazing engines. The retractable little wings up the front, and the tilting nose are amazing, given they didn't have the same resources as the west.

We got a call from the lady who owned the flat to ask where we were. Why? Because we were supposed to have left already. Woops, got out a bit late after getting back there
.

The Tu-144 supersonic airliner is incredible up close.

Only in Germany, a real cockpit to check out.

Next stop was Heidelberg

A nice old town

The boys at high speed in a local park

Ollie missing the slide for a bit

A local house I'd like to live in.

We stayed in a nice old appartment with kitchen, washer, bedding for 6: the boys jumped on every bed, especially the loft level. The highlight was the Technical Museums - planes, tanks, slides, miniature railways, etc, even a rotating automatic organ was a hit with the kids.

There were bikes all over the place.

We wandered up to the castle. We caught some trams around, but the burbs weren't great! The town itself is beautful.

The technik museum Speyer

Ollie in the cargo hold of the 747.

The 747 is up high, and has a slide.

Where else can you take two kids aged 4 and 6, and have them run around looking at stuff until about 6pm, and not stop once? Except for lunch. Lucky Marie packed some sandwiches. They scoffed odd halves here and there, then ran back to go on a slide, see another plane, model train or whichever.

Electric powered hydraulic digger thing

This place has the Buran, the Russian space shuttle. I love Russian rockets and space paraphynalia. Seeing the real thing, and walking inside is amazing. One of these did go into space.

There's loads of cars, planes and a submarine you can walk through. 10/10.

The Buran from Russia.

Wurzburg

The fountains are for littlies in Nuremberg

Ollie outside the Oliver store.

Wurzburg, another lovely town on the river.

On the main bridge.

Wurzburg has a nice fortress thing up on hill. 

The city of Wurzburg.

Bamberg

A river runs though it.

 We caught a train to Bamberg. We wandered around. We came home to Nuremberg again.

The trains are even a bit more fun

There's a nice Cathedral up on the hill.

Just like that movie Cocoon, old people forget to be old.

The rose garden looking over town.

Nuremberg

Nuremberg - rebuilt, and beautiful.

We drove to Nuremberg via nightmarishly car clogged Passau. We parked the car and left it for 5 days. The local trams and state trains are just the best.

Mum, dad, can we go on the U bahn??

Every loco was perfectly restored.

There is so much to do in this place. The museums are amazing. The train museum was so good, the boys cried when we dragged them out of there. The boys ran around the loco displays. One of the loco engines was cut in half, with animated lights showing how steam works. On the way, there was a whole other museum on communications, where Ollie had a go at being a TV presenter, also fun. On the last level, there was wooden toy tracks, automated model trains, and one a bit bigger that they could ride on. Kiddie heaven.

There is also a toy museum, where all the old interesting toys were laid out, together with a room full of toys to play with, then an outdoor play area with more interesting play stuff.

Making a call in the communications museum

We also ran out of cash for a while. Since the supermarkets all took cash or some ecard thing which we didn't have, we had to take it easy. This just meant we couldn't stop for coffee, and once I had to leave everything at the checkout, which upset Louis a bit. 2 days later, it was back to normalish.

Taking a ride on a train in the train museum

Going shopping in Germany is awesome. Everything is made in Germany. You can't go wrong! I'd love to snap up a bike, but I've already got one.

We didn't even get to half the places here, important places, like the Nazi rally grounds, or where they had the trials. The kids wouldn't be so keen.

Summer hols

5 greate days in Graz Austria. 

Thursday 8 August started early. Stuffing odds into my bag, I grabbed a blue bike up the street, went into Cros de Cagnes to withdraw some cash, and ran to the station, getting a ticket with a minute to spare for the Ventimiglia train. I had an hour there to print the 2 Italian train tickets I'd bought online, and wander the old town, steep, winding and like all the old villages here, lovely.

Graz, a car free CBD nightmare, awesomely beautiful.

One more train to Milan, then about 6 hours until catching the next. I wanted to hire a public bike. The signs said you can sign up at any ATM. After discovering a big sign saying ATM near the main square, and following the tunnels to the office, ATM is: the Azienda Trasporti Milanesi. Pay up, get a code, go punch it in, and the world is ready to explore. I never had any idea how many different little piazzas, tramways, charming buildings etc etc there are. Great bikes.

The armoury in Graz.

After the night train, which despite all the horror theft stories, was super pleasant and easy, the first stop was Graz, Austria (pronounced Grutts if I heard right). Marie picked it based on Google pictures. The brochure says this place is the most bike friendly in Austria, are there are bikes all over the place.

Marie and the boys spent a lovely 2 weeks in Croatia, swimming on the coast, and staying with the family inland. We met up in Graz.

The local museum that look like Dr Seuss made it is full of model buildings, thumbs up from the boys. The local park on the hill is pleasant, if you don't lose a phone. There's a cave and now the boys want to see every cave in all areas. Armoury museum is tops.