Everyone and everything was crying

Its always hard to leave loved ones and the end of this trip has been no different. We left Steph and Felix at 7:15 am on Thursday to begin the mammoth trip home.  

Tears all round.

Even the sky is crying. It is the first day of significant rain in our whole trip and for once, it feels justified and real.  We head up into the low cloud hanging over the Rechburg hill behind Straßdorf and into blinding rain and howling wind - a bit like someone wailing.

Over the top, it clears a little, although the going is still slower than normal in morning work traffic.

We are headed to Munich International Airport (Franz Josef Strauß) via Ulm. Somehow, this trip seems to take longer - as though something is holding us back a little.

The traffic while normal for a business day is heavy and we keep pushing on.

We get to Munich Airport at around 9:50 am.  Returning the rental car is an interesting experience here - you drive into a huge underground lot where all the company's cars are received together by an efficient band of  ipad toting young people. Quick checks all round for damage and mileage and a check of fuel and you are asked to "leave the keys in the ignition please" and off you go.

Michael sorts a luggage trolley as we have as much to bring home as we took over!Back through the car rental hall - thank goodness we are not trying to get a car today, there are hundreds of people in multiple queues.

We had discussed upgrading our return flights to business class to try to give us some more space and the hope of some sleep.  I had emailed Thai Airways, but they said it could only be done on the day at check-in. We have a little time to kill, as the check-in desk does not ope until 2.5 hours before departure (it is now 4 hours before). We find a cafe and have one last German meal for breakfast - Weisse Wurst mit Bretzel und Mustard. We added freshly squeezed orange juice to top it off - yummo.


Finally, the check-in counter is open. We walk up to the clerk and tell her we want to enquire about an upgrade to Business Class.  She tickets our economy seats and then sends us to her colleague for the purchase.  Just to make sure that we know how much it will cost, she takes out her mobile phone and calculates the two ticket prices and shows it to us. €2,990  ($4,470.23)  THEN she tells us that this is for the Munich to Bangkok sector only. Egads.  Still, we so need some sleep - neither of us slept well last night. The Clerk is just about to process the new tickets when I had a brainwave and I can't think why I didn't think of it before:
"Is the plane full?" I ask."No", she says "in fact there are about 100 empty seats".  
"Any chance that we can have a spare seat between us then," I ask.
She is very obliging - she gives us seats 40D and 40G which are the two aisle seats in the centre block, and blocks out the two seats between us - effectively giving us 4 seats!!  For free.
Way to go - a $4,470 saving!  

Feeling very pleased with ourselves, we head through security through a maze of walkways and corridors and get to passport control to find only 1.5 gates open. 1.5 because the second one is dealing with people in wheelchairs (any older Indian), families with babies or children, rabbis who refuse to queue like everyone else and the odd person who tries to jump the queue.  This was the most painful part of the process and it takes more than 40 minutes to snake our way through.  Michael stops to get nougat that we couldn't get in Schwäbisch Gmünd and, having coffee, we realise that we still have some unspent Euros. It is better to spend than to lose on the exchange, so we pool it and Michael goes to see what he wants to buy. Came back with a new watch for ME, and nothing for himself. Ahh, love! 💖


Needless to say, we had a comfortable flight and Michael even managed a few good zzzz's.  The service is fabulous and the trip uneventful.  Food was really tasty - complete with real cutlery. I had Chicken in Gravy with Potato and vegetables while Michael chose Pork and Beans with rice and an egg. We both had a small proscuitto salad, pretzel rolls, cheese and crackers and cake.

When we get to Bangkok, we need to transit to our next departure - along with at east half of our flight and many from other flights. One of the very good things about Bangkok Airport is that the signage is really clear in directing you where to go - AND it includes distances so you know how far to your destination!  And unlike our arrival where we had to walk so far, this time it is only 350 m to the transit security check point and then only 400 m to the next gate.  Then down to the gate that is not yet open.  

And the world is still crying. We came in to Bangkok through some pretty impressive storms that included lightening!


And if the first flight was so good, this one was almost the opposite. I will be writing to Thai Airways and pointing out the very significant differences.  The plane is full - in fact I only see two empty seats.

Michael is beginning to look annoyed.  Now that we are on the way home, he just wants to GET home!

We are served breakfast, the same one that we had so recently had on the Munich - Bangkok sector - not a problem, not everyone has come from that flight. No pre-meal drink of water - yes, problem. Cheese omelette, potato cake, chicken sausage and tomato relish. Orange juice, diced fruit (the pineapple and pawpaw (which I don't normally like, were delish), croissant with impossible-to-open butter and jam.

Ten very long hours later - no water offered between meals - in fact no service at all, no working entertainment system, which meant that the lights were dimmed out as soon as breakfast was served - like by 10 am and the heating turned up. Talk about the sweats.  Being crammed,it is hard to sleep. Thankfully, I still had Felix's book and soon finished that.
Later in the flight we got to know three young Italians sitting next to and in front of us. They are coming to Australia for their working holiday year and we chat about their home and ours. They know about couchsurfing, so we expect them to visit us during the year!

Ten VERY LONG HOURS later, we touch down in Sydney.
Donna is meeting us - wonderful.  I sms her to let her know that we need to go through quarantine where, as expected, the painted eggs present a problem - they need to be dipped in some anti-bacterial solution and if we want to keep the egg carton that has protected them thus far, it will cost us $100 to have it treated.  It goes!
The officer is very obliging (although I witness two of her colleagues not as nice). She helps dry and wrap them and even gets us some bubble wrap to help protect them.

Finally, out to Donna and to be greeted with bear hugs. I think that we are all remembering our joint time in Europe all those years ago.
We get out to the car and are whizzed around to the Mecure only a couple of kms from the Airport. Although the waiter at their restaurant is closing, when the manager sees that there are a number of people wanting something to eat or drink, she makes him stay open.
We have a panini and a coffee and then head to the room.  Its now about 9:30 pm and neither of us have had any quality sleep for about 2 days.  we chat with Donna for a little longer and then head to bed.

Tomorrow, the last leg home and then we need to race home from Hervey Bay airport as Bella arrives at 1:30 pm.
Love to all - see you soon.

Another adventure done. 😢

The monasteries have a competitor - the Merry Cemetery!

Oh, and the Festival was definitely yesterday.  The music, or was it from the restaurant below us, pumped bass well into the night last night. I went to bed at 11 with the beat still drumming in my ears, but it didn't stop me from sleeping. Sleep was good. Sleep was a full 8 hours - yay.

We are down to breakfast as the pull down of the festival is in full swing and before we head over to the Merry Cemetery and the Memorial to the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance in Romania. They don't open until 10, so we have a bit of time.

We repacked the suitcase last night, so once we hit the road, we can just go straight to the airport and check in without drama.
Well, we left the hotel without any drama and as we head off in the car I plug in Sapanta where the Merry Cemetery is to the tablet. But then as we get back in to Sighetu Marmatiei proper, I spy the sign to the Memorial to the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance in Romania and it is only 500 m away, so a quick change of plans even though the GPS is very insistently telling us to turn right, in 50 m turn right, in 120 m turn right, we keep going straight. Thankfully, this memorial opens at 9:30 am, so we are right on time.  And as we are early, parking is a breeze - right at the end of the block where the Memorial is located.


The Memorial is located in the former Sighetu Prison and tells the story of the rise and impact of communism in Romania from 1945 to 1977. Like many of the ghettoes, gulags and prisons in other parts of Europe, it tells in detail of the atrocities that man can visit on his brother in the name of power.

• 1945 - the repatriation of former prisoners and deported persons from the Soviet Union happened through Sighetu
• 1948 - imprisonment of students, pupils and peasants from the Maramures
• May 1950 - 100+ government ministers, academics, economists, military officers, historians, journalists, politicians were transferred to Sighetu
• Oct 1950 - 50 bishops and Greek-Catholic and Roman-Catholic priests interred
• Prisoners could not look out the windows as they were all shuttered, with only a small patch of sky visible
• 1955 - Geneva Convention and Romania's admission to the UN - some pardons were granted and some prisoners freed, other sent to other places and the balance placed under house arrest. The prison returned to being a law prison.
• 1977 - the prison was put out of use and fell into disrepair.
• 1994 - Approval was given for the creation of a Memorial on the site.

 The names engraved in the memorial wall, and the photos that line the main corridors of the detainees are very sobering.
It began our day with a very different feel as we realised that the communists and their followers have so much to answer for.  In order to really do the Memorial justice, you would need to spend at least half a day here, alas, we give it 2 hours only, but enough to give another small insight into the nature of man.

So we are now off to Sapanta.  This is the home of Cimitirul Vesel - the Merry Cemetery. Relatively new, it came into being in its current form only in the 1930s when local artist Ion Stan Patras begins to celebrate the life of villagers by carving and painting headstones that depict something of their time on earth. Today, his work is continued by Dumitru Pop.
The artist alone decides on the picture and the epitaph - although he consults with the family to get information on the deceased. There are hundreds of these crosses in the cemetery and the following is a verse on just one:
Under this heavy cross
Lies my poor mother in-law
Three more days should she have lived
I would lie, and she would read (this cross).
You, who here are passing by
Not to wake her up please try
Cause' if she comes back home
She'll criticise me more.
But I will surely behave
So she'll not return from grave.
Stay here, my dear mother in-law!

There was one tragic one where a three year old little girl had been killed after being struck by a car.
All in all - a unique and quirky way at looking at life and I can't help but think that this is the way I would like to be remembered.  Heaven knows what would be written about me though!  😄

The Church of the Annunciation which sits beside the cemetery is still under construction. As we have said before, religion is big business and most of the tiling that is happening here is in rich colours and gold mosaics.  The church certainly does have a very colourful and impressive spire - I'll put some pics on Facebook.

Just a km further on is the Mănăstirea Săpânța-Peri which has the honour of having the tallest spire of a wooden in Europe.  No mean feat considering that this newly built church (1997) is constructed using traditional methods.

Set aside from the village amidst a forest, this place exudes a calm that was very welcome after the sombre and then light-hearted start to our day.

After this, it was time to turn for the south and a return to the International Airport at Cluj-Napoca to depart Romania.  A little over 200 kms, it will take us 3.5 hours.  We have grown to trust the predictions of the tablet and Google Maps and not to base our expectations on driving times from home.  So we know that we will get to Cluj around 3:40 pm.  In good time to return our hire car and make our departure at 4:55 pm.

The trip itself is relatively uneventful and very Romanian.  In any other country in the world, it is a well known fact that red cars go faster.  Here, they are the slow cars!  And after seeing an advertisement on TV last night for Prevomit, a medication for travel sickness, I can't help but think that the pharmaceutical companies are in carhoots with the road designers.  Apart from the two major motorways, there would not be more that 1-2 kms of straight road anywhere - even on the flat they meander along.


We pull in at the car parking lot at the Airport right on cue.
Double check the car and gather all our 'stuff' (there is that word again, Gen) and head in to return the keys.  The Dacia has been an interesting car. A workhorse for sure.  Michael and I lay bets on how far we have driven - we cannot find the odometer on the dash display and have to ask the rental clerk to tell us.  Michael suggest 4,000 kms while I say no, I think more like 3,000 kms. The clerk gets back to the office, our camera in his hand (it was left int he door pocket) and confirms me as winner - we have only driven 2,913 kms, even though it feels much more.  The clerk is quite impressed and tells us that we have just driven 6 times the length of the country.  Now, when you put it like that . . .


As we take off, we can't help but feel that the taxi-way at the airport really reflects the infrastructure of much of the country - patchy, bumpy and definitely in need of a bit of TLC. Thankfully, the runway proper is in better nick! We are again flying with Air Dolomiti - and for the grand sum of 20 euro extra per ticket have snagged business class.  This just means that we get two seats each - across the aisle from each other and extra special attention such as a served meal on china with real cutlery rather than the sandwiches in a box. And I get a glass of Prosecco to wash it down with.

Drum Bun Romania - it sure was nice getting know you a bit and our final view before we head into the clouds is of the outskirts of Cluj, like most of the rest of the country strung out in a line along the roadway.

Our trip is uneventful, although for most of it we are above the clouds and the smog with nothing to see.  There is a storm outside Munich, but as we come in toward our landing, there is a parting of the clouds and a late ray of sunshine to bring out a beautiful view of Germany.
We have decided to stay at the Hilton at the Airport again tonight before heading back to Steph and Felix in the morning.  Sort out the car that was originally booked for today, have some dinner - at the Route 66 Buffet (at 48 euro a head!), compile tonight's story and that is it - your lot for the day!

Over to Romania - and the heat!

Saved a bit of time last night by checking in on-line. Was a good opportunity to also change our seats - the original ones were over the wing and would have given virtually no view. So now we are up toward the front and with a window.

It sure is a sign of the times when every airport we need to use is multi-terminaled with zillions of gates.  Guess that everyone wants to fly these days. From Munchen Flughafen Hotel Hilton we walk to Terminal 2, go through security control and customs and then head to Gate H39. The have gates A-L spread between the two terminals, each with 40+ exit points!  Yes, a walk, but not too bad - perhaps 850 m in total. The only problem is that there is only one set of toilets - back perhaps 600 m.  Not good when you are in a hurry ;)

On our way out to the gate, we come across a Work, Sleep, Relax centre in the middle of the gateway - complete with Sleep Pods!

English is widely spoken and seems to be the common denominator for communication in the melting pot where east and west meet.  Good for us, but also not so good - we won't need to try too hard to be understood and will need little excuse to try to crack pronunciation!!

We are booked with Lufthansa, but will travel with their code-share Air Dolomiti out of northern Italy. All goes well with very streamlined self-check-in, however that is where the technology ends. Down four flights of double stairs to the tarmac - that was fun (not). Then a bus trip out to the plane. There is a Team Germany girls sports team travelling on the plane - don't know which sport, but judging by the number of them, I guess football.

The plane we are flying on is a schmick little number called an Embraer E-Jet. It is a narrow bodied, long and sleek vehicle with four seats across in a 2+2 configuration, so we have a window seat.  It taxies very quickly and we are soon soaring high and fast.  The cabin service is excellent with egg and meat sandwiches and divine little Italian biscotti. Michael enjoys dunking his in his coffee. I save mine for later.

I'm fascinated with the air traffic up here. It seems to consist of two lanes - the scenic route and the autobahn or autostrada - planes that come in to view for mere seconds as they scream across the sky.  Missed getting a pic of the first couple, but then got ready in time to catch one on camera. Not much else to look at up here - we are flying well above an 8/8 cloud cover.  The fun starts when we begin to descend. O.M.G. the air pressure is playing havoc with my ears (and other people's). Swallowing, coughing, yawning, chewing gum - none of it helps and we are still 20 minutes from Cluj. Dear God, this is torture.  Romania comes into view as we bumpily drop beneath the clouds. As expected it is quite mountainous and for this part anyway, only settled in clumps.
And as we even more bumpily land in a crosswind, and are taxiing in to the gate, we spy a Lear Jet and a Citation sitting on a side apron.  Guess someone has some money!

We exit the plane in to the heat - but it is not so bad.  On to another bus for the transfer of about 300 m to the terminal building (thankfully we didn't need to walk it in the heat!).  Through Passport control - "How long are you staying, where will you go?" is asked in impeccable English. Collect our baggage and out through customs control (no-one there) and over to the car hire office.

Raul could not be more helpful.
He apologises that the only automatic vehicle he has is a locally produced Dacia - not a problem I tell him.  We ask for a GPS and he upgrades that to a wifi enabled tablet with Google Maps - all of Romania is covered by wifi - go figure - a country not too many years out of developing status and you can pick up wifi EVERYWHERE - very cool!!
Offers us free bottles of icy cold water, escorts us personally to the car, connects the tablet and explains the intricacies of the car - there is no 'Park'! And set us off with our first destination programmed in.  He tells us that the worst of the heat has passed and that yesterday it was 40 degrees - thank god for small mercies.

We leave the airport and drive through downtown Cluj. We are headed for Salicea - in the foothills of the Mamure mountain range.  The architecture is quite depressing - a hangover from the communist regime.  And there is much building of new churches.  Like many other places in Europe, the roads are narrow and the further we head out of Cluj, the worse they become. And to make matters worse, you share the road with trolley buses - that'll keep me on my feet!

We have booked accommodation at Casa Dinainte with spa facilities - we are not interested in these, it just looked nice and was away from the City. As we get near, we are directed onto an unsealed rough road, but half the traffic we are in also turns. Once we reach the property, the driveway is fully paved and the lawns manicured and there are heaps of people.  Turns out it is a popular day trip.
I'm still not up to dinner, so tonight Michael dines alone on Grilled Zantra which he likens to perch, with mediterranean vegetables and bread.

And as we sign off for the night, there is a thunderstorm rattling all round us. Hopefully when it breaks, so will the humidity.
See you tomorrow guys!

Catching up with the extended family

Last night, the staff of the Hotel Krone told us that breakfast would not be served until 8 am today as they would have a late night!  What a fantastic night it was.
We have decided to leave the Hotel a day early and head to Munich tonight as our 10 am flight to Cluj in Romania would necessitate a 4 am departure. We have booked in to the only hotel at the airport - the Hilton, to make life a little easier.
And this morning we are condensing our clothes in to one suitcase to take with us - there is absolutely no point taking two.

We head over to give a bit more of a hand with the packing and this afternoon will head down to Schorndorf to visit with Steph's Uncle Rudi and Aunt Olga. It will benice to see them again after so many years.

Robyn is online this morning telling us to travel carefully as heatwave conditions are expected across southern Europe for the next 5 days - believe us, we know - the warnings here are often. We are heading first to the mountains of the Mamures, so hopefully it will be a little cooler. I have booked us rooms at a wellness resort - complete with pools, so hopefully we will be ok!!

This morning starts interestingly - with a blackout. Right across town the hotel owners tell us. Looks like there will be no breakfast. But no, they insist that they can do breakfast ad they have a gas cooker in the kitchen to boil water for coffee.  Its a much slower start to the day for the hotel staff. I quiz them on what time the Jazz Party finished last night and they tell us that it was early - only 1:30 am.  I had been pumping zzzs for almost 3 hours by then - right above it!
I explain that I too play the double bass and am told that father and son both play, AND that they have three basses if I want to 'jam'.  I beg out as it would mean cutting my nails.  I did comment on the beautiful sound of the bass played last night and was told that it is more than 100 years old - and English!

Breakfast done and dusted and its back to the packing - I am feeling so much better today so get busy wrapping ornaments, glasses, pots, plates etc. Michael and Felix head back to the cellar and Steph heads for the kids rooms.  Its all a-go at high speed today.
Second interesting bit, Felix gets Michael to pack his wines in a box.  Felix later picks the box up to find the base would not hold the weight and lost two nice reds. The bigger problem was cleaning up the spilt wine and glass when there is chaos all round.  And Michael, in the midst of it became heady enough to have to go outside to the fresh air.

In readiness for the cleaning of the house after the workmen finish today, and the uplift of the houseful of furniture next Wednesday, the kids are off to stay with Steph's Uncle Rudi and Aunt Olga.  Oma and Opa to the kids.  So after lunch, we and Steph and the kids head for Schorndorf - 25 minutes away.  We are hardly at the top of the stairs in their home when we are enveloped in warm bear hugs. It is SO nice to see them again after so many years. We have been invited for afternoon tea and Michael samples every one of the cakes Olga has provided. Great coffee, some great laughs and reminiscing and all too soon it is 5 pm.

We have decided to come in to Munich tonight so our day is less frantic tomorrow. We program the GPS with Munich Airport and we head back through Schwäbisch Gmünd, Aarlen, skirt the edge of Ulm and come in to Munich from the north west. In Spain there is El Toro, the Bull, adorning the roadside.  Here is it deer!

And this week is the first of the six week summer break, so there are plenty of caravans, motor homes and even a Citroen with a jump seat!

By 9 pm we have returned the hire car and are ensconced in the Hotel Hilton - right between the two terminals.
Michael is chuffed to find a wurst van set up in a Pratt engine!  Who says take away food has to be boring!

Dinner is in the Charles Lindburgh Restaurant - wait for it - a Route 66 themed american style buffet! Still, it fills the hole.
Now I am off to cjeck in for our flight in the morning.  Gut Nacht! 

A tale of many Kings in a Kingdom of Smiles

Finally we have access to the internet again - you can't start to understand how frustrating it is for someone like me to not be 'connected'.  Even in the air it is frustrating 😄 

The flight in to Bangkok from Sydney wasn't too bad - it was not full, so we had a bit of spreading room.  We are on an older 747 without a nose or body camera, so you can only follow your trip via the map - ho hum!  
 
So I take to the movies and watch The Zookeepers Wife and then A Cure for Wellness - two very different, but good movies.  We feast on Chicken in Pa-Nang Curry with rice, and a crab meat salad and carrot cake.  All very nice.
And an hour before we land we are fed again - this time, fruit salad, Stir fried Udon noodles with chicken in Black Bean sauce and Wattle seed cookies.

For some reason, we seem to always arrive on flights that land at the furthermost gate from the airport entry.  In Bangkok, this meant a walk of 1000 metres - measure in 150 m increments from the gate to customs.  Crap!

We arrived in Thailand in the peak of the monsoon season, but it had not rained at all on Saturday.  This meant that the humidity was near 100% the whole eight hours we were there - you could feel it as soon as you stepped off the plane.  That was, until you stepped out in to the carpark - at which point I think I began to perspire in a constant stream.

Our guide Suttira met us as planned and introduced us to our driver Jack who had a late model HIGH SUV.  Very comfortable once I managed to climb up into it backwards.
And off we set to do a whirlwind tour of Bangkok by car.  It is a huge metropolis and much like other big cities, is filled with lots of skyscrapers and in the midst of a growth spurt of numerous more. However the new ones are far more interesting in design with many demonstrating gravity defying shapes - there is one that is almost done that looks like an unfinished 3D jigsaw puzzle.  Not sure how I would feel about working or living in one of the extruded pieces.
What you see in large cities in this part of the world though, is high levels of poverty abutting the wealthy areas.  Some of these areas astound you in the fact that they are still standing - most look like they should have fallen years before.
Suttira was explaining that the 6th King of Siam (don't recall his name) after a visit to Europe came back to the then Siam and told the population that slavery was no more, and that the wealthy who had held power in the ownership of land and slaves, freed their slaves and divided the farmlands with them, encouraging them to stay there and farm with them.  This has resulted in the phenomenon of the wealthy sitting comfortably beside the poor.

We drove through Chinatown which could be transported to Chinatown in any other city, before driving through the flower markets that operate 24 hours a day to provide opportunities for the local population to buy offerings for their Gods.  I have never seen so many flowers - ever.  

There were streets and streets and streets of sellers.  Predominantly orange marigolds, but flowers of every colour and type.

As each new King builds a new palace/s, they are all over the city. Palaces and temples.  And at the moment, everywhere there are photos of the former King, for whom they City is still in mourning - King Bhumibol - the People's King, and his successor - King Maha Vajiralongkornralongkorn, who will be crowned following the funeral of his father in October.

At this time of the day (5 pm onwards), all the tourist attractions are closed, so we can only see them from outside (thankfully in an air conditioned car!) - but it is enough to give us a fairly good idea of the size and bustle of this eastern port.
On the way back into the city centre, we see the street vendors setting up for a nights brisk trade.  Once the shopping areas are closed, the footpaths are given over to this ad hoc trade.  Predominantly food, you see sellers of all varieties of meat and seafood as well as fruits - durians were on every corner and every second stall in between.  Suttira tells us that after eating durian, a 'hot' fruit, you should eat mangosteen, a 'cool' fruit to keep the body balanced. She seemed surprised that we knew of both these fruits!

From here, it was around to a 2000 seat auditorium where we had seats to watch the Siam Niramit show with more than 100 performers and 500 costumes which told the story of the history of Thailand. A true spectacle in every sense of the word!
Suttira had suggested that we eat here at the buffet restaurant, but I had asked her to take us to a local restaurant, rather than one that caters to the tourist palate.  So after waiting 1 1/2 hours for the show to finish, she and Jack drove us around to the Kohl Lanta restaurant - a 'posh' restaurant that locals frequent. It is now almost 10 pm and we four are their last customers - we insist that Suttira and Jack join us.  We feast on fried groper, chicken with cashews and broccoli and mushrooms in oyster sauce, with rice.  I am happy to report that the local Thai restaurants in Maryborough and Hervey Bay offer authentic foods if what we eat here is any comparison!

Then or time in the Venice of the East is at an end and we are driven back to the airport for our 00:50 flight to Munich.  
This flight is fuller than our flight in from Sydney and we are cramped with two others in to the centre seats.  Hopefully, we can sleep.  We now sooner take off than we are pumping zzz's only to be woken and offered a meal in under an hour - and you know how hard it is to get back to sleep after you are woken!  We weren't hungry, just tired, so declined this meal.

Someone near a window opened their shade in the wee hours and at 4:22 am I witnessed the most beautiful dawn looking to the east. Meal time again, and this time we are served, omelette, sausage, tomatoes and hash brown, with brioche rolls and jam.  And coffee.  Had. to. have. coffee!
This morning I began watching Jackie - but the thought of arriving looking like I had bawled for the entire flight put me off, so I turned over to Collateral Beauty - not much better really.  And finished this leg off with Just for Laughs - GAGS - hilarious and laughed myself stupid.

And before long, we were landing in Munich.

Will need to post photos when I work out how to get them from the camera to the laptop!

We're off on the Road to . .

Well, hello there.  Long time since we last met here, isn't it.

Well, we are off again.
we have decided to take a quick trip back to Europe - leaving Saturday 29 July and arriving home on 9 September 2017.
We all know that I love to travel in a very organic, unplanned sort of way, responding to local stimuli as we meet them BUT with only six weeks, this time we are needing to plan, plan, plan to make the most of our time.

Itinerary to date is as follows: 

• 29 July - Hervey Bay to Sydney Meet Donna for dinner 
• 30 July - Sydney to Bangkok 8hrs layover - transit tour with a private guide arranged
• 31 July - Bangkok to Munich Pick up hire car and drive to Steffi and Felix in Schwaebisch Gmeund!!!! A week with the family and our little 'grandies' - WHAT A JOY (Yiayia and Papou are bringing pressies!!)
• 6 August - drive back to Munich, return the hire car and then fly to Cluj-Napoca in Romania where we pick up another hire car.  And this is where it gets very interesting - we have a mere 14 days to cram as much of this fascinating country, its people, its food and wines, its scenery - as we can.
  
  Check out www.romaniatourism.com/sample-itineraries.html to get some idea of how big a challenge cramming this gorgeous country in to two weeks will be!
  High on the list of priorities are:
  Bram Castle (Dracula's Castle - though there was no such person and the story has nothing to do with this castle) and the more stunning Corvan Castle
  
  Postavarl Peak cable car
  Sibiu and Sighisoara
  Catching up with Lorena (Romania's top wine maker) and Diana - who we met in France in 2009
  The Painted Monasteries - Bucovina, Voronet, Moldovita and Humor
  Brasov
  Transylvania
  The Art ZNouveau architecture of Oradea
  The traditional villages of the Maramures
  The Carpathian Mountains
  The amazing road into and along the valley -> world's best road trip according to Top Gear. The Transfagarasan mountain road is one of the most spectacular roads in the world. 90 km long, it runs through the Fagaras mountains - part of the Transylvanian Alps.
  

  

  Transfagarasan Road

• 19 August - fly Cluj back to Munich, pick up another hire car and return to Schwaebisch Gmeund
• 25 August - drive to Nettatal for Anne and Steve's wedding weekend
• 27 August - over to Hamburg to visit Inga and Markus, Finn and the very new Lena
• 29 August - drive back to Schwaebisch Gmeund and the family Lippold
• 6 September - return flight to Australia via Bangkok (2hr stopover this time)

We'll see you here during the trip!

Water water everywhere! A day of contrasts.

The Wasserstrassenkruez or Water Bridge just outside Madgeburg in Germany sent the email world into hoax spins a few years ago when people queried the legitimacey of the photos that were being circulated. But now, as then, this is very definitely a real resource.

It compares with the Falkirk Wheel that we saw earlier this year in Scotland in terms of ingenuity and actually performs almost the same function - well, they both serve to minimise the number of locks on their water courses and to transport ships and boats far more cost effectively than the alternatives! We had been through here once before in August (on our way to Paris to collect Helen) and although we could see it above us, we were obviously in the wrong spot as we could not find our way through the huge fence. With directions from the staff at the Hotel Sachsen Anault though we find it easily from Barleben near Madgeburg. As we drive towards the River Elbe on the motorway we can see the canal (although it doesn't really look any different to another bridge of sorts) from afar.

We begin our look at this engineering marvel at the lock system that allows boats to enter and leave the canal. As the height of the canal is much higher than the previous waters, a complex system of holding ponds was created so that the water would not need to be taken from a diminshing source. There are three locks side by side and the width of the canal would easily allow two good size boats to slip by side by side very easily.

It is a truly impressive system and I only wish that there was some way that I could get in to one of the towers so that I could get a better photo of one of the paths of water flowing over the top of the other! There are plenty of photos that you can seek out elsewhere and todayis not the best of days with only one barge travelling on the canal while we are there. Not like the plethora of boats that many photos show! In the autumn chill of 6 degrees, this is one lonely place today!

We had read a little about Magdeburg Cathedral while I was researching the Water Bridge and so once we have had our fill there, we head into the centre of the City. As soon as we reach the outskirts we start to see the dichotomy of this city where the new sits proudly alongside the old, without conflict, but more with a 'what the ???' While much of the civic architecture is old, much of the housing is new. Apartments blocks sure, but at least with an effort to make it interesting with blocks of colour and great public art.

But our time here is limited as we have to drive to Wuppertal and it will take us over 3 hours. With Kate programmed for the city centre, we manage to find a parking spot (thank you Frances) in the Cathedral Square! It is a truly impressive gothic building whose towers can be seen for miles away. In fact we could see them from the motorway long before we got anywhere near the city. This Cathedral has a very interesting past - read about it here. Today it is quite an austere in first glance, but if you take a seat and quietly look around, special discrete items come to your eye. Like the ornate tomb that lies in Mary Anne's Altar in the Ernst Chapel, like the restored choir seats with their faces and scenes relating to earlier occpiers on their misericords, like the Green man and the Tree of Life - one old, one new, tying the 800 years of history relating to this church together. There is a beautiful Pieta and the tomb of King Otto I. And that is just inside. Outside is another story altogether!

The current Cathedral was built after the first cathedral burned down in the early 13th century. This one is much larger and grander. But unlike other gothic churches, there are no external buttresses supporting the walls of this church. The outside is filled with the most fantastic examples of gargoyles, grotesques and agonys. These characters take the forms of animals and people in the most wonderful poses. And then there are the finials and crenellations and parapets and quoins. Aren't they a wonderful mouthful of words - watch out my Scrabble mates, I might just use them! If you need any explanation look here.

Oh, but Magdeburg is more, so much more. It was the cross-roads of the old Roman northern and southern routes, so there are ruins of former roman settlements including statues found in niches that line the oldest garden in the city. Nearby stands the remnants of the former City walls. In the main square, the Markt, lies the outline of the former cathedral that was only discovered in recent times. At the edge of the square there is brass model of the inner city area showing the old cathedral and the new one with all the related church buildings and the other city churches as well as major civic buildings. I always love these reliefs, they visually set the place up so that you can see the relationship between them all.

Surrounding the other sides of the Markt Square are grand buildings that once formed part of the castle and today forms government offices and museums, and on the fourth side are two modern office buildings of a similar height. They are striking and coloured in shades of blues and purples, yet they blend in beautifully in the autumn air. They aslo provide a link to another striking building.

Here in Magdeburg there is another of the stunning Hundertwasser houses. This one is known as "Die Grüne Zitadelle" or The Green Citadel of Magdeburg, a large, pink building of modern architecture completed in 2005. We had hoped that we might get to see it while we are here and low and behold, there it is, peeking out from behind the earlier grand structures, just off the Markt Square. A composite structure, it houses commercial spaces, offices, a hotel and apartments.

Weaving arcades with undulating floors connect a series of inner courtyards with columned colonnades that look more mexican than anything that you would expect here. We can't resist a visit to the public toilets and are not disappointed there either - although at €1 a visit they certainly are the most expensive! There are some shops that really belong here with truly funky items and I manage to buy a few 'souvenirs' of our visit to take home. This adds to the rather small lot of mementos that we have bought!

Later than we had originally planned, we finally left Magdeburg at 3 pm. The drive over to Wuppertal was in and out of rain again. Germany is determined not to allow us to lift our mood as we leave her for the last time this trip. Wuppertal is definitely a working city and our hotel - the Art Fabrik & Hotel reflects this. Once a factory building, this funky establishment appealed to us as soon as we saw it advertised. A series of artists has been involved in the design and layout and their works are all through the hotel, including the furniture of the restaurant.

Dinner is eaten in the hotel as it is raining yet again.
Entrees:
Minestrone - Michael
Special Fleischbällchen in Tomaten-reich (Special meatballs in rich tomato) Maria
Mains:
Rolled Seezungenfilet gefüllt mit Krabben in Hummer-Soße mit Reis und Gemüse (Rolled fillet of sole stuffed with prawns in a lobster sauce with rice and vegetables) Michael
Scallopine in Weißweinsauce mit der Hand geschnittene Kartoffeln und Gemüse (Scallopine in white wine sauce with hand cut potatoes and vegetables) Maria
Dessert: we both have the Creme Caramel that is served with a vanilla custard and chocolate sauce - very nice.