A Wrap !

With the team safely home its time to announce the European Adventure awards

Hardest working staff -

The chefs on board the MSC Cruise ship Divina who put out a staggering 20,000 meals a day

Most Belligerent -

Kylee & Monika who when riding at night through Central Paris took the tour leader literally when asked to ride authoratively when on road - K & M did a great job holding up most of the Paris bus and taxi system !

Most unusual fashion trend -

Noted doing the rounds in Europe young girls with long hair on one side of their head and short on the other - almost like my come over !

Most leading avert -

Marlboro smoking ad in shop window in Prague advocating youngsters to take the chance !

Best Shows -

The closing ceremony complete with lasers and fireworks in Euro Disney

The Michael Jackson tribute show on the MSC Divina

Best Gluttony Effort -

Team Litchy with an incredible high tea in London at the Athenaeum hotel that included sandwiches, scones cakes and a few gallons of tea

Best Impersonation of Siberia -

The UK during Spring wins hands down with low temperatures and freezing ice cold winds making for almost a record low Month in March !

Strangest Site

Team Litchy running down the up escalator at Gatwick airport after being unable to find the down escalator !

Most Beautiful & Tragic !

The lovely town of Dubrovnik on the coast in Croatia and the nearby trenches on the overlooking Mtn top marking the defence of this area by local forces during earby the Yugoslav war

Best wrong turn -

The short cut in Istanbul suggested by one TL that required an Olympic walking pace back to the ship before it sailed !

Person most it trouble -

Me after giving Monika the flu for her journey back to Australia - she's still off work sick !

Day 42 - Amsterdam The trip comes to an end

The weather signalled a beautiful farewell to Team Litchy`s European vacation with a cloudless day in Amsterdam

We journeyed into town taking a cruise though the beautiful canals with people sunning on benches and at outdoor cafes.
The remainder were still terrorizing pedestrians on the streets with Amsterdam having over 1.5 million bikes twice that of its population !

We had a late lunch at the Airport on our return and set about the arduous task of packing trying both to meet both Monika`s weight requirements and best fit for my bike

Monika returning home ends a great family journey and promises many memories through the thousands of photos taken.

Safe flight my dear !

For those interested in following Kev and Self's cycle adventure across Europe you can catch our trip at

Litchy761@blogspot.com

Day 41 - Amsterdam Where Bikes Rule !

Journeyed into sunny Amsterdam on the Schipol express to view first hand why they call the city a bikers paradise !

There were bikes everywhere, some fitting the category of being silent killers as they fly around corners often through traffic and pedestrians

Crossing the road became a real challenge looking out for trams, cars and killer bikes !

We took in Madame Tussards which had some interesting interactive displays and
had lunch in one of the quiet alleyways that make Amsterdam famous

Meaningless wandering become the aim of the day before a session in Amsterdam's ice bar a complete waste of time other than the 2 beers it provided.

Walking back to the station gave us a look at some of the beautiful circa 1750 buildings and the lovely canals that make up this pretty city

We got back to the hotel to receive a rather disheveled looking Kevin Henley my riding partner for the next 3 months - Kev had successfully endured the 24 hour flight across

Its only 1 full day left for Monika before she wings her way home to Australia !

Day 40 - Amsterdam

Another day another country.

Did some last minute packing trying to comply with airline on board carriage and weight limit with bike now part of the luggage.

Said a sad goodbye to Henny, Wilf, Rita and Anita no doubt hard for Monika with life now 12,000 miles away in Australia

Another beautiful day as we drove again in the direction of Bristol airport fueling up along the way.

The pre pack paid off with weigh limits being met although would have counted for nought as Monika forgetting she had packed the toiletry bag in her carry on had security staff going through her baggage like she was an All Quaeda leader ... come to think of it there was the time ....

Amsterdam was only a short 1 hour flight away and with bike stored at the airport it was baggage on the shuttle to our Hotel about 10 mins away

First impressions of Amsterdam include - lovely flowers beginning to bloom and a damned good chance of getting run over by a push bike at every corner !

Will spend tomorrow having a look around this beautiful city while waiting for my cycle partner in crime to arrive from Aus - he's on the way !

Fwd: Day 38 - Wales

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Day 38 - Wales
From: michael litchfield <m_litchfield@hotmail.com>
To: litchy1.kitty@blogspot.com
CC:


Was lucky to have survived the night after a few terrrifying nocturnal journeys (part prostrate part beer related) down the cottages steep internal spiral staircase !

Drove with our friends to beautiful Tenby on the coast on a lovely sunny day. Tenby is a beaut walled town with Victorian style buildings dominating the cliff side esplanade providing for great views of the sea and its almost Australian like beach (take away the sub zero water temperatures)

After a lazy walk and some seafood we quickly visited the impressive castle town of Pembroke on the way back as well as the lovely cathedral city (more a village) of St Davids (smallest city in England) and its nostalgic ruins - glorious in such weather !

Back at the cottage with a beautiful setting sun we journeyed down through nearby fields to the coast to the Blue Lagoon a sea filled quarry where we were treated to teenagers in wet suits leaping some 30-40 feet from rocks into the uniquely coloured water - we wisely decided not to join in , not until after dinner !

It was a great night with good friends as Anna put together a lovely dinner & Jack & Geoff (two of the three stooges) regailed us with many a riotous story of our soccer clubs characters who provided for a colorful if not too successful history !

Day 39 - Honiton

Said goodbye to our friends and headed back 4 ± hours by motorway to Honiton

As is often the case with our UK holiday almost over the day provided the best weather so far with great views of the countries motorways and the belching stacks of the Welsh cities we drove through !

With all this motorway driving i have almost become accustomed to the F1 speeds in the outside lane which seems so out of whack with the structured over taking process ratther than the free for all back in Australia

With departure day looming the afternoon was catch up time with family and friends and most importantly checking that both my bike and Monika would fit in our hired car ..... would have been a tough choice if not !

Its a sad farewell to our UK family who we`ve both really enjoyed catching up with - they have shown the love that a close family can provide !

Its now time to have a couple of days in Amsterdam with Monika soon to head home and self about to embark with Hurricane Henley on another cycle epic so badly needed after all the weight gained on the cruise !

Day 36 - Wales Pembrokeshire !

It felt like groundhog day as we left Honiton once again for Bristol this time continuing across the huge Severn bridge into Wales for another 4 hours to meet friends at their rented cottage near St.Davids in Pembrokeshire.

Our friends Jack & Anna (Melbourne) Geoff and Jan (formerly Melbourne now Bournemouth UK) share a common background with the `boys` and self having all played soccer together in Melbourne for a perenial whipping team called Nth. Melbourne United where scoring a goal was reason enough for extensive celebration !

Having arrived at the cottage with our friends out Monika and i headed to nearby Porthgain a beautiful small harbor village with a historic quarrying history. A quick but nervous walk along the headland provided great views of many precipitous cliff side drops looking out towards Ireland.

Having made phone contact with Jack we caught up and dined in Porthgain at the 17c Sloop Inn. Meals were enormous and pints of ale free flowing as we reminisced of a past once shared and of journies since with Jack and Anna having recently completed the exact same Mediteranean cruise that we`d taken (if truth be told they in fact put us on to it!)

We returned to our nearby cottage a lovely character filled building with huge exposed timbers and 3 bedrooms with ours at the top of a steep spiral metal staircase meaning nocturnal visits to the toilet ( there was bound to be many after our drinking) were likely to be extremely hazardous !

A lovely night with good friends with sadly our time in the UK coming to an end but not before some exploring of this lovely area.