Italia here we come.

So, here we are in Pianopoli. We have met so many relatives I’m not sure who is who. But since there are only few family names to choose from I am quite safe. Good example – one of the cousins was asking how Pina was. I worked out it wasn’t Pina who belongs to Zio Ciccio. It wasn’t Pina who also came to dinner. It wasn’t Pina who has come back from Canada, and we had lunch with, but the other one. But we’d only met three Pina’s which made it really tricky – until Alf said she was fine and in Mandurah at their holiday house. (Josepina Jolly was who they meant.) I think it would have been easier if I knew some Italian. But we are all getting better. Alf can rattle along, almost like a native and Ash and I have picked up important words like grazie (thank you), ranocchia (little frog – don’t ask), aqua – naturale (that one is easy), dolce (sweet/little sweet cakes), abbastanza ( that’s enough - which is very useful around dinner time), caffe e latte (coffee with milk in it) and ciocolatta (which in this case means a mug of hot chocolate which looks like almost chocolate mouse and you can eat it with a spoon if you like). Actually, on that last one – I think we have cured Ashleigh of her need for hot chocolate. She has had either water or hot chocolate to drink for the last 2 ½ weeks and I think she is over it – especially since she has met the spooning hot choc. drink.

Anyway, enough of that….about out Italia trip. The best bit about going to Venezia (Venice to foreigners) in winter is that there is nobody there and you can walk the streets for as long as you like without bumping into anybody. (Sometimes though, that was because we tried to go out during siesta.) So we got to look in mask shops and glass shops and be the only ones there. We also got to go to Murano (the glass factory island) and walk through the streets on our own. Perhaps that was partly because we had to walk in the rain since it was winter. So firsts that we had in Venezia – Alf using Italian with the natives with them answering in English, water taxis, no seasickness for Justine (!!!!). San Marco and associated touristy bits and Alf driving on the other side of the road to get to Firenze (Florence).

To get to Florence, you can go two ways: the quick way down the Autostrade or through Padova which tourists with maps that aren’t quite complete do!!!! They are also the sort of tourists that buy themselves an Italian GSP before heading out of the city to the other end of the country.

Florence was spent having dinner with family (abbastanza became useful here). We caught up with Mario whom we had met already in Australia since he was studying in Melbourne and Alf’s cousin Nilde who is a teacher. (This year her children graduate from Year 5 at elementary school and go to middle school. So next year she starts with another group in Year One (5 1/2/ years old!!!) and works through with them until they graduate. For those who care about these things – they are not really aware of the Reggio Emilia teaching pedagogy and have quite a traditional teaching style – as they also do in Pianopoli in the south.) Anyway, back to the story – Ashleigh met her Second cousin(ish) Maria Gabriella and they got on very well. They like the same books and computer games and since Maria Gabriella can speak English they got to chat away for a long time. On our second day, Maria Gabriella took us around the sights of Florence. It was interesting since she went to the arts high school and so many of her comments were about art and architecture which made our tour different to usual and interesting.

We left Florence in the company of ‘Miss Jane’ (in 300 metres, turn right). And zipped down the Autostrade to Pianopoli in about 8.5 hours. Ash slept most of the way. I slept when I was sure Alf was going to stay on the right (and correct) side of the road – not really that hard on a divided road and Alf didn’t sleep at all, which was quite good actually.

Since being in Pianopoli, we have met lots and lots and lots of people, been on a tour of a local scuola elementare (if you can’t work it out – use bablefish) with a class of 6 year olds and spent a lot of money on two necklaces at the supermarket. We went with Nadia (a cousin) to buy something at Franco Scalise’s jewellery shop. I have always wanted to buy something there ever since Zio Ciccio brought some jewels over for our wedding. We went into the supermarket to buy the bread first, walked through the office where the staff were working and into the money vault which magically had turned into the jewellery shop. So Ash bought something that Zio Ciccio gave her money for and I bought something that Alf gave me money for (my card isn’t working so well!) Today we went to Reggio Calabria (the state capital) and looked at a pair of 5000 year old naked bronze men which weighed about 3 tonnes. Very impressive, I must say. Ashleigh is so cultured now she didn’t even bat an eye at the “expressive” art works today!

So tomorrow – more family for lunch and dinner – to visit not eat – and then to Roma. We will update the info then.

The search through Europe.....

So, it has been a busy week from the team of Christmoose spotters. We have been to a few European countries in an attempt to photograph the ellusive animal. After a night to recover from our flight into Germany, we headed into Krefeld. It is only a small town, but it is full of people from lots of different places. We thought maybe amongst the Turks, Russians, Italians, Germans etc it might hide. But it wasn't there.

However, we did discover that we couldn't go to Koln (Cologne) because the train lines were frozen over due to the snow. Trust us to visit Europe during one of the coldest winter in, like, forever! We could walk around Krefeld and scare the lady by asking her for tea with milk in it. They sell nice boots for teenagers and warm stockings for ladies here also.

The next day, we spent some time exploring Duesseldorf which is the town we flew into before. We caught the tram (just), and looked at the cathedral and lots of the old par tof town. That evening, we drove to a larger town called Aachen. It is north of Krefeld and right next to the border. We kept seeing road signs to go to Belgium and the Netherlands as we drove along. (Or so Christa says - we believed her since we don't know where any of the places are anyway.)

Aachen was one of the homes for Charlemagne, (famous king from a long, long time ago for those who aren't aware) and so there are remanants of his castle and some very old houses here (ie the 9th century).

We had to drive passed Aachen to a little village called Niutheim. The Koesters have rebuilt a farm there. They used to be the old stables, their uncle lives in the bottom of the old house and a lady called Anne (who is very nice) lives in the top of the house. The coachhouse has been converted into three garden sheds for the houses. We spent the night there learning how to play "doppelkopf" which is a tricky German card game.

The next morning we caught the train to Paris. We would tell you what Belgium looked like as we travelled through it, but it was too foggy. Since the announcements were in French, then Flemish, then German and then English it took us a while to find out anything that was happening.

In Paris we stayed in a cheap, tiny hotel near the centre of town. It was the perfect little spot to stick your bag down and go exploring. Since it was in a converted house there was no room for any chairs, a table, a suitcase holder etc. We (Ashleigh and I) got a bed, a cupboard wide enough for our hand luggage and a small one person table attached to the wall. We also got a bathroom where you could choose to stand at the basin or in the shower. Alf got another room which they called a single to sleep in. It was a different layout to ours, but the bed was also a double and he had about as much space. From the window you could see the cafe where we had dinner that night. Anyone who tells you that you can't order food if you don't know the language is lying! Down the road and around the corner was a little bakery/cafe where we ate breakfast the next day. Croissants, of course. And by now our sign/dodgey french was much improved!!

Ok, over that afternoon and the following morning, we did the usual touristy bits and travelled to them all on foot except for the Champs de Elysses since it was on the same metro line as our hotel - look at the photos later if you want to see them! We saw the Place des Vosges (great architecture and garden with Aussies throwing a nerf ball around), Seinne river, Notre Dame Cathedral, Palais de Justice, Saint Cheppelle (chapel) and the Conciergerie, Musee de Orssay (gotta love the impressionists! and Picasso had a great sense of humour....... oh listen to the artistic travel snob going on!) Champs des Elysses, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Place de la Concorde and the Petit Palais (with it's art gallery). Of course, since we were walking, we saw all of the little bits in between too.

We managed to catch the train back to Aachen the next night. Of course I stressed when they announced the train had arrived and was going to depart (since, of course my french was limited to bonjour and merci) because Alf and Ashleigh got the the train station and then left again to find baguettes for Ash to buy and bring home to Christa. But, it all worked out ok and we arrived back in Aachen for dinner and more Dopplekopf. I lost the first night of scoring. I ended up with -22 points! I think Ashleigh won, she had about 25 points. We have written down the main rules and how to score so Chris, Graham, Steve Jannete - look out when we get back.

We spent the next day walking around the town of Aachen, eating Maronen (chestnuts) and looking at old buildings - for a change. We went to the cafe that is about 450 years old. Luckily the cakes are fresh every day! That evening we picked Katrin up from the train. She had trained up from Krefeld for the weekend. We played cards again and this time, when people finally dealt the cards properly, I won.

Sunday was spent looking around a little village which was very old, and in a very steep valley. Ash tried the frittes (fries) to see if they were better than ours and we had a german hot dog - bratwurzt in a bun with mustard. We also went walking in a venn in Belgium. They would have been the moors, but they were frozen so it was a walk in the flat, frozen, snowy countryside instead.

Today is Monday and we have spent the day catching up on emails, washing clothes, sorting out photos and of course, writing this blog. Tomorrow early in the morning we will head out to Venice. Keep us in your thoughts as the connection through Munich has to be done within 1/2 an hour and judging by our last attempt to transfer planes, we may need all the help we can get.

The trip over

So we have left the land of the airport autoflush toilets (Ash and I both got caught in Toronto - we moved but didn't get up and so got a little wet)!
After a little wait in Toronto airport, we headed off to Frankfurt. The plane was delayed by an hour as we had to wait for the freezing rain to decrease and then needed to have deice-ing stuff sprayed on the plane before it took off. We were a little worried since we needed to be ready to board 50 minutes after we landed in Frankfurt and that was now a problem since we had left later than expected. It was an uneventful flight of about 7 and a half hours to Germany. Once we got passed the middle of the ocean(ish) all of the announcements on the plane were in English, French and Germany so it took a while to find anything out.

Once we landed in Frankfurt it took a while to get off the plane - as it always does when you are in a hurry. We were told to go and talk to the service people to see if we could get to our flight once we had landed. So we rushed off and they said "Go to A19. It is down the corridor and up the stairs." So we went down the corridor and up the stairs and then along the escalator and up the 6 flights of stairs (lift was too small) and then along a very long set of travellators (3 of them) and then down 6 flights of stairs and then along three corridors, through the baggage check area (three zig/zaggy lines worth of waiting) along another and to the area for the flight to Duesseldorf and we were only 1 hour late for boarding. Luckily, they were 1 hour behind with boarding, and then it became another 2 1/4 hours later and then we finally got to board the plane. At the same time, we kind of/sometimes had mobile phone coverage and so could kind of/sometimes let Katrin know what was going on.

Finally we got to board the plane, put our boarding passes in the machine and then.... walked down 4 flights of stairs to the road!!!!! Then we got on a bus (we trusted them, but really had no clue). 15 minutes later the bus had driven us past all of the terminals to where our plane was parked in the plane parking lot out the back. We stood in the snow while we waited to board. When we got on board we waited another 2 hours for the 15 extra suitcases to be found and unloaded and the plane to be de-iced. Finally we are in the air and 45 minutes later we are in Duesseldorf. Yay!!!
Except...... we have no luggage because due to "technical difficulties" the luggage carousel wasn't working. Then, it began to spin, there was much cheering and an annoucement. It would be a while until we got the luggage due to the snow. Then, finally we are with the Koesters.

Goodbye Canada

Well, here we sit in the airport, waiting to leave for Germany. Now, not only will the people all sound funny, we won't understand them either!!

So, even though the Hallidays, skis, shoes and sleds, not to mention their boats and hoes, took us to a lot of places..... we didn't find the elusive Christmoose. On to the next part of the adventure. I wonder if we will see it in Germany???

the life of the wealthy traveller...

Hello again.
We're back from the slopes at the Blue Mountain Ski Resort - what a tough life we lead!!! This is going to be a quick post since we are packing to head out to Germany tomorrow. (I only have as long as the drier takes with our skiing clothes.

Alf says I should talk about our week of firsts'. So, have a look in the slide show for these firsts that we have experienced...
Our first skiing/snowboarding lessons,
dog sledding,
snow shoe trek,
snowmobiling (as opposed to hanging snow from the ceiling in pretty patterns),
beaver tails,
swimming in snow (-19 degrees!),
white out (snow storm),
Alf's very cold birthday (that'll never happen again) and
-16 degree New Year.

I am sure there is more, but we'll tell you all about it later (it's a very fast drier!).

today we all fell...... a long way down at Niagra Falls

Good evening. Christmas Day was fabulous.... it snowed enough to be an official white Christmas, we switched pressies, Michelle cooked up a storm for lunch, although we only managed to eat about a 'shower's' worth, we went for a walk around the suburb and then ate desert at around 5:30 in the evening. Then we all sat down to watch The Dark Knight movie. Which everyone managed to do successfully except Ashleigh and I. We successfully snoozed instead. Jess wants to make sure that you know we had yummy Dairy Queen ice-cream cake for desert (with chocolate biscuit crumbe in the middle).

So today, in recovery mode from Christmas Day, we headed to Niagra Falls. Luckily, they are only about 1 hour from here, so it was a fun drive. Things we saw on the way included ice wine vineyards (where they make wine out of grapes that are frozen in the first chills), lots of industrial landscapey type stuff including housing that looked like it mustn't heat very well in the winter and the canals from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. "I gotta mule, her name is Sal...15 miles on the Erie Canal. She's a good ol' worker and a good ole pal, 15 miles on the Erie Canal."

Things that we now know about Niagra Falls that we didn't know before are:

• it isn't a rain day, it is mist from the Falls (but we sure wouldn't let the kids out of class to play in it). Ashleigh's feet turned pink and froze as her sneakers battled with melting snow and mist/rain.

• it is hard to stand on edges covered in ice, but the icicles are very pretty.
• there is a LOT of water that flows over the falls each day.
• it is where the Canadians fought off the Americans in the 1800s and had them surrender (don't often hear that, do we?) - thank Nathan for that piece of history.
  
• the falls in american (the American Falls) are smaller than those in Canada.
  
• It is weird to watch cars drive on the other side of the falls and think that is was a completely different country that you were looking at.

• There is a Tim Horton's shop there (like just about everywhere else), which is a bit like a dome coffee shop mixed with a muzz buzz, but coffee only costs about $1.40 a cup.
• it doen't matter if it is only mist, it is still really really really cold.

After visiting the Falls, we went to a little town called Niagra on the Lake. We looked in lots of shop windows and bought jam for brekky. It was cold too. But rather than go on about the cold, we could celebrate that at one stage it was 2 degrees. yay! :)




We're home again now. We probably won't add to the blog now for another week. Tomorrow we are off to the shops to post postcards (are you reading this Rebecca?), participate in post-Christmas sales (Ash is looking for only in Canadia converses (gym boots) to spend her present money on), and go to an ice hockey game in the evening. The next morning we are off to Blue Mountain ski resort for about 5 days of pain, torture and.....snow/cold.

Christmas Day

This is a really big snowflake.
OK. It may not look like it, but it was really big when it landed on JJs sleeve. It's Christmas Day so I should go do something more christmassy like have a shower rather than do stuff on the mac.

2nd Day In CANADA!!! =D yays

it's Ash now! :D
so today, we donned our new snow gear and...
went tobogganing! (thats right- we can spell it, too!)
after waking up late, we walked to Jess's school and braved the tobogganing slopes of destiny!
well, not quite... but still ... :)
so just in case you didn't know::
when you go tobogganing, you have, like a board-ish thing underneath you
(kinda like aboogie board but thinner and with handles)
and you run and then you slide down the snowy slope!
and that's uh... it. ^^
so yeah, there was tobogganing and stacking it and snow fights a-plenty.

this is jess: (just letting you know)
anyways
its been great having ash here, i cant believe that you guys let her go away for christmas to come and see me! =D
anyways back too the tobogganing
ash was amazing
it was like she did it before
but the best thing was she went down this hill that had a huge jump right at the end,
but the funny thing was that she completely missed it!
i was laughing so hard!! xD
nah i luv lil ashleigh!
anyway i will put you back to her!

well yeah,,
uhh....
i tried cheese bagel and cinnamon crunch bagel this morning.
which are scrumptious!
but still not quite as good as plain bagel with butter.
(don't believe anyone when they say that cream cheese is better, ok? ;) trust me!)

hmm...

that's all i can think abou t.
oh. and that while we were having all of this fun, Mum and Mrs. Michelle were shopping!
but yeah.

talk to you all soon!

love from us.

we have survived moosageddon!

so, for all of you over in sunny Australia - ha ha ha.... are you missing out or what?
We now know what it feels like to go shopping when the max. temperature was at -9 (not including the wind chill factor). And just a hint for the happy campers...... when it is that cold, don't make snowballs without gloves on!!!

So the trip so far goes like this. We sat in Perth Airport for a while, waiting. (Thanks Josie, Kevin, Michael and Adam for keeping us company.) Then, we sat on an airplane and waited to get to Singapore. At Singapore airport we wandered around for about 1 1/2 hours, waiting for our next plane. Ash got a little excitement. She got to pretend she was Sora in Kingdom Hearts and hang out with Goofy and Donald. Then, onto another plane and waiting until we get to Hong Kong where we ..... waited for another plane.

Luckily though, we had a bit more time. So we changed $40.00 for some lunch. (Unfortunately we slept while we were waiting on the plane and had missed the meals between Perth and now!) After getting to the cafe to eat lunch, we managed to spend 60c more than we had changed. So we had to give one bottle of water back. And then we could eat our lunch. We got to eat it watching Chinese soap operas on the cafe booth t.v. set. We had the best time. The words were in Chinese, the subtitles were in another Chinese (?) and so we made our own words up as we went along. Of course it goes without saying that Ash and I had far more romantic words than Alf did. It was funny to see us being looked at by all the Chinese people, specially since we were the only ones in the airport for a while that didn't look and sound like everyone else. Then after a waiting snooze by Alf and Ash (with Jussie on bag duties) we boarded another plane and waited for another 14 hours to get to Toronto. Until you do it, I don't think you can ever know how BORING sitting still for 14 hours really is. Mind you we all slept alot since there wasn't much else to do.

When we finally got to Toronto we had to ... you guesssed it - WAIT some more. But for a good reason I guess. They had to get the lady behind us off the plane for medical attention so we all had to sit until the medical guys had come in with there special emergency rescue stuff and american sounding voices to take her off very efficiently and all.

and then we were there in all the snow and cold. So our first day was spent buying warmer clothes. By the way Excelsior people, our school jacket is nearly warm enough for -12. It works 'ok' at -8 and hopefully is perfect at 0. No wonder we sometimes got very hot wearing it on duty.

We Got Here!

Hi All
Over 31 hours of travel - 24 of them on planes. We landed about an hour ago. So that we don't succumb to jet lag we will do our best to acclimatise and get into the local time zone by going out to a party now. As you do.
The snow is easily deep enough to bury someone in, but now she feels better so there's not much chance of that happening.
And to those who care "We made it in one piece and will talk to you soon".
To the rest "I'll post the embarrassing photos later".
I wish you could get snow when it wasn't so bloody cold.

Alf and Jus and Ash.