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Family travels 2017
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Family travels 2017

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    June 28, 2017
    Rachel Travels 2024Family travels 2017Traveler

    From home to NY we go

    June 28, 2017 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    What!!! You're taking two children on a 25 hour plane flight to NY? I hear you say. Well yes, yes I am. Did I not learn from the torture of last year's trip and want to test my levels of endurance again? Well no, it seems that its true what they say; the memory doesn't hold on to the pain, it only remembers the beauty.

    So here we go. There is so much of the world to see, so many exciting cultures to experience and enjoy. What a lovely opportunity to create beautiful memories with my darling children. Let's see if they appreciate it.    Read more

  • Rachel Travels 2024Family travels 2017Traveler
    so cute when she is asleep...
    mmm "real food" after plane foodour crazy flight path waiting to landall smiles before take off

    Getting there

    July 1, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Our alarm woke us at 5:30am and we were off and running; showers, breakfast, taxi, airport. Even with Saturday morning airport traffic and airport self check in machines that ALWAYS require us to line up again and speak with a "helpful customer service officer", we still made it with plenty of time.
    It turns out I am a nevous flyer. It's not that I'm scared or worried about the plane crashing, I'm scared and worried about being trapped in my seat, locked in with my children for hours and hours. Tom bought me a stomach calming juice which was heavy on ginger, but it didn't really ease my anxiety.
    We boarded our flight through the business class entry and followed the business class path to the top entrance of the plane. Tom loved it! Unfortunatley that's where the glamour ended. We had great cattle class seats upstairs on an A380. Upstairs is all of first class, business class, premium economy, then about 8 rows of economy, that's all! So we felt a bit special.
    Since our trip last year, Adalia has fostered an enormous fear of plane toilets. I think she thought she was going to be sucked down with the loud swoosh noise they make when you flush. So you can imagine my joy when I needed to take her for the first time. She SCREAMED, placed her hands on either side of the door to block both and would not budge. I somehow got her in and closed the door, but there was so much screaming. I assured her that I wouldn't flush until after she had gone back to her seat and somehow I got her to go. I was so embarrassed to find waiting outside the door was a flight attendent and Tom who were worried about all the screaming!!
    The kids would not sleep on the first flight so my anxiety was growing, we wanted to keep them up on the second leg to get them a bit better adjusted to the different time zone. I think in the end they both slept maybe an hour at the most.
    When the "cabin crew were preparing for landing", Adalia had a sudden onset of stomach cramps and was once again screaming. I don't know what the other passengers thought of us, but that child sure likes to attract attention. There was nothing I could do, but she was making me feel so stressed. Tom seemed to block the screaming out and continued watching his movie. She didn't really stop screaming until we were off the plane. We realised that she hadn't eaten anything on the whole flight and was probably starving! I tried to force feed her some biscuits and muslie bars that I had packed, but she wasn't keen
    Our change of planes at LAX went smoothly and quickly, apart from them wanting us to declare the bread rolls I had packed for the flight, telling us to throw them out, then saying they were fine because I packed them at home?!?! Don't quite get the logic.
    The next flight we were crammed into economy once more. Flying truely is the only time I wish I were filthy rich and could afford to waste money on first class tickets. It was so hot, Adalia who had overcome her fear of the toilets needed to go every two minutes and we were nowhere near them, and lets face it plane food is ordinary, especially kids meals, and I really needed Adalia to eat something.
    We were all so tired, Against my better judgement I dozed off, Adalia fell fast asleep, Tom nodded in and out, but Samuel stayed glued to his screen. This in itself was a bad thing. Our flight ended up being unable to land due to terminal congestion following bad weather, so we had to fly around for an extra hour, at which point Samuel hit the wall. He didn't fall asleep, he decided he was plane sick. He was white in the face, loooked awful and said he felt like he was going to be sick. The seatbelt sign was on, so in my mind, vomiting wasn't an option. I calmed him down enough to sort of doze, but he wasn't happy.
    It seemed like this day would never, ever end. The plane took forever to get clearance to land, then the taxi to the terminal was like slow motion, it seemed like our luggage was last onto the conveyer belt (which gave us plenty of time to discuss whether a Meghan Markle look-alike really was her or not) then our taxi to our hotel was stuck in the worst traffic jam. My travel sick sleep deprived boy did not appreciate the taxi drivers windows staying down when we were in an underground tunnel in a traffic jam.
    We finally reached our hotel at about 8:30pm. The kids had passed through fatigue and into delerium. They were hyper. We dumped our luggage in our room to find dinner. To ensure adalia would actually eat something at dinner we found the nearest maccas, ordered happy meals for the kids, laughed that the thick shakes we ordered were literally soft serve in a cup, then I high tailed back to the hotel, only stopping to get cranky with Tom who thought we should be sight seeing at 10pm at night when we were all beyond smashed.    Read more

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    2
    1

    Baptists, Brides and Brambles

    July 2, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Our first night's sleep was so much more successful than anticipated. Even though the kids were so tired the night before and didn't get to bed until 10:30, I still gave them Phenergan and it worked well at keeping them sleepy all night. Adalia awoke at 4:30am, and woke poor Sammy, but I told them to lie quietly in their beds until morning, and they both fell back asleep. (Sammy doesn't remember being awake.) I woke everyone up at 8:30!!
    Unfortunately Sammy hadn't quite caught up on sleep after his 30 hours being awake, and he is possibly unwell with a cold, so he was reluctant to do ANYTHING. At the hotel breakfast he lay his head on the table and cried, and not even a croissant could cheer him up.
    We made our way Uptown to Redeemer Baptist Church for their 11:30am Classical Sunday Service.
    Along the way we caught a Subway Train and I watched Adalia's terrified eyes find mine when she heard the clatter of the train approaching. We meandered through Central Park where Samuel rediscovered his fascination with Squirrels, and we crossed the road out of the Park and the contrast between the uniquely bent branches of threes and the spectacle of the straight towering buildings is striking.
    We coax the kids along in an effort not to be late to church as they have "lock outs" like at the theatre, you wait outside until and appropriate interval before you can enter. We made it just in time and sit to the left hand side. As this is our second time at Redeemer (we are practically regulars) I'm not as overwhelmed by the "production", but once again I am impressed with its polish. Every word that is spoken on stage has been thought through and provokes a stirring in my heart. The explanation of the prayer of confession; that we confess our sin before God not to show Him or us how terrible we are, rather we rejoice that our sin is forgiven because Jesus took it away; makes saying the words so much more meaningful. The bible reading was more a dramatic monologue and was so moving, so powerful. And the musicians were amazing to watch.
    However all good things must come to an end, as it was time to take Adalia to the toilet. A lady kindly let us go before her in the line that was rapidly growing behind us, forming an audience to the drama that is my daughter. We discovered that the toilets were auto flushers; ADALIA's WORST NIGHTMARE!!! I don't know what people thought was going on behind the closed door but the dialogue went something like this;
    Adalia- "I don't want to, I'm scared"
    Me - "It's fine, it won't hurt you"
    Adalia screaming- "NO! I DON'T WANT TO"
    Me- "Just do it would you"
    Adalia -NOOOO!!!!"
    Me- "I'll give you an ice cream, just do it"
    This scenario was only mad worse when Tom attempted taking her after me. Imagine the same dialogue, but in male toilets...
    We hightailed out of there and found some street markets to camouflage into. We were contemplating our next adventure when we realised it was 1pm and we should eat lunch even if we weren't hungry, to help our bodies adjust.
    We were close to shake shack and while we had maccas for dinner last night, we embraced the beef sandwich and fries and went again. This time we took our food away, and dined in Central Park amongst the finches and the rats.
    After lunch we strolled around the park counting squirrels and rats. We walked through a section called "The Ramble" and it was brambles of berry bushes. Adalia of course got too close and immediately broke out in a rash, but how was I to know she was sensitive to brambles.
    It seemed that at every turn there was a bride having wedding photos. We even saw a girl get proposed to on an the iconic Bow Bridge with a Tiffany's box. Adalia loved all this, and was particularly overwhelmed with an incident in the toilets. We found the Central Park public toilets which were in every way disgusting, including an overflowing toilet, I tried to hurry my toilet phobic girl through the process so we could get out of there, but our exit was blocked by a lone bride, with no bridesmaids or helpers of any kind trying to get out of her dress. A lady who couldn't speak much English was helping her unbutton the back as the bride tried to shimmy out of it whilst gripping on to a large bag. I offered to hold the bag which she flung at me, and she peeled off her dress to reveal underwear that said "dreams can come true!!!" The whole situation was absolutely mind boggling. What was going on?! I wouldn't want my wedding dress to be within 100m of those toilets, I didn't want my scrappy old dress I was wearing to be in there. Adalia had no idea what was happening but animatedly described the whole thing to Tom and Sammy.
    Poor Samuel was fading quickly, but it was too early to return to our accommodation and go to bed. We tried taking them to two different playgrounds but Sammy just sat next to me and watched Adalia play. Not even a stop at Grand Central Station could distract Sammy from his misery.
    We slowly made our way back, opting to walk as it would take a bit longer, but in the end poor Tom was carrying both children.
    We returned to our room at 5:30pm and the kids happily watched TV for an hour before it was time for bed.    Read more

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    East Lake
    1Brooklyn 99 precinct cops are ready..the subway

    Reliving Brooklyn memories

    July 3, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Sammy spent the night moaning with a headache and I was quite worried about how sick he would be when he woke up. Adalia on the other hand woke up early and was starving, so after keeping her quiet for an hour with Paw Patrol on my phone, I decided to take her to breakfast. Thankfully as I was leaving for breakfast Sammy woke up and was eager to eat which I took as a good sign. He was much better, but still not 100%.
    Tom had organised back in Australia, for an employee's daughter who is living in America, to babysit for us on Wednesday night. She was coming to our hotel to meet us and the kids at 10am. To bide our time until then we did a quick lap around the block to find some good coffee (Tom ordered me a Mocha, but the barista couldn't understand what he was saying as he hadn't pronounced it correctly - Tom, don't you know its Mowka?! ;) and a little play at the park, which turned into a slightly longer play as Caitlyn was running late.
    When Caitlyn finally arrived I was wanting a quick hello and goodbye, but it was awkward, I think she didn't want to be rude and leave too quickly, but we wanted to go! We made way too much polite conversation, the kids were practically doing summersalts to get attention and eventually I snapped, got the kids ready, bags packed and cheerfully said; "ok, are we all ready to go?" and we ALL exited the building.
    Kerbside we set out our day's plans and headed for Brooklyn. This meant the Subway. Ahh the Subway, how I loath thee. It is one of the filthiest places I have ever been to. I swear it has not been cleaned since it was constructed. It is exactly like the scene from the movie "Ghost" where Patrick Swayze learns to flick the coin or kick the can, or maybe Will Smith when he camps out down there in that horrible movie The Persuit of Happyness; grimy filth that smells like wee and germs. The poles you hold on to on the train feel damp with bacteria, every external surface masked with soot. It is a nightmare when you have a daughter who constantly puts her fingers in her mouth!!! Today I felt like I was yelling either "get your fingers out of your mouth" or "Stop yelling" (as both children have blocked ears and are speaking at about 100 decibels).
    So anyway, we got off the train at Williamsberg and walked to Greenpoint. We took in the strange and wonderful sights; a firetruck with the big crane on its back that had a separate driver for the crane, Peter Pan donuts where the whole interior of the shop is a counter top snaking it's way through the space so people can eat counter meals, and the closer we got to GreenPoint the grungier it became. I had a tight grip on the children, not for fear that they would be taken, but because I worried they would bump into someone with black fair down one side, white down the other and get yelled at; this was not a child friendly environment.
    Our aim was to revisit an area we stayed in during our last visit to NY and to have lunch at our favourite diner "Coffee Friends", we happily found "The Garden" market filled with interesting delicacies, however our long walk only highlighted that the world does not remain the same to indulge our nostalgia, coffee friends was no more. We drowned our sorrows in a Bialy from a bagel store. It was a completley disgusting bagel with an onion/poppyseed centre. It was so gross it only compounded our missery. Just when we thought all hope was lost, we rediscovered a cafe we had frequented on our last visit, and enjoyed a yummy lunch there.
    The kids would have happily returned to the hotel after lunch, but we enticed them on with endless rounds of "I spy" and another play at a park which sat at the edge of the East River.
    We boarded another Subway filled with questionable individuals; a man covered in skull tattoos, including one of a very feminine butterfly with a skull face, an old man playing music through a speaker and singing VERY loudly along with his tunes, and three teenage guys who thought it was hilarious to brush their hair in different ways. It was so difficult to distract Adalia from staring!
    I gladly leapt off the train, and after a touch of shopping we made our way to the police station that is featured in a show Tom and I watch; Brooklyn 99. We took some silly photos then ducked into the Doughnut Plant for a chocolate doughnut.
    By this time the kids were really tired and it was starting to rain. We headed to the subway which pulled in as we reached the bottom of the stairs. Sammy, Tom and I swiped our cards and ran for the train, while Adalia, who isn't required to pay, just duck under the turnstyle, had a moment of difiance, confusion, who knows what and wanted to push the turnstyle herself. We all yelled at her, with one foot in the train, and in what felt like slow motion she eventually ran on sobbing. She was so scared. But its ok, she has a super mum who assured her we would never leave her behind, and one minute later she was asleep in my arms - a Hallmark moment ladies and gentlemen.
    The walk from the station to our hotel was tricky. Tom was carrying a sleeping Adalia through the crowds, while I tried to steer Sammy through, but he kept bobbing away to pick up abandoned pennies; our professional money finder is back in action people!
    We ordered ribs, hush puppies (fried cornmeal) and sides from the restaurant next door to our hotel and aimed for an early night. While Sammy crashed out, Adalia was energised from her shut eye on the train, and there is a noisy function happening just below our bedroom window. So not sure how the evening will go...    Read more

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    11

    Strike One

    July 4, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Today is 4th of July, Independence Day, and we had plans, so many plans, oh how we had plans on how we should spend this day. And you know what they say about the best laid plans.
    So Adalia and I were up at 4am with the sun and ready to roll. Sammy was woken around 5am, and by 6am a sleepy Tom asked why we woke up at 6am. I snapped "it's been hours!!!!"
    After breakfast I needed coffee, but getting anyone moving was like pushing an elephant up a hill! The kids wanted to stay and watch PBS for kids and Tom was "planning".
    I got them out and headed for a cafe that advertised "Australian Approved Coffee" but of course it was closed. We went next door to Anna's bakery and I received the worst tasting coffee ever!!! Now I was cranky, I wanted to get the day underway but no, we had to stop at yet another playground!!!! Come on kids, we are running out of time in NY! We have swings in Australia. There were so many childless people sitting in the park drinking their coffee. It wasn't a great playground, all asphalt and play equipment, so I assumed they were going to kidnap my children, but I guess if you are surrounded by buildings any space is an improvement.

    We walked to the Hudson River, past a museum Tom plans to return to, hopefully without me, then ducked into a supermarket just to check out their different offerings then back to Times Square to acquire some baseball tickets - but wait, we weren't Yankies fans. That problem was quickly overcome after some NY Yankies hat purchases. Phew! We were now Yankies fans (much to Tom's alarm as a Red Socks fan, but hey, he was leading this rebellion) and we were ready to get out tickets.
    Strike One! "No cheap tickets left for today's game", said Mr shop assistant. We could only purchase tickets that were $100 each! Wow! I didn't really want to go to the baseball in the first place. Sure I was now a fan, my baseball cap is the nicest cap I've ever own (which isn't saying much, my previous favourite was an ocean earth hat I had in year six) but I wasn't about to sink $400 on one game. Thankfully Tom agreed. We bought cheap tickets to tomorrow's game and amended our plans. We would visit downtown and walk the Brooklyn bridge.
    Since we were in Times Square we took an eager sammy to MnM world. I can't believe I have been to this place three times in my life. I can't stand the smell or the crowds, but we keep returning and paying for overpriced MnM's! Oh well, it's what you have to do. Next we grabbed a pizza and returned to the hotel to eat before heading back out.
    Again there was resistance to leaving, and Adalia fell asleep on the subway, but we got off in downtown Brooklyn and went to Juniors for some American Baked cheesecake, a thick-shake and a hot fudge Sunday. Mum would have loved the cheesecake, I would have brought some back if I could. Adalia nearly slept through the whole thing, but Ice cream was too much of a lure and she forced herself to eat some.
    We were ready to explore downtown, but we were pulled by a mysterious gravitational force to century 21, an outlet store that is famous for top brand bargains. It was like a parallel universe in there that sucked up hours of our day. We didn't get out of there until 5:30pm, then there was Gap to visit and before you know it tom was telling me we needed to return home as it was getting late. Strike two!
    I was frustrated and even though we wouldn't have time to see much in the other side of the bridge, I still pushed to walk the Brooklyn bridge which was a great decision. It was crowded but still lovely seeing the whole city.
    We caught the subway back, grabbed pad Thai and sushi for dinner (which took 40 minutes to make and the kids said it was all too spicy) then I was seriously ready for bed.
    This was a tough call, the Macy's fireworks were on at 9:30, and tom was keen, but I didn't want to take the kids into the crowds, plus we were exhausted.
    We decided to walk down to the Hudson and hope something was happening down there, even though the main fireworks were on the East River. Strike Three! You're OUT!
    We walked for half an hour to see nothing but the colourful reflection from the East River that bounced through gaps in buildings. The good thing about NY is that the streets are flat and straight so if you stood in the middle of the road you could see moments of fireworks. We rushed towards them but were so far away that by the time we were at Times Square they were over.
    We marvelled at Times Square, which the kids thought was Vivid, then walked back to our room. By this stage Adalia was asleep on Tom's shoulders and we had pretty much walked aimlessly until 10:30!!! I found a penny in the ground and as I bent to pick it up, a man said "aren't you lucky?" I thought, well not right now. I think we ended up walking 17km today. Exhaustion is an understatement !!!! But no, despite the cranky start and the foiled plans, it was another lovely adventure.    Read more

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    1
    hotdog and beer1just your local commuter1billy joel groopies3cotton candy brings a smile

    Yankies and The Piano Man

    July 5, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    After a good night's sleep we grabbed our good coffee and set off, first for Washington Square, followed by some growers markets. We saw some squirrels, ate some local produce, had a play in the playground then caught the subway to Yankies Stadium.
    I've seen it in the movies, people going to the ball game, but in real life it is overwhelming to say the least. From the moment you leave the train people are shouting at you to buy fake merchandise and drinks, then in low voices people are offering tickets to the game. It is confronting, and part of me really wanted to help these people as they are just trying to make a living.There are people everywhere and I quickly grab both children's hands. Normally I get opposition from Adalia but the kids are pretty overwhelmed too.
    We had no idea where we were supposed to go, so we joined the throngs of people waiting to get in. So many Yankies fans loved Adalia decked out in her pink Yankies hat. Money well spent.
    Once through the security we caught a lift to our level then up a few more stairs to our seats. They were so high it made my legs wobble. We had made it just in time for the Canadian and American anthems. I had been looking forward to this but in reality it was underwhelming. The organ played, people stood but no one sang! (Well tom did just to show that he knew all the words I'm sure) then we were instructed to say some silent prayers for someone that was shot and killed (not sure who, there is a new one every day...) but the MOST disappointing part was that no one made the announcement to "play ball".
    The batsman missed the ball a few times, hit it, and that was it, Adalia was over it. And after a couple of innings so was I. This game is so slow, nothing like the movies. Hardly anyone even hits the ball. The most exciting part was when theToronto Blue Jays got two home runs in a row and the Yankies coach came on to the field to get cranky with the pitcher.
    We had hot dogs and cotton candy, stayed until after the sixth innings (which was two hours) then decided to collect our first time attendees certificate and leave. In the end the Yankies lost, so it was a bad day to decide to start following the Yankies.
    We caught the train and got off just short of our stop and walked past some of the sights like "The Plaza", "Tiffany's", Trump Towers (where we think trump was actually staying as there were road closures, police and secret services everywhere), them up to Rockefeller. We were willing to go into the Lego store but the kids just wanted to go back to the hotel!
    Once back it was a quick shower and change for Tom and I as we were off to see Billy Joel!
    The baby sitter arrived, she was given instructions and we were off. The tickets advised us to be seated by 7pm, so we high tailed it up 8th Ave and ended up being one of the first people seated. Clearly we were novices, which was also displayed in our clothing, we were so overdressed.
    Since we had so much time to kill we ordered a drink from the bar and we were asked for ID. Tom was on cloud nine, he couldn't believe he had just been asked for ID. But there was a problem, Tom hadn't brought any ID! I on the other hand had withstood Tom's earlier mocking about bringing my credit card and licence and now who was laughing?! So I had to buy the drinks, be served the drinks and carry the drinks away, all the while with tom exclaiming "she is serving drinks to a minor here!"
    When the lights dimmed people started shouting "here comes Billy!" Now I'm not going to pretend to be a big fan, until last week when I did a Billy Joel crash course I only really knew. "Piano man" and "we didn't start the fire" and perhaps a couple of others. My only point of reference of what he looked like was from the album cover I bought from vinnies. So I was a little shocked when a chubby, bald man with a white goatee walked on the stage to screaming, crying fans. But for 68 years old he was incredible! And the sold out audience hung on to every word. It is a rare beauty to see full grown men who aren't drunk, sing with smiles on their faces, and at that concert the room was full of them singing every single word along with Billy, sometimes even louder than Billy for over two hours with no break! But the highlight of the night for every person in that stadium was piano man. It almost brought a tear to my eye.
    The concert ended and the crowds walked down flights and flights of stairs. Tom and I noticed the diversity in age, there was not one predominant age group, however, there were no African Americans. Everyone at the concert was white which we found odd given the diversity of New York City.
    We decided to stroll home through the city, stopping to buy a $1 slice of pizza each and returned to the babysitter at midnight.    Read more

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    The things one does for shopping!

    July 6, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    I was hoping today's post would be nice and simple; I went shopping at Woodbury Common, by myself and had a lovely day." But alas, it was not to be.
    We started the morning rushed and cranky after a very bad night's sleep and an early morning visitor in our bed (Adalia). Plus, the bus company we booked to take me shopping asked me to meet them across town instead of their advertised pickup location which was around the corner from our hotel, their reason being traffic?! Surely there is always traffic.
    We needed to catch the subway across town and waited on the wrong platform for a long time before a train conductor advised us of our mistake. We ran to the right one, jumped on board, ran up to the pick up location and waited. After waiting ten minutes past the arranged time of 9:12am I called the company who greeted my call with "don't call me call the driver!" They shouted a number at me and hung up. No hello, no goodbyes.
    I dialled the drivers number and an auto message informed me "this person has not set up their inbox at this time".
    Getting frustrated we called the original number again which answered and hung up! Things were not looking good at all. I wish I had counted my losses and gone home.
    Tom continued calling the only number we had while I entertained the kids who were literally running rings around me. I was stressed and cranky when tom yelled "across the road, run." So into oncoming traffic we ran, and tom pushed me towards a van with an open door. I got into the front seat of a filthy van and had to sit on one of those gross beaded car seat covers. TOm asked where I would be dropped off in the afternoon to which the driver shrugged and said "no English".
    The moment I closed my door the driver took off, cutting off cars and driving through red lights. Only we weren't getting anywhere, we were literally driving in circles. After nearly an hour he took a turn to Queens, then once in queens he pulled over, popped the boot, sat on the edge of the boot and started smoking.
    There were two other passengers in the car who were from a country ending in Stan, cuzbecastan? They were just as concerned as i was and asked the driver what was happening. The driver shrugged again and shook his head. The man from Stan used google translate to try and assertion what was going on. To this the driver laughed (!) and said 4 and used 4 fingers. What the heck did this mean?! We decided that maybe four more passengers were coming?
    After half an hour I was really getting worried, the driver wasn't doing anything. The man from Stan got out to try and call someone who could give us some answers, while he was out of the car, the driver started driving with the doors open! The wife of the man from Stan tried to jump out of the moving vehicle but the driver started yelling at her in Chinese and stopped driving. both the woman and I jumped out of the van as quickly as we could. Once we were out of the van, the driver started removing all of his identification from the dash board and windows. I was on the verge of tears and working out my escape route. The man from Stan stopped me from going. He had learned from his phone call that a bus was picking us up in ten minutes. Ten minutes past, twenty minutes past, the driver continued smoking, it was raining and we had all had it! The man from Stan spotted a police officer and went and got him. The officer came over and started yelling at the driver, no polite chit chat or questioning, just straight to yelling. It was all getting so bad. If I knew exactly where I was or where to go I would have run! The driver was yelling back at the officer in Chinese and hitting his phone on the steering wheel of the car. Nothing was really resolved, all that happened was the Chinese driver had called his boss and let the man from Stan talk with her. However after another ten minutes had past and still no bus, the man asked if he could call her again and the chinese driver laughed and said "no way".
    Suddenly a black minibus arrived, its side door opened and we were pushed in. I thought for a moment we were being kidnapped. The bus took off before I had sat in my seat and drove at breakneck speed. No one said anything to us, the driver just drove flat out. I've been to Woodbury common once before so I eventually recognised landmarks and could slightly relax, but I was still fearful we would crash.
    By the time we arrived at Woodbury common in was 12pm. It normally takes one hour to get there pending traffic. I got off the bus and tears started flowing. There was no way I was going home with those people.
    I tried to enjoy my day but I was so upset and just wanted to go home.
    I bought some of things I was after, bought another bus ticket and was home in one hour and fifteen minutes, on a bus driving slowly!
    I gave tom and the kids a big hug, discovered that Sammy was still quite sick, then took the family to sushi for dinner and heard about their day at the Intrepid museum.    Read more

  • Rachel Travels 2024Family travels 2017Traveler

    Musicals and monuments

    July 7, 2017 in England ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Our last day in New York had crept up on us. We were sad as we didn't get to do half the things we had intended, like find Harvey's building,(Suits) or go to the Statue of Liberty-I wanted to get adalia and Lacey those foam crowns that Jess and I got from Aunty Noelene so we could re-stage a photo from our childhoods, torch in one hand, bible in the other! But I was also slightly relieved. I had found New York to be much dirtier than last time, and the people so much ruder! One example was yesterday at Woodbury common I had asked a shop assistant for help. She rudely replied "wait a minute" then turned to her friend and continued chatting about her boyfriend and never helped me, even though I was standing next to her. People shove you out of the way, don't hold doors for you, they are just not nice. there was one exception, the man who worked at our breakfast buffet. He was so helpful and friendly, so I won't make out that everyone was rude.
    We spent the morning packing, as the sky had decided to shed some tears for our departure. It was bucketing down! The concierge even offered to delay our check out, but we had raincoats and umbrellas and were ready to spend our last day exploring.
    We visited a near empty wall street, stared down the bull, tried to keep the kids quiet at the 9/11 memorial site ("but I want a turn of the umbrella" screamed an angry Adalia") then tried to find a PJ recommended diner for lunch. We were running out of time and had been walking in the wrong direction, so we gave up on our diner dreams and tried to get a table at counter burger, but once we were seated we realised that we only had half an hour before we needed to be at "The Lion King" so we had to leave. Tom found a great sandwich place across from the theatre and we had a "picnic" at the theatre doors.
    After nearly losing one ticket and luckily finding it in time, we took our seats and waited to be amazed.
    I never saw the show when it was in Sydney, I was never that into it. But we thought it would be a good one for the kids. And it was visually spectacular. The animal costumes were unimaginably amazing. Every time I looked across at Adalia she had the biggest grin on her face. And she loved that there were kids in the show. Sammy was still quite sick, so I'm hoping that's why he kept asking when it would be finished.
    After the show I wanted to go straight to the airport, but Tom likes to milk every single moment out of a trip, so instead we strolled past shops, went to "the pie factory" for a milkshake (tom had purchased pies yesterday and they were amazing), had some fries from "sticky fingers" THEN went back to collect our luggage.
    We were tossing up between at taxi to the airport (about $100) or the bus ($45) and opted for the bus even though it would require us lugging our bags through heavy pedestrian traffic. The doors of the 6pm bus closed right as we got there, and the next bus was apparently 15 minutes away however, for the ten minutes we stood in the line the 6pm bus moved exactly one metre in the heavy traffic. We decided the best option was the train. We hauled kids and bags through thousands of tourists and car park traffic to Pens station, crammed ourselves in a lift that stank of urine, slowly lowering us to the subway, then tried to work out where to go. We asked two staff members, and thankfully when asking the second (who didn't really know the answer) a pilot happened to be walking past and offered to lead us to the right platform. It was quite a walk, I'm not sure we would have made it on our own, and it would have been interesting to know where in NY we ended up! Thankfully for all the effort it was even cheaper than the bus!
    As with all NY public transport, the train terminal was a shimozel! Everyone stood at a waiting area until the train was announced at which point everyone crammed through a small door (that needed to be held open, there are no automatic doors in all of America or seems!) We wanted to wait for the next train but we/I was getting nervous about the time, so we walked through the mysterious doors and onto an underground tunnel which had the longest train I have ever seen waiting. It was full, barely standing room only but we squeezed in.
    After the train was a monorail, then finally at the airport we discovered the plane was delayed. It was a 9:30pm flight, so by the time we were boarding the kids were hysterical, thankfully with laughter and not tears. And once on the plane they quickly fell asleep which was lucky as we were delayed a further two hours on the Tarmac.
    It would have been lovely had they stayed asleep the entire overnight flight, but that would have been too easy. I ended up giving Adalia phenergan at about 2am, which made getting her off the plane difficult, but that's another story for another day.    Read more

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    The long trip to London

    July 8, 2017 in England ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    After giving Adalia Phenergan at 2am on the plane and laying her on the floor at Samuel and my feet, she was not keen to sit up for landing. It was so difficult lifting a dead weight off her seat with no head room to get her off the plane.
    Sammy had mentioned he had a funny tummy while landing, which I dismissed...then as we were disembarking the plane he made a funny cough sound. I asked him if he was ok as I pushed him off the plane. Two steps off and the vomiting began! Poor little thing. So glad we were off the plane. And since I was balancing Adalia and a couple of bags, Tom had to assist Sammy.
    We spent some time in the bathroom before joining the hour and a half long(!) border security line. Then to the baggage claim where our lonely bags were circling the carousel. Tom sprinted and caught one just before it went back through the shoot.
    Steve Scott had organised a driver to pick us up. We found him a little disgruntled as we had taken so long to get through the airport.
    A lovely new Mercedes was waiting to drive us to the Scotts. This made me nervous with Samuel's funny tummy, not sure the driver would appreciate cleaning the car on top of us being so late. so I encouraged both children to sleep if they could. Thankfully they were both asleep within ten minutes of driving.
    We finally arrived at the Scotts at about 1pm, at least three hours later than anticipated.
    The girls were at their school fair, and we decided after a quick bite of toast to go and visit. We were all feeling tired and hot, so after a quick walk around and the purchase of some raffle tickets we walked back to the Scott's. The kids love playing with toys, games and other children, so we hung out for the rest of the afternoon soaking up the sunshine in the little courtyard that adjoins the kitchen.
    Towards dinnertime the men folk went hunting for breadcrumbs, this took around two hours, but eventually cooking was underway. Dinner preparation involved a schnitzel production line (wish I had taken a photo), and when we were done we had about 1.5kg of meat! No one was complaining. It was delicious!
    With jet lag and a glass of wine tom and I could barely keep our eyes open and struggled to put the kids to bed. We were all out at 8:30pm    Read more

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    Soaking up the London sunshine

    July 9, 2017 in England ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    We awoke to a beautiful day, the sun was shining and I'm sure somewhere outside the city birds were singing. Liv made pancakes, Steve made coffee, hotel Scott's covered all the bases.
    We decided to spend a quiet day hanging with the Scott's. The moment Adalia had been waiting for was here! (She had even told the guy at border security about this) we were taking Charlie the dog for a walk!!! Liv and Beth rode their bikes, Adalia had Charlie on his lead and the rest of us were following. Sammy and Adalia were soon on the bikes (Adalia competently riding Beth's very big bike and the girls were walking and chatting. We grabbed a coffee and turned home for some left over schnitzel.

    After lunch, while the boys caught up on Le tour, Adalia experienced the second best moment of her life, Beth did her makeup and Liv did her nails in one coat of aqua polish followed by sparkles (does it get any better). Following the makeover was a session of dressups. I'm pretty sure Adalia will cry when we leave. She kept saying how much she loves Beth.

    Liv was keen to go to church (got to love when your God daughter encourages everyone to go to church!) and as there is only one car, the boys caught the train while the girls drove.
    It was so hot and stuffy in the converted factory, and Adalia fell asleep on me which made matters worse, but I was slightly thankful that she was quiet and everyone could hear the excellent sermon.

    Following church the boys bought burgers and chips and we had a picnic at the common. It was lovely sipping wine while the kids played baseball and did handstands. We very quickly lost track of the time, as the late sunsets made guessing the time difficult.

    Bethy read Adalia two stories in her bed but all the children were very hyped up and no one was asleep before 9:30pm.    Read more

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    pub lunch
    nacho picnic

    London Baby

    July 10, 2017 in England ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Tom was desperate to spend the day soaking up some Wimbledon atmosphere, so Tracy kindly drove us to the celebrity entrance of tje All England Tennis and Crochet club, aka Wimbledon. We jumped out of the car and saw the paparazzi eager to catch a snap of anyone remotely famous. Unfortunately that didn't include us. We waited for a little while and watched them photograph people that we didn't know (although the crowds did) and we walked on. Down the hill drove a grey Ferrari with some famous golfer Tom knew. I'm sure if we waited long enough we would have seen some royals, but let's be honest, apart from Will and Harry, I'd struggle to know who they were- perhaps we even saw some...
    The first thing I noticed about Wimbledon was that everyone dressed up. I'm not talking a nice top and pants, I mean my very best dress with new heals wouldn't have been dressy enough, there were men in suits with pocket squares! We decided it must be like the races. There were a few more casual participants but not many.
    Tom was so pleased that he had chosen today to come to the tennis. All the big names were playing; Federer, Murray, Nadal, Djocavitch and even Williams. I felt bad reminding him that we didn't have a ticket! And even if we did, kids weren't even allowed in, and we had two to get rid of.
    We saw some tickets for sale for £3000 each and bought them on the spot. Just kidding!!! We did see that the only remaining tickets were £3000 and I had to talk tom out of them. He gets caught up in the moment but I don't think even he would
    pay that much. We instead decided to join the queue for cheap entry. We walked for about a km to get to the line noting along our walk that the line was as long as our walk and snaked on past the official gate. At one gate we overheard that the people waiting in line were up to number 6600 and those people waiting had been in line for five hours and were nowhere near the front!!!
    Tom's Wimbledon dreams came crashing down. There was no chance of him getting in.
    We walked to the station taking photos along the way of people selling food in their front yards, or cars with heavily tinted back windows that must have someone exciting inside.
    We caught a train into town and quickly found a pub for lunch. Nothing like pub grub when in London Town. Then for some crazy reason we were walking into M&M world. Why oh why were we back in M&M world?! Apparently it was because Samuel "needed" some caramel M&M's.
    The fake chocolate smell was sickening, and they didn't even have caramel M&M's! They hadn't launched in England yet. Sammy was close to tears as I refused to buy more- we still had some at home from the NY M&M trip!!!
    We consoled him with the promise of ice cream, and on the corner of Rupert St and Archer St we found what we were looking for. Samuel had raspberry sorbet, Adalia had strawberry sorbet, Tom had ricotta and caramel and I had watermelon, cinnamon and Jasmin sorbet. It was just what we needed. We did a bit more walking and some shopping but we didn't want to be in the afternoon commuter crush, so left the city at 4:30pm. We were distracted along the way by a supermarket which soaked up some time, but back to the Scott's by 6pm for Nachos!    Read more

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    141

    Muesum Maddness

    July 11, 2017 in France ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    We planned to wake up early and have breakfast with Steve before he went to work as we needed to be at the airport before his working day ended. Unfortunately we are all still on New York time and we slept in! We woke up in time to say goodbye (at least) and to wave the girls off to school.
    We put on a load of washing, had some toast then left for the British Museum. The sun was cowardly sheltering behind the clouds leaving me feeling chilly in my light dress. And when we surfaced from the subway it was drizzling. London weather at its finest.
    The queue for the museum was quite long, perhaps all the London tourists were aware of the so far correct weather predictions and were seeking shelter like us. And once through the security checks, inside the museum, it was even busier!
    After some initial confusion about ticket prices we discovered it was free entry. We purchased a map and launched ourselves into the crowds. I had instructed Adalia that if she couldn't find us or got lost she should stand still and I would find her. She began acting strange and not moving which was super annoying. It was only when I was about to get cranky that I asked her what was going on. She said "I want to get lost, I'm standing still, go away." She is such a weirdo. Sammy would be hysterical if he were lost (pretty easy to locate a lost, hysterical Sammy).
    The kids lost interest in the museum in approximately two and a half minutes after entering. Even the statues of naked men only distracted them for about 30 seconds. Samuel was slightly interested in the coin displays and the ancient game displays. And there was a display with a treasure chest showing the treasure that was inside that was cool.
    I was under the impression that we were looking for an animal display for the kids. We walked through Ancient Rome, Greece, Egypt and Africa displays, and it was only when both kids had lost it that Tom informed me that there were no animal exhibitions, just ancient artefacts. With that information I called time of death on the museum and said "let's go home!"
    Tom led us through the streets of London. I assumed we were going to the tube station we needed to get back. However, half way through I realised that the trip didn't look familiar. We were not going back, rather he had taken us to a fish and chip shop! I was starting to get stressed! I needed to go home and pack for our next flight!
    We ordered and waited a while for it to arrive. The first few bites were yummy, then the fat hit our stomachs! I couldn't really eat much. Sammy was still making up for being sick at the end of last week and ate more than his share.
    In true Thomas Schipilliti fashion we arrived back at the Scott's late and had half an hour of frantic packing before some hurried good byes.
    Two stuffy, packed trains later we were at an airport that flew the cheap airlines, we were catching Ryanair... self check in, self baggage drop, strict liquid searches, although I had liquids in my bag that I hid and weren't found, while Tom's bag was inspected for drugs and laptops!
    The airport was HUGE! They had signs saying "12 minutes from here to the gates". We thought they were kidding but they weren't!
    We wanted to look at the shops but the kids were hyper. Could have had something to do with all the starburst lollies I gave them.
    We went in search for any dinner that didn't include chips or burgers and found sushi that was pretty cheap, and while we were deciding what to get they reduced everything to half price! So we bought double 😜
    Our flight was delayed but we eventually arrived at Toulouse airport at 11:30pm. We just managed to pick up our hire car before they closed at midnight. And the adventurers don't end there... but that's a story for tomorrow.    Read more

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    11

    French frenzy

    July 12, 2017 in France ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    It's midnight, we have finally located the hire car, piled the kids and bags in and tried to get out of the airport. Tom turned the keys once, twice, nothing. He started asking me to decipher the warning that had popped up on the display. I'm tired. My French is not up to scratch with regular vocabulary, let alone automobile vocabulary! We try everything we can think of and I'm getting desperate. The hire place has closed and we aren't even sure our hotel has 24 hour concierge. Tom wanted me to call them but if they don't speak English i don't think my French will be good enough.
    Google translate comes to our rescue and we learn that you must have your foot on the clutch to start the car. Why oh why did Tom hire a manual car in a right handed drive country?!?!
    Next is navigating how to get to our hotel. We don't have a map or data to use our phone. We all know how this is going to play out don't we.
    We drive past some women of questionable virtue on the side of the road and I immediately think of the TAKEN movie, and want to go home!
    We were very quickly lost. Tom pulled over in frustration to work out where we are and how to get to the train station. Apparently our hotel is near there.
    Once at the station he sent me out looking for the hotel. This part of town seems dodgy but thankfully I find it, I ask if the concierge if he can speak English and I'm sure he says "no" so I stumble through, too tired to know what I'm staying, all of a sudden he began in perfect English!
    I direct Tom and the kids over, and at check in Tom informs me that we are only staying one night!!! By this point it is 1:30am, it hardly seems worth it!
    I rush the kids into bed, so tonight of all nights they are sticklers for the rules and want to brush their teeth!
    Tom set the alarm for 9am, but must have sub consciously turned it off, as we awake at 9:30, thankfully.
    After the hotel breakfast and some hurried packing we check out of the hotel and go in search of a sports bar so tom could watch the state of origin.
    We walked through dirty city streets, fruit markets and cheese markets to bird poo stained town monuments, with no sports bars in sight. Only on our way home did we stumble upon the pub tom originally had in mind.
    One step inside and the hot stale smell of old cigarettes and alcohol seeped into our pores. I was hoping we wouldn't need to stay, that they wouldn't have the right channel. But the irish girl happily changed the tv from the
    Tennis to the footy and tom was alarmed with the half time score. His didn't get much chance to celebrate in the second half either.
    On the way back to the hotel we purchased some croissants, eclairs and baguettes for lunch and tom was impressed with my ordering skills. There are some things I can do in French... We then began the two hour drive to our next destination- Lourdes. Thankfully, even wothout any internet or wifi, google maps somehow still works if u set the course while still in wifi. This didnt relax me too much though, I was still in charge of navigating. The tolls were a bit stressful too. We were thankful (at the time) that the kids quickly fell asleep.

    Lourdes is a strange town. People make their pilgrimage to St Bernadette's for miracles, so literally every second shop is a catholic souvenir shop selling holy water and rosary beads. The hotels all look run down or closed and half the shops are empty. We tried to find somewhere for an early dinner after checking into our hotel. (The staff don't speak English so that was fun for me) Initially we thought that all the restaurants were closed but discovered that cafes and patisseries close at 7pm and the restaurants open then too. So no early dinner for us. We decided to have dessert first, ice cream, then ate at an Italian restaurant outside our hotel.

    Bed time ended up being much later than planned at 9:30pm, and Adalia didn't sleep until 10:30 as she slept in the car!!    Read more

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    Nougat bigger than Adalia's head!
    pondering lifemosaic beauty1adalia's chateaule tour

    Our pilgrimage experience

    July 13, 2017 in France ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Samuel would not wake up! Everyone else was showered and dressed while he slept on. Tom bought chocolate and butter croissants and a baguette but couldn't find any take away coffee so we filled our tummy with pastry ready for the day's adventure.
    We set off through the Pyrenees to pay homage to Le Tour de France. This would be the second time Tom and I had been to the tour and I had fond memories from last time.
    I was navigating through beautiful albeit wet country side, and we pointed out cows with horns, eagles perched in trees and chateaus atop hills.
    With only a couple of wrong turns and a brief moment of driving on the wrong side of the road, we made it to the point where the riders would come through and tried to negotiate a good view. While Tom was scoping out a vantage point Adalia decided it was a good idea to swing on a chain. I heard her head hit the concrete and anticipated the screaming. She didn't disappoint.
    Tom decided that we would stand on the side of the road that had a steep drop off into a sewage stream. My worst nightmare. I continually repeated to Adalia that she was not to step foot on the grass as I did not want to pluck her out of the sewer.
    We waited in the drizzle for about an hour, watching as the team cars came through. No one was ready when the first breakaway came past. They were much faster than anticipated. A few minutes later and the helicopter came past indicating the peleton was near. We waved our Australian flag and cheered for the twelve seconds it took for it to all be over. Immediately after everyone packed up and left. We zigzagged through crowds and traffic back to our car and slowly made our way back to Lourdes, stopping along the way at a chateau.
    For lunch we had the very best quiche I have ever tasted and two crepes- Nutella and salted caramel butter. Divine. We will return tomorrow for sure.
    After lunch we wanted to check out the massive basilica we saw yesterday. Little did we know we were about to make our "Lourdes Pilgrimage". From my limited research I have discovered that the basilica is at the sight where the Virgin Mary revealed herself in a vision to St Bernadette as many as 17 times. And of course it is a place of miracles thanks to a pure water source that Bernadette discovered.
    What a crazy experience, there were thousands of people doing their pilgrimage; nuns, priests, elderly and ill, groups of children, all buying candles, (we saw one candle that was 50kg, as tall as me and €210- and people were buying it) filling up canisters with holy water and rubbing their hands over a sacred stone. We thought there must be a special event going on, but it is just an ordinary pilgrimage day.
    The Rosary Basilica was a sight to behold with amazing mosaics picturing Jesus' life. The Basilica of Immaculate conception atop the rosary basilica was dark and stuffy and I wanted to leave. Masses were gathering with expensive candles for a service so we decided to have a drink of holy water since we were thirst, and leave quickly.
    We stopped to buy some ice cream, then home for a little rest before we dined at a French restaurant for dinner. Poor Adalia chose steak and chips and was given a lump of mince. Sammy enjoyed his cheese omelet. I suffered from poor ordering having what tasted like duck jerky for entree, lamb stew that was fatty then for desert I ordered tiramisu but for got raspberry mousse! Oh well, you win some you lose some...    Read more

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    Quiche at Le Tour
    1Quiche and crepes1breakfast road sideThe road leas traveled1

    Chasing Le Tour

    July 15, 2017 in France ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    We checked out of our hotel, purchased some supplies for breakfast and lunch then said au revoir to Lourdes. Turns out that Lourdes is one of the top three pilgrimage sites in the world, and has the second highest number of hotels per square meter- second only to Paris! Who knew?!
    Our plan was to watch one of the sprint sections of day 13 of the tour. We needed to get to Saix which was approximately two hours away but we anticipated road closures so we weren't entirely sure how long the drive would be. We set off with me assigned once again as navigator. Not my ideal way to spend the day. My stomach was in knots and my eyes were glued to the little blue dot on google maps. Tom suggested I turn the phone off until we needed it to preserve the battery, but I didn't want to risk it. Plus it was more comforting watching the phone than watching tom drive at 150 km p/h in a little ford escort.
    As we drew nearer to Saix there were signs warning of road closures, so we made the decision to turn off the main road and take an alternate route. Immediately we were uncertain of our decision. The road deteriorated rapidly and felt like we were driving on someone's driveway. Not only were they gravel, they were narrow, bendy and hilly making it difficult to see if another car was coming.
    I was quiet nervous, and we contemplated turning back many times, but then the road would deceive us and improve momentarily and we would push on. And yes there were moments of panic. Like when Tom dove through a closed road in a little town, or when the side of the road was a cliff edge with no barrier or fence.
    For the most part the drive was spectacular, and we stopped at one point to stretch our legs (or Adalia's "old, sore back") and heard cow bells ringing!
    Suddenly the road opened up and we were in Saix. We saw people with show bags so I jumped out of the car and left Tom to park, eager to get one of the free tour show bags from the caravan that drives through two hours before the riders. I must have just missed it which was disappointing.
    Saix had a great festival feeling, and there were lots of people enjoying the atmosphere, so it made the wait less painful. We found our vantage point, which unfortunately wasn't in view of the TV cameras and ate our lunch-best quiche in the world again.
    More and more people lined the streets, squeezing in for a better view. One lady literally sat in my foot and looked cranky when my hand hit her fhead. She didn't move, and chain smoked the entire wait! We tried to get sammy to stand his ground but he was intimidated by some men that came and stood in his spot. And Adalia passed the pine by poking the tree which was shading us with a stick.
    Without warning three riders sped past before anyone was ready.
    We were slightly more prepared for the peleton, but it all happens so quickly. I'm not sure I could be a dedicated tour follower, so much waiting for seconds of "reward".
    As people piled into their cars, we stopped for a coke and contemplated the journey to Touluse. We did not want to take the scenic route again. It added at least an extra hour to our trip. Thankfully we took a side road that ran parallel to the main road so we could see when it opened. We discovered that our mornings detour that took an hour, only took 15 minutes on the main road!!! But didn't have the scenery, so we weren't too upset.
    The kids were getting tired of being in the car, they had been so good up until now. So out came the devices. Adalia fell asleep to the sweet sounds of Peppa pig while Sammy enjoyed games on my phone.
    The next challenge was getting the car to Toulouse airport. I was not looking forward to this. I suggested we follow the road signage that had aeroplanes on them, but tom wanted me to know where we were going on the map too.
    Let me just say that I did an excellent job! I was all over it, in fact I was so good that we forgot to stay on the main highway so that we could get petrol at a petrol station just past the airport. Now we had to work out how to get back on, but then head in the right direction instead of back into the city. I was so annoyed, all of my great navigating and now I was forced to do more.
    Finally we were done with the car, in a taxi and going to our hotel.
    We checked in and then went to dinner at "Winter City". It was really good. I had salmon and chips and everything was delicious! Tom had duck and enjoyed his too. Unfortunately we decided not to have dessert at the restaurant but to find gelato instead. This proved to be a fruitless search as everything seems to close when the restaurants open- including supermarkets which was a shame as we needed breakfast stuff foe the next morning.
    We found a small supermarket, bought cornflakes and milk and hurried home to put the kids to bed. We needn't have hurried, they were still up at 10pm, but when it's light until 9:30 who wants to sleep?!
    Tom and I stayed awake for the Bastille day fireworks but our room was on the wrong side of the hotel. We could hear the bangs but that was all.    Read more

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    do I have something on my face?First Class babyjamom anyone?

    A mere glimpse of Barcalona

    July 15, 2017 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Today was challenging. We set our alarms for 6am as we needed to be on a train at 8:06. Everyone woke up cranky and tired after a VERY late night thanks to one of our children... We ate some cornflakes (and Sammy's tooth fell out as he was still too asleep to eat carefully) and made it to the station with 15 minutes to spare! That has to be some sort of record for Tom aka Mr last minute. His motto in life is; if you're there five minutes early that's five minutes wasted, or for flights; if they aren't calling your name over the loudspeaker then you aren't late. (Grrr)
    We found our first class seats and Samuel made a comment about how much he loved first class and how we should always travel first class. Apparently when Tom booked them there wasn't much of a price difference between first and second.

    We decided that train travel was the way to go, so much less stress that flying; no security, baggage checks, take off and landings, waiting for bags at the other end, passport control. And it is so scenic! We admired sun flower fields, hay bales and remarked on the different landscape as we traveled closer to Spain. Well Tom and I did, and poked the children who were fixated on their iPads.

    Our first impression of Barcalona was the heat, very warm and humid with a haze to the sky. We opted for a taxi to transport all our luggage to our accommodation which turned out to be an expensive 4km.
    There was no conceirge at the accommodation, only a sign informing us to go to a different location to pick up the keys. We decided that Tom would leave me with the kids and luggage and walk alone- a much faster option. Before leaving he said "if I'm not back in half an hour, panic." Silly Tom, as soon as he said this Sammy started panicking. Every five minutes Sammy would fret. I tried to assure him that daddy is always late, and that I wouldn't panic until daddy was over an hour late, but it didn't help things that at the half an hour mark Tom was nowhere in sight.
    I began wondering what I would actually do if Tom didn't reappear. I had no way of calling anyone. Anyway I didn't need to worry, Tom was back at the 45 minute mark, and relayed the strict hotel instructions; we were not to enter before 1pm or we would be fined, we could not hang anything over the balcony or we would be fined 350 euros, we could not have parties or we would be fined.
    As we were leaving to find some lunch another family arrived with the same confusion regarding check in, and Tom broke the news of the long journey to the concierge.
    I went for a short walk up the street to look for food. I found a market with raw meat, and the chickens and rabbits still had their heads on, their little eyes were terrified!
    We bought some croissants, one with jamom, some bread with sugar on it(?) a doughnut and what I thought was an apple turnover but ended up being pure pastry!
    After eating it was 1pm so we entered our room which had literally just been cleaned, the floor was still wet. But it was lovely and spacious, two bedrooms, lounge/dining/kitchen area and two bathrooms. We ha been in much smaller rooms so we were all pleased to spread out, and the kids were so excited to have their own beds!

    We set out to experience Barcelona, making our way first to their massive Sagrada Familia Basilica. There are no words to describe such a monstrosity, except gaudy; a not so funny coincidences that the architect responsible for it was named Gaudi! It pollutes ones view of the sky with its towering concrete turrets that have coloured baubles atop. Every facade is different, there is no harmony of design or even colour (and they say I'm not arty). It's gothic architecture at its worst.
    We decided to walk the perimeter (after stopping for the mandatory play in the park) but it was so big and ugly we ended up in souvenir shops but were disgusted with their prices.

    We caught the metro to the coast. Everyone was tired, most of us were holding it together but the littlest one was not. We bribed her with gelato which worked initially, but after the gelato, which wasn't even good, she went crazy. There were tantrums, screaming, stomping and general hysteria. Tom and I pretended not to know her at one point, with Sammy and I walking away (more for fear that I would start crying too!)
    Threats were made and she calmed down. She even walked for the next half an hour, silently with a stiff lip. She can be so determined when she wants to be.

    This next part of the day was my favourite. We walked aimlessly through alleys that led to vast openings and grand buildings. We commented on smells, mostly bad and noticed little things like patterns in sandstone, the bumpy paths so iconically European. We saw a wedding party and the photographer was using a drone to capture the memories, and we tried more gelato which was equally as bad as the first.

    We were hot, tired and ready to go back to the hotel when we stumbled upon the greatest find of all; some produce markets. These were mesmerising, fruits boasting vivid colours, nuts in abundance and giant fish and prawns. But the items that caught our interest were the meats and cheese. We bought paper cones filed with jamom, cheese and chirizo, all lukewarm and slightly sweating in the sun, but delicious. Unfortunately even the kids liked them- less for me. We also bought some chopped up fruit for the kids and reluctantly left via the back door. This opened up to a piazza that had people preparing to make a human pyramid! We wanted to stay but they were nowhere near ready and both children were complaining. We caught the metro back to our room, showered the kids and gave them their fruit. This refreshed them enough to happily walk to find dinner.

    We had planned for an early night but once again this was not to be. We walked for a long time in search of pallela and tapas, but most restaurants only had tapas. I was about to snap (maybe that's where Adalia gets it from?!) when the road opened into a piazza with restaurants and one had pallela!
    Tapas, pallela and a mojito, does it get much better? Even the kids who had been chanting "chips! Chips!" to the waiter, were happy with our selection. (Adalia wanted a mojito and growled at the injustice of the world that she wasn't 18, but I couldn't really blame her, it did look good).
    Tom had promised more gelato, but I had to be bad cop and over rule. It was 9:30pm! They needed to be asleep, not hyped up on sugar. Tom was shocked at the time as it was still sunny, and quickly agreed.
    Thankfully, all our walking to find a restaurant had been in a circle and we were a very short walk from our hotel, so the children were quickly in bed and asleep before the sun had set.    Read more

  • Rachel Travels 2024Family travels 2017Traveler

    The Ocean Beckons

    July 16, 2017 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C

    This trip has seen us continually moving to new and exciting destinations. It has been full of adventure and has taken us to places we have never been. However, doing so with two children is getting quite exhausting. We haven't seen nearly enough of Barcelona which is sad, but the Tom Schipilliti "follow me even though I have no idea where I am going" tour yesterday was great, and we saw many of the top tourist attractions by accident.

    Today we need to be on an 11am train. The kids were sleeping in which I didn't mind as I could scurry around packing and cleaning and Tom went to get croissants and baguettes for breakfast.

    When Sammy woke up he was excited to see that the tooth fairy had found him even though he was from Australia, had lost his tooth in France and was in Spain.(talk about a jet setter) And he was impressed that he received both an Australian dollar and an euro coin!

    I was ready to depart at 9:30. Unfortunately no one else was. By 10:30 we were only just leaving our room and we had admitted defeat. We could not make it to the train station in half an hour.
    But then Tom's "we're not late until the train doors are closed and even then I'll barge them open" mentality kicked in and we were abandoning our subway plans and searching frantically for a taxi.
    Even with a taxi I wasn't sure we would make it in time. At the station I raced to buy tickets while Tom strolled along. I frantically ran around looking for the platform while Tom moseyed to the information screens. Yes we bought the tickets in time, yes Tom found the right platform, but a little more panic from him may have lessened mine!
    We made the train with one minute to spare, and ran to the back of the train where there were less people sardining themselves in. Apparently there was a pick pocket aboard the train, thankfully I didn't notice him and he didn't notice my wallet!

    The taxi driver that drove us to our hotel was so much like Tom's Italian relative Nunsia. She was hilarious, wanting to chat with us in basic Spanglish. My favourite line was that if she were in Australia for 40 degree heat she would go caput!

    We arrived at the hotel but couldn't check in for another hour, so we sat in the lounge area watching the tour, using the free wifi and consoling Adalia who was teary at the thought of me dying (I don't know why she is thinking such thoughts, but nice to know she loves me)

    Once we had our room keys, the afternoon was spent with the kids and Tom in the pool, I did some washing, then a couple of hours at the beach. At the beach there are paddle boats for hire that have a slide into the water! Sammy thinks we might need to hire one. Adalia meanwhile entertains herself by giving me a salt scrub; completely covering my skin in sand!

    As usual our good intentions for an early night evaporate, as we found ourselves dining at 8pm in an Oz family restaurant/ Top one style dining room that is included with our accommodation. The kids are happy, there are hot chips, pizza and watermelon with ice cream for dessert. And I don't mind that my kids have eaten nearly an entire watermelon as it has been days since they have eaten any fruit!    Read more

  • Rachel Travels 2024Family travels 2017Traveler
    These dolphins are amazingNo. 1 Dolphin fan

    Burnt feet, Rapids and Dolphins

    July 17, 2017 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    The morning began with a buffet breakfast. Up until today I have chosen Adalia's food at a buffet, which I did this morning- fruit and a croissant. At this buffet however, they have a kids section which has a lower serving area. Adalia decided she wasn't happy with my selection and wanted to get her own food. She returned with a plate filled with bacon, chirros and chocolate biscuits!

    Then the moment Sammy had been waiting for was upon us, the whole trip was leading up to this day. Today we took the bus to Aquopolis water park!!!

    I am not a fan of water parks. Give me a rollercoaster over a water slide any day. They just don't seem safe, you have to get wet, probably sunburnt, and you walk around all day in your swimmers. Not my idea of fun. But Sammy (and Tom) love them.

    We have been to a Disney water park in Orlando and Atlantis water park in Dubai, we are seasoned water park adventurers. I was pretty sure a water park on the Golden Coast of Spain just wasn't going to compare.

    We got off the bus and immediately took a wrong turn which ended up being fortuitous. We found a tourism shop selling water park tickets cheaper than everywhere else, and you got an extra day free! (Plus a lolly pop for the kids). Now armed with tickets we launched into our day of water sliding fun.

    First impressions of the water park were making me wish I had stayed at home. It didn't have the glamour of Disney or Dubai, but Sammy was in heaven! Adalia immediately decided that everything looked too scary and wanted to stay in the kids section (which was impressive by Dubai and Disney standards). This was fine by me, except she would not move from my legs. She wouldn't play on any of the kids slides. I was getting cranky. Tom had run off with Sammy to have fun and I was spending my day standing in full sun with a child attached to me. At one point I picked her up, climbed some stairs and threw her down a slide. I was hoping that after she had done it once she might be happy doing it again. Instead she screamed at me. I was so glad for the defending noise at those places; hardly anyone noticed her.

    We put our shoes on and went in search of the boys. When we found them it wasn't hard to convince Sammy to play on the kids slides, and he lovingly encouraged Adalia to come with him. In less than two minutes she was comfortable on the equipment and eager to play.

    Tom convinced her to try the Rapids. We had done this in Dubai so we knew she would be fine. She was reluctant, but half way down she shouted "we need to do this again!" So we did...for the rest of the day. By the end she was going down backwards and wanting to go faster. Sammy gave me a break taking me on the "black hole" while tom rode the Rapids, but then it was back to the rapids for me.

    At 4pm there was a dolphin show. Turns out Adalia had never seen dolphins before. She asked what they were and was mesmerised with them! Tom and Sammy missed the beginning but came running in with burning hot feet part way through.

    I was feeling quite burnt by 4:30. So when Tom suggested we go to the beach I wasn't keen and opted for an early dinner. And....the kids actually had an earlish night!!!    Read more

  • Rachel Travels 2024Family travels 2017Traveler
    Poolside
    Tom and Sammy in Spanish watersFinally in the pool for this dolphin1where's Adalia?!3

    Spanish TV and Ferraris

    July 18, 2017 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Our intention was to hit the water park again. I woke up feeling under the weather (some may say suffering from heat exhaustion) and I wasn't keen to spend the day back out in the sun. Thankfully we had a couple of days left in Spain and could be a little flexible. So we had an easy morning, called our families and Tom took the kids to the beach.

    Our new plan was to spend the afternoon at Ferrari world. All the online reviews had slammed this new theme park saying there was nothing to do there and every ride had long queues, so we figured an afternoon there would be ample time.

    Unfortunately by the afternoon I was still feeling pretty unwell. Tom reluctantly left me at home with Adalia, and my boys set of for a father son Ferrari world adventure.

    Poor Adalia spent most of the day watching the Spanish kids chanel (all in Spanish). I took her to the pool, but the only shaded seats were at the deep pool. I told her to stay near the edge, but after seeing the dolphin show the day before she wanted to do dolphin tricks. The poor lifeguard, at one point she genuinely looked as though she were drowning, and this moment happened to coincide with me feeling guilty for not sitting on the pool's edge, so I was taking my clothes off and perhaps it looked like I was preparing to rescue her. He jumped up and ran over. So I made Adalia come and sit with me for a while.

    The boys came home an hour later than planned. And their experience matched the reviews. Rides kept braking down and there wasn't heaps to do. But they still had a great time together, and loved the things they did do. I asked Sammy if he loved his boys day and he replied "I wished you were there mum, dad wouldn't come on the big rollercoaster with me." I didn't want to burst his bubble and tell him I probably wouldn't have gone on it either. It reached 180 km/h in 5 seconds!!!

    We couldn't face another night at the very ordinary hotel buffet, so we ventured out to a pizza restaurant which was pretty good and cheap (bonus!). We got home just in time for the buffet ice cream cones.    Read more

  • Rachel Travels 2024Family travels 2017Traveler

    Slides, Pools and the Ocean

    July 19, 2017 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Thankfully I was feeling much better than yesterday and so water park plans were on!
    We really wanted to get there early, but 11am was the best we could do. (We had to fit in the buffet breakfast and call Tom's mum...)

    We headed straight to the "magic oval" queue and planned to do this ride as a family. Tom and Sammy did it the other day and said it was pretty calm, you sit on a lilo, tube thingy and journey through a tunnel. Meanwhile Adalia took one look and was hysterical with fear- although any innocent bystander would have just seen a four year old psycho yelling at her dad, it's hard to differentiate the two. We grabbed our green tube and began climbing to the top of the slide.

    Once at the top poor Adalia was sobbing, but we genuinely thought she would like it. She has this reaction to all new experiences. Sammy decided to sit high on the side to make the tube go faster, Tom was next to Sammy, I was opposite Tom and Adalia was between us.

    The next twenty seconds was just horrible for everyone. Somehow I ended up going backwards the whole way! I hate going backwards, I thought I was going to be sick. Adalia was on the side that was continually thrown into the air and she screamed with genuine fear the whole way down, she thought she was going to tip out. And Sammy was sitting so high on the tube that he banged his head at the end of the tunnel when we were expelled into the pool at the bottom.

    After that I was ready to leave! I wasn't keen to spend my morning with an hysterical daughter. Tom and Sammy really wanted to do some of the scarier slides, so I positioned myself in the only shaded spot in the whole water park, in the shadows of a baby slide (Seriously, you have to pay for shade there) and watched Adalia in the children's section.

    I quite enjoyed watching all the parents with their children. I wondered who these people were before they had kids. A man covered in tattoos with a shaved head and big muscles crouching down and laughing at his daughter splashing, Mr too-cool-for-school dad with his low hung bordies and grey spiked hair catching his son at the end of a slide. And swimmers reveal everything, all the embarrassing tattoos that are usually hidden. There were some truly bad ones; a puppy paw that looked like an eight year old drew it, writing that wasn't straight and each letter was a slightly different size.

    I convinced Adalia to go on the rapids a couple of times then thankfully it was time to go home via the supermarket for 27 cent 2L water. We really needed a break from the sun, but when we got to our room the cleaners were ready to clean it.

    We headed out and had a picnic lunch poolside; salt and vinegar chips, doughnuts and croissants smuggled from breakfast and coke for the grown ups. Does it get any better than that?!?! We had a quick swim to cool off, but decided to go to the beach rather than be in a crowded pool.

    Tom wanted to try a beach that was slightly further away, but part way through our journey we glimpsed the beach and it was very crowded. We cut our walk short and turned off the road to take a path to our regular beach. This path led us to a near cliff edge with a half wrung ladder that descended to rocky foreshows. Tom's great plan was to traverse the water covered rocks and wade to shore.

    I did not want any part this! I could only see trauma or detestation or both. Tom suggested I take the beach bag and shoes and return along the safe route. While I wasn't keen to leave my babies, I figured someone needed to be able to call in the rescue squad if it all went wrong.

    When I got to the top of the hill I could hear Adalia screaming, so I knew they hadn't drowned (well at least she was still above water). Their adventure has been successful. I still wasn't happy with the unnecessary risk, but I enjoyed one last swim in Spain.

    No one wanted to leave the water, but we needed to pack our bags, watch more Spanish kids tv and eat another buffet dinner...so much to do when on holidays.    Read more

  • Rachel Travels 2024Family travels 2017Traveler
    too cool for the business lounge
    two sleeping babiesliving it up

    Never a dull moment

    July 21, 2017 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    Home time. One last breakfast buffet then to the bus stop. We opted for a direct bus to the airport rather than the taxi-train-taxi combo. Probably cheaper and over all faster (hopefully).
    The bus trip was stifling, and Adalia insisted on sitting on my lap. I just wanted off!
    Moments after alighting we witness a car crash followed by men under arrest, cuffed to their luggage trolleys being escorted to their flight by heavily armed police.
    We were at the airport much earlier than normal, the full three hours they recommend, and I was planning how to entertain the kids. Tom wasn't on my wavelength and led us to the business lounge, presented some membership and we were in. I had mixed feelings. On the one hand I was thrilled; comfy chairs, free food and drinks, exclusive bathrooms as well as computers, magazines and tv's, but on the other hand it was a business lounge with business men and I had two kids to keep quiet!
    Drinks, chips and the promise of ice cream worked for a while then silently running around a poll entertained them a while longer.
    We left for our flight at 2:30, too early, the lines were very long and the people were annoyed, especially the first class customers forced to stand in a line next to the economy line. One woman refused to queue and demanded better attention!
    We took advantage of "traveling with young children", walked to the front of the line and straight into the plane with our "early boarding" privileges.
    I had given Samuel panadol earlier in the morning as he was complaining of a sore ankle, a sore knee, a sore head, a sore throat... and figured he was being a hypochondriac but wanted to cover all bases. Well as soon as we boarded the plane the panadol wore off and turned out he wasn't faking. In hindsight I think he had heat exhaustion too, but at the time he was burning up and whimpering and I only had two precious nerofen tablets to last the next 25 hours!! I decided to wait until the next flight to give him the medicine, so this first flight I had him lying on top of me as he tried to sleep.
    The flight dragged but finally we were in Dubai. we had to go through security checks again and the we barely had time for a toilet break before we were on our next flight.
    To my disappointment there was a mistake with our tickets and Tom was separated from us. (I'm sure he wasn't too upset except he was in the middle of four seats with the man sitting next to him so large he needed the seat belt extension!) We were sitting at the bulk head which meant extra leg room!!! But we had the tv's and tray table in our arm rest which was a pain to get out for each child each time they needed it.
    The flight was delayed as another passenger was too unwell to fly and needed to leave the plane. Following this was an in cabin baggage check of each persons bag, then we had to wait for his checked luggage to be removed.
    Thankfully Samuel's nurofen had kicked in and he was feeling a bit better. He didn't eat anything but a mars-bar the entire flight but he survived and was completely better by the time we were home.
    The kids were so well behaved on the flight, I was even complimented by the lady sitting next to me (who lives one suburb away from me and used to live in Blaxland!)
    I was so happy to get off that plane. I rushed the kids off and didn't look back.    Read more

    Trip end
    July 21, 2017
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