Day 7 Honiton - Back on the road again !

With the media reporting the possible start of the next Ice age (Murdoch owned) and farmers madly knitting jumpers for their frozen flocks we braved the Easter roads to journey 300 miles to Windsor and back to drop in on one of the family's favorite Aunts - Aunt Annie in Windsor near London

Reacquainting with the infamous British motorways we arrived in good time passing the timeless Stonehenge, Royal Ascot and Windsor Castle hoping for tea and scenes with the Queen who was reportedly in residence !

Not so lucky we instead settled for a tail end view with scores of tourists of the grenardier guards and a close up view of the palace.

That done it was time for a little shopping dodging the many people trying to secure a handout (most well intentioned charities) a sign of the difficult economic times in the UK !

Having spent a delightful afternoon with `AA` it was time for a high speed return to Honiton. I gave up trying to work out the speed limit on the motorways as even at 80 mph we were being regularly passed by much faster cars !

Back home at a reasonable hour we took in the towns fish & child shop the staple diet of many over here !

Honiton day 6 - I do like to live by the seaside !

There's not much incentive to get up early when our home base is warm and the outside conditions artic like ! Never the less we hit the road with some of the younger members of our UK family and headed to the English seaside resorts of Lyme Regis and Seaton.

Being good Friday there was a fair amount of traffic around although most sensible Poms have departed the shores for the warmer climes of Spain over this holiday weekend

Some of the remaining millions though took to the seaside near Lyme Regis. We watch amazed in wind chill temps of between -5 and -10 as holiday makers built sand castles and walked along the shore of the turbulent brown ocean while we struggled to function at all - Tegan in particular suffered despite having on at least 5 layers of clothes.

We warmed up slightly with a combo of fudge and pasties and took to the local penny arcades where future UK gambling addicts were being well rained by their parents !

Cold and broke it was back to the Costa Cafe chain for our regular hot chocolate (kylees) and a chance to check emails.

Tomorrow we take the long journey to Windsor to drop in on the Queen !

Honiton day 5 -

It was a blast from the past when I drove our 7 seater Vauxhall rental car into Exeter well equipped with numerous backseat drivers !

Driving into and around busy Exeter for the first time is kind of like driving over the West Gate Bridge in reverse - you don't do it quickly, you need eyes in all directions and there's a pretty good chance it may be your last effort behind the wheel !

Once parked and the road surface `papally` kissed, we wandered into Exeter central to compete with the lunch time hordes

While I took in some of the sites of this once former Roman city Kylee & Tegan took in the shopping outlets (as you would) searching for a UK bargain.

A customary cornish pasty for lunch and we were off to one of the many coffee shops (replacing the traditional pub as the main social outlet) to catch up on emails from home

It was pretty easy getting lost leaving Exeter but somehow we ended up back on track and visited the seaside Devon resorts of Exmouth and Sidmouth on our way back with a quiet night for all

Honiton day 4 - Kylee takes the cake !

We awoke to flurries of snow to signal damned cold weather and Kylee`s 26th birthday !

Monika crawled out of bed late morning with a severe cold and with team Litchy were soon catching up with a steady stream of our large UK family - I expect a total UK breakout epedemic to be achieved by sometime next week !

Tegan ,Kylee and self took to downtown Honiton sampling local food including delicious Cornish pasties followed by the worlds largest hot chocolate complete marshmallows and cream and with a mug that required two handles to lift it !

Late afternoon it was off to a 300 pound a night country estate hotel for afternoon team to celebrate Kylees birthday. Combe House is a beautiful and historic estate house - feeling like royalty not the escaped convicts we supposedly are we were served cucumber and smoked salmon sandwiches followed by chocolate eclairs, tarts, and shortbreads followed by scones with clotted cream and home made jam .... enough to ensure we would not need dinner but more likely a trip to a coronary specialist on our return to OZ !

A nice night catching up with family completed a lovely day all round !

All things French !

Some off beat highlights of our French leg !

- Kylee mistakenly thinking there was a metro station called Garlic Bread ` after mishearing us saying there was a station called Stalingrad in Paris !

- Walking 3 aisles of French pastries in the massive Val de Europe shopping centre !

- Seeing the aftermath of a large Paris demo having protested against gay marriage

- Watching 7 unmarked lanes of traffic somehow navigate around the Arc de Triumph !

- Having ice cream in sub zero conditions on our night cycle tour of Paris !

- Watching the look on Tegans face as we took on an unexpected loop on the Indiana Jones roller coaster at Euro Disney !

- Watching the look on Kylees face as she watched the look on Tegans face as she took the loop .... sisterly love hasn't changed over the years!

- Watching the look on Tegans face as her train pass would not allow her entry to the train platform following the fireworks at Euro Disney - thankfully she snuck through quickly following a pram !

Paris day 3 . One accordion too many !

What a luxury, a semi sleep in combined with freshly purchased croissants & baguettes ... not a bad way to start day 3 in Paris.

With strict Team Litchy precision, the girls were loaded and underway on time as we journeyed to the airport to deposit our bags in prep for our night flight and to allow us to head back into Paris for a last look round.

On another cool day we took in the Arc de Triumph,(stunning views from the top) the Sacre Couer and nearly every brand name designer shop on the Champs Elysee where the girls soon realized that the only thing they could afford was the plastic bag the purchases come in !

Moving around Paris on the metro we were entertained / accosted by a horde of roving buskers (some with musical talent and most without) which play a tune or two on the train on aging instruments ranging from accordions to trumpets and then thrust cups under your nose expecting to be tipped ... well not by our stingy lot !

With our time in Paris at an end we raced back to the airport to pack bags to meet the strict weight allowance of Easy jet before taking off on our 1hour flight to the UK and Bristol.

If Paris was cold the UK was brass monkey stuff with heavy snow falls in the Nthn part of the country.

While shivering we loaded our car to its max and after 15 minutes of cursing finally found the cars handbrake allowing us to actually move off

Finally after 90 minutes on road we arrived in Honiton near midnight to our welcoming UK family to complete a tiring day and commence the next leg of our journey.

Paris day 2 - Big kids day out !

With a full breakfast after last nights dinner of `ice cream` the team took to Paris Disney only 5 mins down the road from Val de Europe.

The sun had finally arrived and temperatures had soared to at least 5 C as we battled with the multitudes mostly intent upon trampling over each other in the race to enter the `happiest place on earth !

Once in the going was slow with an average of 1 ride / attraction per hour due the crowds. Kylee took on Space Mtn 2 a roller coaster in the dark, while Teg and Monika settled for the equally thrilling (well at least for 5 year olds) rotating tea cups before we took on some of the more adventuresome rides and attractions in the adjoining theme park including an Australian rotating roller coaster called Crusher.

10 hours later we called it a day with conditions decidedly cold. Kylee and Monika headed back to prepare dinner - soup this time - while Teg and self stayed to watch (with thousands of others) the amazing finale a combo of Disney CGI ,
Lasers and fireworks set against the night sky and Sleeping Beauty`s castle

You,re never too old .......

Paris day 2 - leaving some skin on the handlebars !

We awoke out of our semi comatose state and took to the designer outlets at Marne le vallee (DFO on steroids) a kind of shopping Disneyland for women before taking in some real sightseeing in central Paris - Notre Dame , Bastille and of course the Eiffel tower

Notre Dame despite the tourist hordes was a clear favorite in its magnificent Gothic splendour and spiritual ambience having seen a multitude of coronations over its 850 year history.

The cold weather had the girls searching for gloves and beenies !

The night was spent on a terrific yet freezing bike tour of Paris (fat tyres) taking in some 15kms of fabulous sights and finishing with a cruise on the Seine with some much needed red wine ... well needed by me at least !
Kylee took the cycle leaders instructions literally by successfully blocking irate Parisian bus and taxi drivers while Tegan with her limited bike riding experience took to the road well although looking like an Egyptian mummy in her multiple layers of clothing - with Monika, team litchy showed exquisite bike riding skills avoiding the multiple bike riding hazards in route !

The ride even came with an ice cream stop with hands just warm enough to grab the cones!

By nights end we all resembled proverbial turkeys, well and truly stuffed and frozen !

We made it home after midnight somehow falling into bed!

Arrival Paris - How to fit an elephant in a shoebox !

After a gap of 10 years + 30 tortuous hours trying to fit into seats designed for midgets team LItchy arrived to a cool & overcast Paris at 2pm local time

Add in a few more hours of customary French queuing for train tickets and a train journey through some of the best graffiti you are likely to see anywhere we arrived finally at our tiny apartment complex in Val de Europe on the outskirts of Paris.

Our days sightseeing included a trip to the local supermarket the size of Chadstone shopping centre and equally as chaotic !

Stumbling back to our hotel there was just about enough energy left to have dinner before collapsing into coma like sleeps only interrupted by midnight cramping by Kylee and yours truly -family unity at its best !

Well we`re here at last and looking forward to some European culture ....... Just after we have our wheetbix and Vegemite for breakfast !

Love to all