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World tour gap year

gennaio 2025 - gennaio 2026
  • Bridsons of the world
Attuale
We left in January 2025 for a world tour gap year. We are going to try to set foot on every continent (except Antartica, that will be another trip!). Leggi altro
  • Bridsons of the world
Attualmente in viaggio
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Elenco dei paesi

  • Francia Francia
  • Namibia Namibia
  • Zimbabwe Zimbabwe
  • Zambia Zambia
  • India India
  • Laos Laos
  • Tailandia Tailandia
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Attorno al mondo, Backpacking, Famiglia, Lavoro e viaggio
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  • Bridsons of the worldBridsons of the worldWorld tour gap year

    Mont Saint Michel, France by the kids

    21–25 giu, Francia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    On the 21st we were still in Paris, we were going to drive to Beauvoir, the main attraction in Beauvoir is Mont Saint Michel, mum is not happy they picked this day because today is the fete de la musique (it means celebration of music in English). The drive was going to be 5 hours, but where do we get the car? Simple, we go to the car hiring place and pick up the car we hired, when we got the car, we started driving. 5 hours in the future, when we got there, we went to our room, put all our stuff down and went to a place that said there was going to be a bit of music there, when we got there, we saw there was a stage and quite a few people. When the music started it was pretty nice, a little after some dancing started, we then went over to a pub where they were playing rock music, after that we went to the hotel to sleep.
    On the 22nd we went to the Mont Saint Michel, here is some history on what it is. Supposedly in 708 (8th century), the archangel Michel, appears in Aubert of Avranches (who is a bishop) dream and told him to build a church in his on a rocky island for pilgrims. The island had a really big rock on it, that is where the church got built. The only people who lived there for a long time were monks. In 966, a community of Benedictines settled themselves there and built a bigger church. At the same time, they were making a village below it to welcome the first pilgrims. As the number of pilgrims increased, the original church became too small to fit them all in. In the 11th century they built four crypts around the tip of the rock, before constructing a even bigger church on top of these. In the 13th century, they added more to the church but this time in a gothic style, the first church was made in a roman style. During the French Revolution, the monks had to abandon the church which then become a state prison. The church returned to being a church in 1863 and many prisoners got transported away. When we got there, it was ginormous, we went into the church and looked at all the rooms, there was a giant fireplace, like 6-7 meters wide and 2.5 meters tall. We kept going looking at stuff, there were lots of high ceilings, after the church there was still a lot in the village bellow to explore, we saw a thing where you can go to all four museums with the same ticket, so we got it and we did all the museums. The first one was a museum about boats, the next was history on the Mont Saint Michel, and the one after that was a house where a knight used to live and the next one was a historical prison museum. After the museums we went to the hotel to watch a movie and sleep.
    On the 23rd we stayed home doing blog, we did it for a while and then we went out to the shops, got some food, then came back and then finished our blog and watched a movie then we went to sleep.
    On the 24th we went to Avranches, Avranches is a town that is not far away from where we are, we had a map of where all the monuments are, and there are actually quite a lot. Me and Emma were going to lead so we had the map, and we were learning how to use a map, (I sort of already knew how to read a map, well a little bit). The first thing we were going to see was a big statue of one of the napoleons generals. After that we went to see the town hall, it was really big, then we saw some really old tower, they were from like 10 centuries ago, the next things were like old houses and statues, it was really cool. One of the last things was a park, the park was pretty cool it had a wood carving and a pond there was a look out point where we could see the Mont Saint Michel and some of the countryside, it was really cool, after that we finished the rest and went back to the car then drove to our room and slept.
    The end.
    Andrew (10 years old)

    On the 21st we got a taxi to a car rental place to pick up the car we rented. Then we drove for about five hours to Beauvoir with a lunch break in the middle. When we got there, we set up and then went for a walk because it was la fete de la musique (a music day in France). We saw some kids and some adults singing and playing music. I had a good night. It was a bit loud but other than that it was cool.
    On the 22nd we visited the Mont Saint Michel. It is a big town on an island. Now I am going to tell you some stuff about it. The building on top of the rock is called an abbey or a church. More than 3 million people visit it every year. Mont Saint Michel used to be connected to the mainland by a path that was covered by water at high tide. This connection changed over time. In 1879, this tidal path changed into a raised, dry causeway. The idea of building Mont Saint Michel came from a dream. A bishop had a dream of an archangel telling him to build something on the rock. Some parts of Mont Saint Michel was also a prison. The abbey’s purpose underwent a change during the French revolution in the 18th century, when there were hardly any monks left. The abbey stored high profile political prisoners of the revolution. In 1863 the prison closed.
    On the day, it was hot. We walked a lot, and it was tiring. I knew I was going to be hurting the next day, and I was right. It was a long day. To be honest with you, I thought I was going to die up there. I liked walking through the streets and smelling all the good smells. I had a good day. Then we went to a museum. Well, we went to four museums. They were small but cool. The first museum we went to was the maritime museum. The second museum we went to was the sound and light show. The third museum we went to was the historical home of Bertrand du Guesclin. The fourth museum we went to was the historical museum. Then we walked around on the island a little. We watched the tide come in and it was really fast. Then we walked back to our place which took forever. We stopped at a shop to get some stuff for breakfast. We got some madeleines as well. Madeleines are like mini cakes. They tasted buttery, sweet and crumbly. When you stuff the whole thing in your mouth it is hard to chew, but when you take bites it easy. If I start, I can’t stop. I love them.
    On the 23rd we did blog and shopping. Boring.
    On the 24th we went to Avranches. It was a town close to the town we were in, so we got a map, and we were off. Me and Andrew aren’t very good at reading maps, so we were trying to learn. I am going to list some of things we saw. The first thing we saw was a statue of an army general. Then the city hall. Some old towers and some wooden book sculptures. Some houses made partly by wood. The next thing we saw was some old houses and some churches. We saw a few statues to remember the people who died in war. Then there was the art gallery. Oh yeah, and the garden with fruit trees and the dungeon. Then there was the donation statue. There were two people that were standing next to each other, and they had a hole in their chest that a ball would go through. The wind would push the ball and make it go through the holes, so it looked like they were donating. After that we went to the museum of manuscripts. It was a big museum of things that the monks used. Lots of tools. We saw some of the stuff that they used to make colours. The things I can remember of the colours was egg yolk and flour. Then we went to the garden. At first, we were not so good at reading maps but now we are ok.
    Thanks for reading.
    Emma (almost 9 years old)    Leggi altro

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  • Bridsons of the worldBridsons of the worldWorld tour gap year

    Le Mont Saint Michel, France by Kev

    21–25 giu, Francia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    21.6.2025. Up early, finish the last bit of packing and wait for the person to turn up and get the apartment key. After that we walked to a boulangerie for breakfast stuff, then onto a cafe for coffee. They didn't mind we brought our own nibblies. An uber was ordered and we were off to Gare du Lyon, to pick up our hire car. The bags just fitted, yay. Mel wasn't all that crazy about driving in Paris again, but they did great. We took the back roads instead of the motorway, trying to save some money by not paying tolls. Hoping to see some more of the countryside too. We arrived at our new apartment in Beauvoir around 5, and are happy with the place. A nice, neat and clean place that has everything we could need for a few days. There's even some toys here, the kids haven't had toys for a while and we're happy to play. Today is also la feté de la musique, I'm sure I spelt that wrong. We headed into town and found where they were celebrating. We watched some dancing, then listened to some live rock music. Three English blokes rocking out. They were pretty good. We stopped and listened to a group of young people, school age I reckon, playing. They were also pretty good. By now it was around 10pm, so we headed back to the apartment and put the kids to bed.
    22.6.2025. Today we're heading to Mont St.Michel, which started as a small Abbey in 708. The bishop of a nearby town, had a dream, where the Archangel Michel, came to him and instructed him to build an Abbey on a nearby island. The Abbey grew bigger throughout the years, as did the small township around it. Now it takes up the whole of the small island. We walked all the way to the island from our apartment. It took around an hour. Everyone is so much better at walking without whinging, for that I am eternally grateful. The kids start talking to each other and playing games as we walk. I don't think they even realise sometimes how far we've gone. We saw Mont St Michel start to grow in the distance. When we got close enough, you could see the angel on top shining. It's a copper statue gilded with gold. We walked across the bridge leading to the island. For most of the time there hasn't been a bridge, and pilgrims, who had already travelled for days or weeks, would have to wait on the mainland for the tide to go out, before making the crossing. We have it easy, walking across a nice flat bridge, not even getting our shoes dirty. The tide was out during our visit and we saw lots of people walking around the island and further out while the water was gone. We entered the township through an old drawbridge, looks like it hadn't been raised in a long time. We know from our time here that the Abbey started small, growing over time. Then was a fortified stronghold during war that was never breached. We visited the Abbey, and heard some singing and the pipe organ as Sunday mass started. We explored everything we could, seeing in places where the architecture had changed from Roman to gothic. We saw where it was starting to fall down in places and they were keeping a very close eye on it. We had some overpriced baguette sandwiches for lunch, then visited the museums. Four museums to be exact. One focusing on ships and maritime, another one had a miniature of Mont St Michel that rose up through water and talked about its history. There was another that showed us the rooms of a knight and lady astrologer. Finally we had a tour through a small dungeon. At one point in Mont St Michel’s history it housed up to 600 prisoners. We finished our day with a walk around the town area, then racing back up a bit to watch the tide roll back in. It moves fast as it's very flat for miles around. The tide has claimed many lives over the centuries of the Abbey being here, and people still get caught out from time to time. There is a rescue vehicle with huge wheels stationed at the entrance, just in case. While it would have been cool to see it cruising around, kinda glad it wasn't needed today. We had planned on hopping on the shuttle bus to cut the walk back in half, but after seeing the waiting line we decided we could make the walk again. We went back a different way than this morning, and made a stop at a biscuit et gateau place. We grabbed some Madeleine for breakfast, a bottle of local cider and some local beers. We found a boulangerie and grabbed a baguette to go with dinner. We made it back to the apartment, I made a coffee then got started on dinner. After everyone was fed and showered, we watched a little tv and went to bed.
    23.6.2025. Blogging/schoolwork day. We went shopping later in the day, just a quick shop, pasta, meat and cheese basically. Oh and a couple different local beers. We went back to the boulangerie where we got our baguette yesterday and ordered some baguette sandwiches. Freshly made and bloody delicious. Grabbed another baguette for dinner tonight, and some sweet stuff. Can't go to a boulangerie and not get something sweet. Now we're back at the apartment, stuff has been put away, coffee has been made and kids are blogging again. Drank some local beers, cooked some pasta and local sausages for dinner, everything was really nice.
    24.6.2025. Today we're going for a drive to Avranches, a small city near us. There's a lot of history here, Avranches dates back to the 9th century b.c, and we're going to see some of it today. They have a map, in English, that the kids are going to use to lead us around the city. We walked and the kids navigated. We found historical landmarks around the city, some from both world wars. Some from well before that. We read and we learnt as we walked. We climbed stairs, past an old well, that led to a tower and the old wall of the city. I like viewing cities from the tops of towers. We stopped at this point for baguette sandwiches and a coffee, before continuing our historical visit. The next stop was a museum with manuscripts from the Mont Saint Michel, written by the monks and centuries old. We visited some big churches and finished with a nice walk through a park. We made our way back to the car and drove back to the apartment. Rest, lots of walking today, dinner and bed.
    25.6.2025. Packed up this morning and loaded the car. We're off to Renne, a city not too far and home to our niece Manon. I'm sick as a dog, sneezing and snot everywhere. We got there and checked into our next apartment. Manon and her partner Nathan came for a quick visit. We went and found a baguette sandwich for lunch, then I went to bed. We had a lazy afternoon/evening, played some games, had some dinner and back to bed.
    Kev    Leggi altro

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  • Bridsons of the worldBridsons of the worldWorld tour gap year

    Mont Saint Michel, France by Mel

    21–25 giu, Francia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Bonjour du Mont St Michel (Hello from the Mont St Michel),
    Saturday the 21st of June, we left Paris to go to the Mont St Michel.
    We hired a car for the rest of our trip in France. I did the math, train for 4 people against car and the price was very close. Having a car make it easier for us, so we decided to go for a car in France.
    It took us around 5 hours with lunch break to get to Beauvoir, a little town just before the Mont St Michel. The house we are staying is really nice. They even have toys for the kids, which they got in very quickly.
    As it was the ‘Fete de la musique’ (music celebration day), we went to Avranches, the bigger town, to listen to some music. I always loved the fete de la musique. People are out in the street and there are bands, dance parties, music everywhere. In Avranches we saw 2 different dance groups: one doing Zumba and the other one country dance. Then we listen to a 3 English person band (one bass, one guitar/singer and one drummer) playing some rock songs. They were across a little restaurant, so we got some food and drinks and stayed there for a while listening to them. Kev and I could have stayed longer, but it was getting late and the kids were getting tired, so we called it a night and went back. On the way back, we saw a band made of teenage kids playing. We listened to a couple of their songs and left as Emma was falling asleep!
    It was a good evening!
    The next day, we went to the Mont St Michel.
    First a bit of history about it: The granite rock of Mont Saint-Michel was originally known as Mont Tombe. In 708, the archangel Michel appeared in a dream-vision to Saint Aubert, bishop of Avranches, and asked him to build a sanctuary in his name. The bishop didn’t listen the first 2 dreams, but he decided to do it after the third dream. There is a fun story here: In one of the churches of Avranches is the skull of St Aubert. The skull has a hole in it and it was said that angry to have not been obeyed the first 2 times, The archangel Michel, touched the bishop on the head and left a hole in it, hence why the bishop listened the third time! He built a small church on top of Mont Tombe and called it the Mont Saint Michel.
    In 966, a community of Benedictines established itself and built the first church. At the same time, a village began to develop below the Mount to welcome the first pilgrims.
    During the 11th-century, as more and more pilgrims come to the Mont Saint Michel, four crypts are added around the tip of the rock, and a large abbey church is built on top of these. In the 13th century, Philippe Auguste (the king of France), after the conquest of Normandy (adding it to the French kingdom), give some money to build in Gothic style, the Merveille: This is a of two three-storey buildings, topped by the cloister and the monks’ refectory.
    During the Anglo-Franco 100 years war (14-15th centuries), some military constructions were made to protect the Mont and were proven efficient, as the Mont withstand a siege of almost 30 years. It is the only French stronghold which was never taken by the English during that war.
    But during the siege, part of the choir in the Abbey collapsed and was replaced at the end of the siege by the gothic choir that we can see now.
    During the French revolution, the Mont became a prison until 1863, where the prison was closed and the Mont Saint Michel open to the public again.
    In 1979, UNESCO added Mont Saint-Michel and its bay to its list of World Heritage sites.
    I always love knowing the history of places: they always have several lives, uses, phases and I love imagining what they looked like 1000 years ago and how was life back then. Touching a wall that was touched by hands several centuries prior never cease to amaze me.
    The Mont Saint Michel is one of the most visited tourist site in France. Being almost in the high season, I was a bit worried it would be too busy, but it was ok. There were a lot of people there, but we could move around and walk easily (which is hard to do during the peak season).
    We decided to walk to the Mont Saint Michel instead of taking the car. We learnt that the parking price is insane, so we did the cheap and healthy thing and walked for an hour. The country side is beautiful, so it was no bother.
    When we arrived, we walked toward the abbey which is at the top of the island. I love walking on the rampart around the place and in the small zigzagging streets of the Mont. The abbey is wonderful to visit: there is so much more than just the church. As explain before, monks have been living here for centuries, so there are all their living areas to see as well. We took our time to visit and appreciate the place. There was a mass in the morning and we stayed at the back of the church for a bit to listen to the pipe organ being played while people were singing. I am not a believer but it is amazing to hear music in religious places.
    After the abbey, we walked around the Mont and did the 4 small museums of the island: the maritime museum; the archeoscope which has a 10 minutes show about the history of the Mont with lovely light, sound and a maquette of the Mont St Michel emerging from water (it was nice); the historic residence of Knight Bertrand Du Guesclin and his wife Tiphaine de Raguenel, a famous astrologer who used to foretell the destiny of the world in the stars who lived in the 14th century. One of the object in the house, was a chastity belt that wifes of knights were forced to wear when their husband was going away for months or years sometime, which open conversation with the kids on the horror women in place and time, had and still have to go through. We finished with the historical museum with the dungeon used as prison.
    We of course went through some of the souvenir shops (there are a lot of them) and bought our magnet. We walked back to our place and were pretty happy to arrive! We were on our feet all day and bodies (well Kev and I) were starting to hurt! It is not fun getting old! The kids were fine!!!
    We had a nice evening playing board games and then bed.
    The next day, we didn’t do much. The kids did their blog and Kev and I tried to plan the UK part, but it took us for ever to decide of the itinerary and looking for cheap but not too horrible accommodation in London. We didn’t and gave up after several hours of looking though website we ended up with a massive headache and quitted! We’ll have to do another planning day soon.
    Our last day in Beaulieu we went back to Avranches to visit the historical area this time. I had a map of Avranche with the point of interest on it and an itinerary already planned. The kids were in charge: they had the map and take turn to take us to the next place of interest on the map and read the information about it. They both did great at reading the map. They only needed help a couple of time. There was 21 stops on the map and we did it all (actually there were 22, but the last one was to far for my liking so we skipped it!) We saw statues of historical peoples, monuments dedicated to people who died at war, old towers from the wall which use to protect the city, the old fort, some beautiful gardens, an art gallery, houses and buildings from the 11th century, half timbered house from the 14th century, churches and basilica, we walked on cobbled narrow streets with moss covered walls.. It was a great, interesting and fun tour for the four of us. One of my favourite stop was the Scriptorial where manuscripts written by the monks of Mont Saint Michel from the 11th century and up, are kept and a few are on display. There were also explanations on how and with which tool they used to work, how to make the colours, the different roles (the scribe, the rubricator, who add the details and lettering like capitals in different colours, the one who wrote annotation to give more information and details about the text, the one doing the illustration and I’m sure I forgot some). It was super interesting and looking at books written 10 centuries ago, with the attention to details they had was incredible.
    It took us the whole day and it was a wonderful day.
    The next morning we were off again to Rennes, a bigger town 1 hour away from Beauvoir, to see my wonderful niece Manon and Nathan, her boyfriend. Excited!!!
    See you there.
    Mel    Leggi altro

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  • Bridsons of the worldBridsons of the worldWorld tour gap year

    Paris, France by the kids

    14–21 giu, Francia ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    On the 14th we were still on the plane going to Paris, it was a long plane but luckily there was a tv, I played the games on it till we landed, when we got out, we went to passport check, we went through it pretty quick. Then we went to the metro station (it was in the airport) we took the metro to another station where we went on another one that took us to our hotel. When we got there, it turned out that it was someone’s house not the hotel, we thought we got scammed, but when mum checked there emails the owner had texted and they said it was house 27, not 17. When we got there, we went into our room and it was pretty nice, we then went to out to a boulangerie get our first baguette sandwich, it was unbelievably good, too good to explain, it was, perfect. After that we went to see Papy Jean (our French grandad), we met him just on the side of the seine across Notre-Dame, we chatted for a while, it’s nice to see family members you haven’t seen in a while after that we just walked around Paris a bit to just get used to it then we went to some of mums friends called Thomas and Celine, mum and dad chatted to the parents while me and Emma played with the kids (Heloise, Timothe and Theophile), it was a little hard when no one can understand your language, we played for a while but sadly we had to go home. When we got home, we went to sleep.
    On the 15th we woke up and went over to Papy Jean, we stayed there for a while and then we went over to the cemetery, the one where mum’s mum is buried, when we got there, we went and found the grave. I miss our grandma a lot, but it’s probably nothing compared to mum’s sadness. After that we went to a restaurant with some of the French family. It was an Italian restaurant, so I got a lasagna, it was pretty nice, Emma didn’t finish it, so I got to finish their’s, dad was hoping he was going to finish Emma’s, but he didn’t, I did. After that we went to a shop got some pasta and cheese, then we went to the hotel and made dinner then we went to sleep.
    On the 16th we were going to go to the parc floral so we could do this rope thing in the trees, there was some rope bridges and ziplines, it sounded pretty cool, but then we were looking at the website and saw they only did it on Wednesday, sad. So, we changed course and went to another park called Jardin d’acclimation, I thought it would be a park like with trees and a playground, I was wrong. It wasn’t really a park, well I guess you could call it a park, well an amusement park, why, because there were rides everywhere. When we first came in, we saw lots of rides, the first one I saw was the Ferris Wheel, I thought it would be a good idea to go on that first so we could see all the rides and then decide what ride to do next. We stayed at the top for a while with was good so we could get a good look out at all the other rides. There was a couple of roller coasters, there were five roller coasters but only four were in action, when the Ferris Wheel finished, we just started walking towards the closest one. We didn’t go straight to the roller coaster, we stopped at a few other rides on the way. When we got in line, we noticed that we were in line for another roller coaster that was right next to the one we wanted to go on, stayed in the line because we were in the line so why leave. When we got on it was pretty fun, we did dips and then we went back up, and then it started spinning. When we got off, I was dizzy, but I didn’t hesitate, I went straight to the other roller coaster when I hopped in, I was really excited. When it started it started up slow because it was going up a slope, when we got right up to the top we took off, it was going really fast, it was awesome. The ride only lasted about thirty seconds, but it was really cool then I remembered I had seen another roller coaster that was even bigger, so I started going in the direction it was in. I went I on a few other rides on the way, but none were as fun as the roller coaster when we got to the next roller coaster, I saw that it was called the red dragon. When I got in line it was like three times longer than the other one, with is hopefully a good sign. When I was watching I saw that the ride would do a course and then when you think it’s ending it goes on a big turn table turns around and then does another course and then goes back to the start. When I got on, me and dad (dad also came along), we got to go in the front which was cool, but when it started the auction in my brain for the title of best ride was like the red dragon burst in and one the auction by a light year. Which means, IT WAS AWESOME, was it absolutely amazing? Yes. Best ride by far? Yes. Is it a ride I could spend all day doing? Yes. Will mum and dad not let me do that? Sadly, yes. After that we did a bunch of other rides and then we went home and went to sleep.
    On the 17th, we went to the park called le Jardin du Luxembourg we were going to meet Papy Jean there, when we got there, we walked around a bit and then I saw a fountain. Then mum said they had boats for rent, well toy boats, I thought they would be like remote controlled boats, but they weren’t. They were little sailing boats that would get pushed around by the wind and when they would sail close to the side of the fountain (it was a big fountain like 15 meters across all ways) we would have sticks and would aim it and then push it. The boats were cool they were like proper sailing boats but shrunken, they had flags of different country’s on them, my boat was flying the flag of Angola. I liked pretending it was a proper ship, I called it an Angolan merchant ship I was peaceful and ready to trade, there was this little house in the middle of the fountain for ducks, I called it the duck house, my ship kept trying to trade with it when I didn’t want it to. The reason why I didn’t want it to, is because whenever it hit it, it got stuck there for ages. After that we went over and played on a playground for a while and then we went back to the boat place again, this time I was sailing for Brazil, I was I Brazilian navy ship, I crashed into a total of 24 ship and almost sunk three. They were built in a way that they were annoyingly practically impossible to sink. After that we went to see Tonton David, one of our French uncles, when we met, he gave mum a really big hug, then he said hello to me, dad and Emma. We chatted for a while, mum got emotional, I would to if I were seeing Emma for the first in three years and I didn’t even see them much before that. When we left, we went back to the hotel to sleep.
    On the 18th we went to the parc floral we were doing the rope course, when we got there, we put on the equipment and then watched the safety demonstration, there were four course yellow, green, blue and red. Yellow was easy peasy, green was a little harder, blue was a bit of a step up and red was the hardest, we started out at green, it was too easy for me, then we did blue, it was fun. When we finished blue Emma decided to do yellow while I went on to red, red was the best it was really fun. After that we went home and slepttttttttt…………... zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz.
    On the 19th we went to a park called la Villette, we were meeting Tonton David there, when we came out of the metro, we found him and then we went in. It wasn’t really a park, well it sort of was there was a big open area with grass and in the middle of the park there was a river in the middle with bridge over it we went over the bridge and we saw a huge slide. The biggest one I had ever seen (that wasn’t in a water park) the slide was shaped like a dragon, it was pretty cool, I was going up to try it but then a saw that it was closed off, not happy. Then I noticed a big building called bubble world I had seen posters for it, and they looked awesome, so I was keen to go in. When we went in Tonton David paid for it (I love him) then we went in, we were told there are nine rooms, the first room the floor was a screen and there were fish that if we stepped on them, they would go really fast, it was fun. Me and Emma were stepping on them and having fun, we appointed ourselves to clearing out a certain area, there were 4 types of animals, turtles, sting rays, some skinny pointy fish and a hammer head shark. After that room there was a room that was about 8x8 meters and it was filled with pink balloons, the balloons weren’t your average balloons, they were like 10 times bigger and tougher. If I chucked one up and then hit it really hard it went flying, I liked trying to hit people, but I didn’t have very good aim, so it mostly just went in random directions. When I did hit people, it was normally dad, dad would then turn around and start chasing me, it was fun, dad had a good strategy, he would barge through, and the balloons would fly up so dad could then hit them at me. After that room there was a room with one really big dome, in the dome it looked like you were in a glass dome with different liquids pouring on me, also the way the dome was shaped, it made all the sound in the dome reverberate, it was cool. After that room there was a room with lots of silver balloons there were also fans that were blowing them into the middle they were fun to play with. The room after that had four things where we could take photos in, the first one was where you could make it look like your head is on a plate of balls. The next one was a bathtub full of rubber ducks that I could lay in, the next one was the best, it had a ring that I could pull up around myself, but the ring had the liquid you use to make bubbles on it. So when I pulled it up, I pulled a bubble over myself, it was awesome. The next one was a bubble that I could sit in. the room after that was a ginormous pool of balls, it was very hard to move in. The one after that was a fake hot air balloon with screens all around it making it look like a proper one. After that it was a small maze thing with lots of lights bulbs hanging everywhere, also there were mirrors as walls, so it looked like it was never ending. After that there was a VR thing, I did it and it was pretty cool, that was the last thing so after that we got out and went home and slept.
    On the 20th we were going to go get Emma a pandora charm, we went to a pandora shop and there were two that Emma couldn’t decide which on to get. Mum and dad were going to by one for them, so Emma decided to buy the cheapest one and get mum and dad to buy the other one. After that, we went to have a walk around Paris. We found a café and Mum and Dad had drinks while me and Emma had a Nutella crepe. I had ice cream on it and Emma had whipped cream and it was very nice. Soon after we kept walking and find a lolly shop that was called Pirate lollies. You would get a paper bag and the lollies were all in barrel, then you scoop up the lollies you want and put it in the paper bag. You pay 5 euros per 100 grammes. We then kept walking because we were going to Thomas and Celine. When we got there, we got straight into playing. The first time we were there, we played Monopoly game but did not finish it, so we were going to play again and see who won. We did not finish it this time either, we ended up throwing money everywhere. Emma started it, not me (Emma edit: Andrew is a very big liar, he started it!). It was one of the funnest day of the travel. I love playing with Theophile, Heloise and Timothee. Then we went back home and slept.
    The end
    Andrew (10 years old)

    We are in Paris!
    On the 14th we landed in Paris. We were in the airport, so we took the metro to the middle of Paris. Then from there we took more metros to close to where we booked. The email said we were in 27 but we were meant to go to 17. So, we arrived at some one’s house. They let us stay there until we worked it out. So, we went to the wrong address at first, but we ended up finding the right one. The person that we booked the place from did not say sorry once we found them, all they said was “it was meant to say 17”. We set up and then went out for a late breakfast or an early lunch. We had a baguette sandwich. It was delicious. We kept saying “The French know how to cook properly.” After that we went to see Papy Jean and Laurence. They were down at the front of Notre-Dame selling books. We saw the outside of Notre-Dame because there was too big of a line up. It was being rebuilt. Then we walked in Paris. Lots of buildings. I could smell lots of foods. Then we went to Celine and Thomas for the evening. We played with Theophile, Heloise and Timothe. I had fun playing with the other three kids. We stayed up late playing. By the time we got home it was a bit before midnight.
    On the 15th we had a French breakfast. We had pain au chocolat and croissants. After we had breakfast, we went to the cemetery to see mammy Chris because it was her birthday. It was hard to see mammy Chris’s grave because she was very important to us. I’m sad I don’t remember her properly, all I have left of her are photos and a toy. Then we went to Papy Jean’s house to print paper. Then we had lunch with the French family. Me and Andrew got a lasagna each and it was good. We left around 5pm. Did some shopping and then back home. The sun is still up at about 10:30 pm.
    On the 16th we went to an amusement park. They had a Ferris wheel, a bunch of roller coasters, a few boat rides, some rides where you sit in seats and you go up high and then down fast, loads of rides. Over a hundred rides. My favourite ride was the clock tower. It is a ride where you go up, up, up, and then they let you down fast but a kid version. I was a little scared to go on some of the rides at first but then it turned out I liked some of the rides. I was happy mum made me go on the clock tower because I loved it. After the amusement park we went to Laurence’s place for ice-cream.
    On the 17th we went to a park called Jardin du Luxembourg. It had a pond where you could rent a boat for half an hour. Me and Andrew rented it twice each. We got a stick to push it around. When the boat gets in touch with the wind it either turns or goes fast. In the park there was also a playground. Me and Andrew played a bit and then went to the bar for drinks and ice-cream. Then we met with mums’ brother, David. He brought all of us stuff. Well, first of all, he gave mum the biggest hug ever. They haven’t been in touch for ages, and they were so happy to see each other. He got me and Andrew a toy each that had $100 euros in it which is about $160 dollars. He gave dad a face scarf. We stayed in the park for a little bit and then went for dinner. Andrew got his first steak hache and I got a burger with a steak hache on it.
    On the 18th we went to park floral. It had playgrounds and rope courses. We had booked to do the rope courses, but we got there early as usual, so we played a bit. We got ready and then they taught us how to clip ourselves in, because nobody will be up there to help you. Yellow is the easiest. Green is second easiest. Blue is second hardest and red is the hardest. I started with green and then blue and just for fun yellow. Well to be honest, they were all the same stuff just higher up. There were a few ziplines. I was a little scared to do the ziplines at first, but then I remembered I can’t fall, I am always clipped in. someone invented a clip that you put on at the beginning, and you can’t take it off until the end. So, you are always safe. I could never have done it without mum and dad. They kept telling me that I couldn’t fall and encouraging me. I am vvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy proud of myself. I impressed myself that day. After a little bit, I got better and I never thought I would say this, keen to do a few more ziplines.
    On the 19th Andrew had a drum lesson. We waited outside for Andrew to be done. We could hear Andrew playing a little bit from outside and he had a good beat. I read my kindle. When Andrew was done, we went to Villette to meet Tonton David. We went to a park with him. We play a little bit and then we went to a place called bubble planet. Tonton David paid for us all. There were 9 or 10 rooms. in the first room you were under water and there were water animals swimming under you, and you had to step on them. (The animals were on screens.) in the second room there were balloons. We kept hitting the balloons at each other. We got very sweaty in there. In the third room there was a big dome in the middle of the of the room that we went into. It looked like cells inside the human body. In the fourth room there were more balloons but smaller and dad taught me how to spin the balloons. In the fifth room there were photo things. There was this photo one that I really liked. You would stand on a platform and pull a rope. The rope would lift a ring that made a bubble around you. In the sixth room there was a big ball pit. You had to get in by stairs. I could barely move. Dad had to pull me back to the stairs. In the seventh room there was a platform that we stood on and watched a screen as we went through portals to different lands. (It was just screens that we watched.) in the eighth room there were loads of light bulbs. They kept changing colours. It was beautiful. In the ninth room you could get VR headsets. I didn’t because I don’t like VR stuff. In the tenth room there were two robot hands that had stuff to make bubbles. My favourite thing was when they used a big net. They would dip it in the bubble mixture, take it out and hold it up to a few fans. The wind from the fans would blow the bubbles and make very big clumps of bubbles. Some of the clumps of bubbles were the size of me. Then we went to look at the shop to get the photos they took of us.
    On the 20th we did blog in the morning and then went to walk in Paris. While we were walking, we spotted a big lolly shop. There were baskets of lollies that you could get lollies out of and put then in a bag. Then you would go weigh the lollies and it cost 5 euros for a hundred grams. Then we went and found pandora to get my charm for Paris. I couldn’t decide between a baguette with cheese or a cancan dancer. Soon I gave in and got both. Mum and dad got me the baguette with cheese, and I got myself the cancan dancer (Mum and dad got me the more expensive one because they are nice and loving). Then we walked to Celine and Thomos’s house. We played with the kids. We ended a have a pillow fight. It started out as a monopoly game and then a monopoly money fight and then a pillow fight. We left their place a ten, got home and went straight to bed. Night-night.
    YOU DID IT, YOU FINISHED THE BLOG FOR PARIS. WELL DONE.
    Emma (almost 9 years old)    Leggi altro

  • Bridsons of the worldBridsons of the worldWorld tour gap year

    Paris, France by Kev

    14–21 giu, Francia ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    14.6.2025. We landed in Paris around 6:30 in the morning. Got through immigration very quickly, grabbed our bags and hopped on the train into the city. We found our apartment, well we thought we did. Mel got a message saying the address was 27. There was some confusion when a lady came out and said that her family owned and lived here. What's going on here? Her partner got home shortly after and a lot of French was exchanged. After which we were invited in for a coffee while we got it sorted out. Thinking maybe we'd been scammed, Mel sent more messages to the person through booking.com. Apparently the address is 17, not 27. We thanked the family for their hospitality and walked a little further up the street. We found a lady there and Mel had to show her the message saying 27 as she didn't believe us. Anyway, we got shown around the apartment and started making a mess straight away. We went out and had our first baguette sandwich for a late breakfast, early lunch, kids smashed them. After which we took the metro to see Pappy Jean. We walked along the Seine until we found him and his partner Laurence working a little shop on the sidewalk. We then went across the street to a bar for a chat and a beer. We took the metro to Mel's friends, Thomas and Celine, after that. We had lots of cheese and bread, pate and other stuff. The kids played and we talked. I looked at my phone, 21:45? That can't be right, it's still light out. I checked my time settings, yep GMT+2. WTH is going on here. I have never been to Paris in summer, apparently the sun doesn't go down until after 10. That's a new one for me. By the time we got back and put the kids to bed it was almost midnight. Goodnight.
    15.6.2025. This morning we had a traditional French breakfast, pain au chocolat, croissant and pain au raisin. Delicious. Mel's dad then picked us up from the apartment and we went to the cemetery. We got some flowers and visited Mel's mum. After that we went for lunch. Jean picked an Italian restaurant on the Seine, across from Laurence's shop. She has some of the green boxes along the Seine, and sells books and drawings. We met Jean's brother, Franck and his wife Begonia there. Time for apero, which means we're having a drink before food. After lunch we just sat in the restaurant talking, having a few more drinks, grappas to help digest. It was after 5 by the time we left the restaurant. We said our goodbyes and walked to the metro to head to the apartment. We stopped at a small supermarket and got some pasta for dinner. Once more we were weirded out by the fact it was after 8pm and still broad daylight. Dinner, bath and bed.
    16.6.2025. Today we went to Le jardin d’acclimatation. To those who don't speak French(me), that's an amusement park here. Jean was with us, though we couldn't get him on any rides. We tried pretty much all the rides, starting with a Ferris wheel, finishing with rides that the kids found were their favourites. Andrew loved the roller coaster called the “red dragon”, Emma loved a clock tower ride that went up and down and spun around. At first she was scared to try it, so I went on with her. We had to drag her off it at the end. After all that fun, we went to Laurence's apartment for a visit and ice cream. A nice place, with lots of books. She is a published author, and gifted us a couple of her creations. We got dropped back at the apartment, ate cheesy pasta and went to bed in the daytime. Will slowly get used to that.
    17.6.2025. Today we're off to le parc du Luxembourg. We stopped at a boulangerie for baguette sandwiches and ate them for lunch on the way to the metro. We met Jean and Laurence there, and had a walk around the park. We headed to an open area with a lake in the middle. Here they rent small sailboats, the kids loved it. There's no way to steer them, you're given a stick to push them away from the side, then you watch them get blown around the lake. After that we walked to a small playground area. The kids played, but all they wanted to do was go back to the boats. We stopped at a restaurant in the park and had some refreshments, beer and ice-cream. Then, since the kids made such a big stink about it, we decided to head back to the boats. Jean and Laurence had had enough of walking, so they bid us farewell and left. The kids had another go with the boats while we waited for Mel's brother, David, to turn up. He had some stuff for the kids and we were all really happy to see each other. Mel and David chatted for a bit, then we went to a brasserie for some dinner and more catching up. Brasseries are more my style, pub meals and beer on tap. Andrew had his first steak haché of the trip, and was not disappointed. Once again, time got away from us. It was after 10 when we left the brasserie, and still daylight. There was lots of catching up to do. We planned when to meet up with David again and hopped on the metro to head to the apartment.
    18.6.2025. Guess what! We're doing something for the kids today! Jean picked us up and we went to parc floral. A huge park with lots of trees and flowers. Also a parkour area with ziplines and rope bridges. There were 4 courses, yellow being the easiest, then green, blue and finally red. We started with the green, which was too easy for Andrew but a good starting point for Emma. Emma struggled a little at the start, stressing a little with the safety lines. We'd talked about brain fog, and what happens when you stress/panic in situations, and that you need to slow down, take a breath and think. The kids did everything themselves when on the course, so I couldn't just go up and help, Emma had to help herself. Which she did. After only a small moment of trouble with a safety line, Emma steeled herself and got it done. After that, Emma had no trouble. Switching her safety lines, moving around trees on platforms, all while 10m above the ground at times. Andrew moved through the courses with ease, I knew he would, and ended up finishing the hardest one with little to no trouble. While Emma is not quite at home as Andrew is with this sort of thing, she made me proud with her progress. She was a bit frightened to do the ziplines, but did them anyway. Emma finished with the easiest course, too easy in the end, Andrew with the hardest. 3 of the 4 courses done each, and we'd run out of time. We went and had a late lunch, then said goodbye to Jean and Laurence. The kids played in the park a bit longer. Mel and I went and rented a 4 wheel, 4 pedal “bike”. Andrew had been bugging to have a go and we thought, why not. After that we headed back towards the apartment. The metro was packed, so we decided to walk a bit more. We got off where Mel used to live and had a look from the outside. We walked a fair bit, stopping at a supermarket. Grabbed a couple of things, including a bottle of red to share. Back at the apartment, I made a quick dinner for the kids. Steak haché and veges. Searched in vain throughout the apartment for a bottle opener, can't believe a french apartment that is not equipped with a bottle opener. Anyway, off to bed.
    19.6.2025. Slow start to the day, we seem to be getting later and later to bed. Breakfast was had, a big loaf of cake that Mel had growing up. Next stop, a drum lesson for Andrew. He had told us he'd been missing his drums, so Mel found a teacher. Better yet, the guy spoke English, yay! Mel didn't have to translate. After that we headed towards La Villette, to meet up with David and have a walk around the park. First we found a boulangerie for sandwiches, we were starving. The kids had a play and Mel and David talked more. There is an activity near the park called “bubble planet”, entrance fees were paid and in we went. The first room was an interactive floor, with fish swimming around that you could step on and make move faster. Next a huge room with massive balloons. Lots of fun whacking them at the kids. Then a big room, set up as a bathtub/ball pit. It was surprisingly hard to move around in, I had to help Emma a fair bit. There were some interactive things to play, a pathway through hanging lights that changed colours and timing. Finishing with a VR experience Andrew and David tried. We walked some more, before deciding to eat at a brasserie. Andrew tried his first steak tartare. He was happy to try it but it's not his favourite, he prefers steak haché. We said our goodbyes as we won't see David again now until September, and headed back to the apartment. Bath for the kids and bed.
    20.6.2025. We did some blogging this morning and then packed. In the afternoon, we went out and found a Pandora store. Emma is collecting charms around the world, and anywhere there is a Pandora shop, we get her a charm. There were some really nice charms here, and Emma couldn't decide which she wanted. So two were bought. Emma used her own money to get the second. After that, we walked through a touristy area some more. We stopped at a cafe. Kids got Nutella crepes, Mel had wine and I tried another of France's beers. We talked and people watched. We deliberately picked a cafe in the shade. Surprising how hot the sun can feel here, having only been to France in winter before. I ordered a coffee and asked for the bill. I could have sat there a few more hours, enjoying the beer and company, but we had a place to be. We had another night planned to be spent with Celine, Thomas and their kids, so we set off. We had planned to take the underground, but it was nice outside, so we decided to walk. We spent another nice night with friends and the kids always play well together. We said our goodbyes and headed for the metro. Straight to bed as soon as we got to the apartment. Off to a new area tomorrow.
    Kev    Leggi altro

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  • Bridsons of the worldBridsons of the worldWorld tour gap year

    Paris, France by Mel

    14–21 giu, Francia ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    Bonjour!!!!
    We are in Paris, France! My first home! It is so nice to be back.
    We arrived in Paris on the 14th of June. I am glad we are here during summer as Kev and the kids only ever saw France in winter so far. France is always great, but it is even better during the warm season.
    On the day we arrived, we took the metro to get to the little flat we booked for the week. We arrived at the address I got from the booking website, knock on the door and we were meet by a really astonished person who open the door. I explain that we are here for renting the place and she said that she and her husband and daughter lives here and the place is not for rent! Great!! Did we get scam? We never had issue with our booking website so far, but there is always a first. The people were super friendly, invited us for a coffee inside to try to sort it out. They even try to call a friend of them who might have a place for us to rent! Really friendly! I message on the booking website and the person say that they are at the location but can’t see us! What? What is the address: 17 of the street we are in. I checked my previous message: 27 of the street! Ok it was a mistake in the number of the street!!! Sorry!!! We get to the right place and settle. It was a bit scary for a minute, but the people were super friendly!
    We are in a small apartment (typical for Paris) but that will be enough for a week. There is a washing machine in the flat and we start using it straight away as it is much needed!!!
    We get in search of a boulangerie (which is easy as there are some everywhere in Paris) to get our first baguette sandwich of the trip. The kids and us loves those!!!! We found some and Andrew melt of pleasure eating his!! He says it is one of his favourite food.
    After that, it is direction the centre of Paris to see my dad and his girlfriend Laurence. She is a ‘bouquiniste’: she sells books on the side of the Seine near Notre-Dames. There are 250 bouquinistes in Paris all along the seine. They all have 4 green boxes where they sell second hands or vintage books. They also sell postcards and some small souvenir now. The waiting list to get a spot is 8 years! Those green boxes have been here since 1859 and are still flourishing now. This is a permanent and well know fixture of Paris. Since 1992. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and it is said that ‘the Seine is the only river in the world that runs between two bookshelves’! To get there, we got of the underground a few stop before to be able to walk in Paris. I am breathing Paris in!!! I love this city so much. I realise every time I am here, that I miss it terribly. Paris is beautiful: the buildings are full of history, there is statues and art everywhere (especially in the centre of Paris) The brasseries, cafes and restaurant are al over the place with their terrace filled with people enjoying a catch up with their friends or having a quick break during their busy day.
    We get to where my Dad and Laurence are and it is great to be able to give my dad a hug. It is hard to be away from my family. Australia is very far from France! Anyway, we meet Laurence and then go to a café to catch up, Parisian style!
    After a while, we go to see Notre-Dame. Laurence book’s stale is right near it, so it is a good opportunity. We only saw the outside as the line to get in is so big that we didn’t see the end of it! Notre-Dame burnt in 2019. The inside has been rebuilt and they are still working on the outside. They reopened it in December 2024 and a lot of people want to see it! We’ll have to try to see the inside at some point. Notre-Dame was built in the 12th century on the site of an older Romane church which was there since the 4th or 5th century. It almost got burnt during the French revolution, but luckily they didn’t to avoid burning the nearby hospital for the elderly. Notre-Dame is always a pleasure to see. The details of the façade are so many, you could spend a whole day just looking at it! We kept walking in the area for a while before heading to Celine and Thomas, some of my best friends and their 3 kids place. Last time we were in France, Andrew and Emma got along so well with them even if they didn’t speak the same language. It was the same again this time: after a few minutes a shyness, they were all playing together again.
    It was nice being back chatting with my friends, natural, not like 3 years has pass since last time we saw each other. We spent the evening chatting and eating cheese and bread. About 10.30pm, Kev looked at the time and had to check that his time settings were right: it was still light outside!!! It is summer and the sun set late at that time of the year!
    We left as the kids were getting tired. We got back in the underground and the kids were falling asleep.
    The next day, we started the day with a French breakfast: croissant, pain au chocolat and pain au raisin from a nearby boulangerie. It is such a pleasure to be able to get some fresh delicious patisseries in the morning! After that, we went to the cemetery where my mum is, as it was her birthday and for once, I was there to put flowers on her grave on her special day. I know it doesn’t really matter as she is not here anymore, but the gesture was important for me.
    Then we went to a restaurant with my dad, Laurence, my uncle Franck and aunt Bego. Again, it is always a pleasure to meet with my family as we don’t see each other a lot obviously. We stayed at the restaurant for around 5 hours! Chatting along and having a few drinks. A typically French Sunday! What a treat.
    This time in Paris, I’ve decided to do some of the parcs and jardins (garden) around Paris as we didn’t really do that the last few times we were here because of the weather. So Monday the 16th, my dad picked us up to go to the Jardin d’acclimatation. This park was open in 1860 by Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie. It was originally a zoologic park where plants and animals from the colonies could be shown to the Parisians. In 1870, during the siege of Paris (due to the Franco-Prussian war), the animals were used to feed the Parisians! From the 1930s, the park focussed on children and family orientated activities. Nowadays, there are a lot of rides, playground, water play area… a dream for any children! The kids had a ball on a lot of rides. Andrew wanted to do all the extreme ones. Emma was a bit more hesitant, but she did several rides and found one she loved! The clock tower which goes up and down and turn. She was worried at first, but then you should have seen her smile! It was massive. We could also hear her going weeeee when the ride was going down. It was very fun!
    When spent a fair bit of time there, walking around the park and doing attractions. After that we went for ice cream at Laurence’s place. Yum!
    The next day, we went to another park, Le Jardin du Luxembourg. This park was built in 1612, by Marie de Medicis (Wife of Henry IV and mother of Louis the XIII) to accompany the palais du Luxembourg. It now belongs to the Senat. The garden is one of the most beautiful in Paris. There are trees, water features, chairs everywhere to sit and enjoy your day, beautiful old buildings. In the middle of the park, there is a basin where you can rent small boats. It has been going on since 1927. Clement Paudeau hand carved small boats and his wife hand sewn the sails and they decided to rent them to children for 2 sous. It was an instant success and still is. I believe the boats in used now are still the same (the sails have been repaired or changed). Now it is 8 euros for 30 minutes! But the kids looooooved it. You put the boat on the water and push it with a wooden cane. The wind pushes the little boats, and the kids have to run around the round water feature and push the boat back when it comes back to the side. It is brilliant. The kids are all around running and looking for their boats. The kids could have stay there the allllll day!
    There are also play area, where you have to pay a small fee (that bugged me a bit: playground use to be free!) and we spent a bit of time there. After a drink with my dad and Laurence, the kids decided to spent some of their pocket money to have one more go on the boats.
    We then meet with my brother David. It is so good to catch up with family. Hugging your loved one when it only happens every several years is something very special. We walked around the park a little bit then went for dinner in a brasserie where Andrew got his first ‘Steak haché’ of the trip. This is just minced meat, but it is delicious. It is one of his favourite dish in France and has been looking forward to have some. We came back late, again! The fact that it is still daylight until 10.30pm is weird and we keep forgetting how late it is!
    On Wednesday, after a bit of school work, we went to the Park Floral. This park opened in 1969 and is located in the Bois de Vincennes (near the Castle). In there, there are a lot of plantes, flowers, trees and a whole bunch of wooden playground. The kids play on it for a bit, before going to do some accrobranche: these are ziplines, rope bridges, nets and other fun stuffs hanging in trees that you have to go through. Lots of fun for the kids! Andrew was extremely keen obviously, Emma a little more reserved but we asked her to try her best and she did amazing. Both kids had a lots of fun going through the obstacles. Andrew got a bit frustrated when he was stuck behind people who were slower than him! He does those things so quickly. The higher track goes up to 12 meters high and he did it easy-peasy. Emma did the second highest one and was amazing at it. She is growing in confidence with her body and it is a pleasure to watch. We are very proud of her.
    After a stop for food, we said goodbye to my dad and Laurence (we’ll see them again in a few days) and went to do some Rosalies: they are vehicles that have 4 seats and pedals with a roof over it. We had fun taking turn driving (a bit stressful when the kids were driving!) and going around the park. Then the kids spent like what felt like hours on a flying fox and we decide to go back to our place. The underground was packed so we decide to get off it and walk as we were in the area where I used to live, and I wanted to show the kids my old building. I love walking in the city, watching people at the terrasse of brasseries and cafes, all the little shops everywhere (not in shopping centres!)… I love this city!
    Thursday, we booked a drum lesson for Andrew. He has been missing his drumkit a lot lately, so it was a must. We found someone close to where we are staying and booked him a 2-hour lesson. Andrew really enjoyed it and did not want to leave at the end!
    Then we meet David again at La Villette, a park in the 19 district in Paris which was built between 1984 and 1987 on the site of former slaughterhouse which were active from 1867 to 1974. In that park there is multiple museums, concert hall (I saw several concerts there in my youth!), theatres and multiple playgrounds for kids. This is a massive park, the 3 largest in Paris. We went to see one of the exhibitions of the moment: Bubble Planet. It was an exhibition around the theme of bubbles! There were 9 different rooms. The first one with screen on the floor with fish and bubbles that you could step on the make them move. The second room was filled with massive pink ballons. The third one was a dome with a video projected on the inside of it of weird, coloured bubbles, cell type image thing and with bubbles and water sound. The fourth one has more ballons, but the air flow was making the balloons come back to the middle and levitate and the colours were changing all the time making it a very visual and entertaining room. Then it was a room with small area where you could take picture in fun settings, including making a giant bubble around yourself! Then it was a room with a massive ball pit. After that a circular room with video projected on the wall of moving magical landscapes, very visual. Then a room filled with light bulbs hanging from the ceiling and mirror on the floor and walls: the light bulbs were changing colours in pattern, making it extremely mesmerizing. Then there was a room with some VR set: Andrew and David did that. I didn’t, VR stuff make me sick! They both said it was amazing. To finish we watched 2 robot arms make bubbles. It was a really good exhibition: visually beautiful, interactive and fun.
    We finish the day with another brasserie dinner; that is the best in Paris. We went in that same brasserie 3 years ago and Emma had a banana juice then. We never find that same one again and she has been asking for it ever since. They still had it, which made Emma very happy. Andrew tried a steak tartare, which is raw meat. He loves his steak haché very blue, so he gave a try with the steak tartare, but he prefers steak haché: meat has to be a bit cooked for Andrew.
    Then back to our place, late again!
    Friday we did some blogging in the morning and pack again as we will leave early the next morning. In the afternoon, we went to get Emma’s Pandora charm from France: she got 2. We got her one that has a baguette and cheese on it and she got herself a cancan dancer with the French colour on it.
    We spent the afternoon walking in Paris. The weather is wonderful at the moment (even a bit hot!) and it is a pleasure to walk in the city and taking on the sights. I could walk for ever in here! We found a lollie shop and had to make a stop. We also had a stop at a brasserie and got a couple of drinks and the kids got crepes: just enjoying people watching and simply enjoying the time together Parisian style!
    The evening we went back to see Celine and Thomas and the kids. As soon as we got in, the kids were off with Theophile, Heloise and Timothee. They always play so well together! As always, we always have a great time when we are there. The time always goes to fast. Back to our place late again.
    The next morning, we got the car we are renting for the rest of our France trip and are off for more adventure.
    Mel    Leggi altro

  • Bridsons of the worldBridsons of the worldWorld tour gap year

    Our thoughts on Africa, the part we did!

    13 giugno, Namibia ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    This is it: Africa is done for us for this trip. I hope we will come back again to see more of it.
    Africa was magical.
    There were so many highlights: several moments are inked in my brain. The first time we saw giraffes in that big plain area in South Luangwa Park in Zambia. Mosi-oa-Tunya (Victoria Falls) with its thundering waters, is something to see. The Livingstone International Cultural Arts Festival with all the dancers from all over Zambia, was for me a wonderful experience and I wish we could have seen more of it.
    Watching Andrew and Kev doing the swing (dropping 70 meters down and then swinging on that rope over the roaring river) in Victoria falls was something. Watching Emma fighting her fear and doing her first zipline was wonderful.
    The animals we saw in national parks and in the wild were sensational. There is nothing like seeing animals living their lives, free (not in small area in zoo). They are all magnificent. I loved that. We saw so many animals (I’m sure the kids will give you a list!)
    Etosha national park was amazing. We saw a couple of lion mating, how awesome is that! We saw some lioness just a couple of meters from us!
    In Namibia, we saw dolphins jumping in the waves of the boat we were in. That was magical.
    The landscapes were so different: from immense plains, to hills, deserts and massive dunes. Africa has so much to offer.
    We also saw people asking for water. Nobody should have to ask for water. This was so wrong. There is still so much to do here for the African people. There is still so many who struggle. It was not as obvious as in India, as there are less people here. But there are still too many people who live without their basic needs filled. This is not ok.
    As travellers and human, I want to help, but I am not always sure how to. I said it before: spending our tourist money might help, but I am not sure it goes to the people who need it. I have not seen any non-profit organisation around. I will have to look for it when we are back in Australia to see if we can help, even if it is just a little bit.
    As always, we are sad to leave. It is weird to think that Africa is already over. We are almost half way through our trip. The year is going so fast and it is scary.
    Next part is Europe, it is going to be so different and exciting, but Africa will stay in my heart and I really want to come back.
    Mel

    What are my thoughts of Africa? Or more specifically, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Beautiful, but very expensive for a tourist. They don't miss you if you're foreign. There is lots of money here, and lots of poverty too. It's much cleaner than India tho. Namibia, even with mineral wealth and tourism, is still one of the poorest countries per capita in the world. We saw absolutely amazing animals in these countries, way better than any zoo. We saw some truly amazing countryside. We ate some really good food, nshima is a must if you're in Zambia. We had fun, and we will miss Africa.
    Kev

    Africa has been a lovely country, the animals, the food (after two month in India I needed meat) and the people, some of them are nice and friendly and some have been plainly annoying, but most of them are nice. The highlights of Africa have been Victoria falls, it was beautiful, the gorge swing there, that was a unique experience, Etosha national park, that was purely amazing, the cape fur seal colony, it was unbelievable, and riding on the boat with the dolphins in Walvis Bay, I’ve always wanted to do that. Surprisingly the plants and the countryside actually look pretty similar to the ones in Australia but the animals are like the exacted opposite, kangaroos and elephants have nothing similar. Here are the animals we saw (that I remember): hyenas, cheetahs, lions, ostriches, Oryxs, Kudu, snakes (we saw three types), mongooses (or as I like to call them, mongeese), small spotted cat, monkeys, wilder beast, impala, squirrels, hyraxes, black backed Jackel, meerkat, steenbok, genet, rhinos, warthogs, springbok and who knows how many more we drove past but didn’t see. It’s going to be sad to leave Africa, it has been my favourite continent so far, we need to come back, we barely skimmed the top of it, we have many trips ahead of us (well, after the gap year). So long Africa, I’ll miss you but now it’s onto France.
    Andrew (10 years old)

    Hi guys, this blog is just going to be about what I thought of Africa.
    The temperature was nice, little cold at some points. Beautiful wildlife, beautiful landscapes. The things I am going to miss is touching the seal, touching the pelican and seeing the dolphins swimming under us. We saw dolphins, whales, lions, zebra, wildebeest, elephants, monkeys, rhinos, oryx, small spotted genet, greater kudu, giraffes and many more that I don’t have time to name. There was this animal that I have always wanted to see in the wild and I saw it. It was a MEERKAT. I love seeing the wildlife of Africa because it’s unique. There is nothing quite like it. All the places were magical in their own way. I love seeing all the animals free and not trapped in a cage at a zoo.
    Emma (almost 9 years old)

    Here are some pictures from the 2 months in Africa.    Leggi altro

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  • Bridsons of the worldBridsons of the worldWorld tour gap year

    Sossusvlei, Namibia by Kev

    11–13 giu, Namibia ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    11.6.2025. We're off to Sesriem today. I don't know much about it, except there's lots of sand dunes there. We packed and checked to make sure we'd not forgotten anything, then set off. It was around a 5 hours drive, with a stop at a place called Solitaire. Well several stops actually, for pictures. The landscape on the trip was something else. There was an even better stop, a sudden, emergency sort of stop. A bunch of little critters ran across the road and I hit the skids to miss them. Meerkats! We had really wanted to see them, but had given up hope. Here they were running across the road in front of us. We turned and watched them for a bit. Woohoo, meerkats! Emma was stoked, that was one animal she really wanted to see. We got to Sesriem, without running anything over, paid our park fees for two days and checked into our campsite. It was still the early afternoon, so we decided to go and check out the canyon walk. It's only a few kilometres from the campsite and was well worth a look. We trekked down into the canyon, heading one way first. We stopped when the path became blocked and headed back the other way. As we walked, it began to open up wider. Andrew and I climbed a bit for some photos, and for fun. We had walked a fair bit, when I noticed there were no other tourists. I got a little worried, it is still Africa after all, so we headed back towards the entrance. Back to the campsite, set up the tents for the night and went about making dinner.
    12.6.2025. We're off to see “big daddy”, a massive sand dune, so up early and driving into the park in the dark. When we arrived we read about the trees near the dune. Like a dead forest, they have been here for over a 1000 years. Too dry to decompose, so they still stand. Slowly being covered and uncovered as the dunes shift. The only wear and tear coming from the sand and wind. We walked around the huge, flat, dry dirt area between the dunes where the trees are for a bit. People coming here in years to come will see a different landscape to what we are seeing. Then we decided to climb the sand dune, 325m high and who knows how wide. It took us a couple hours I think, lost track of time. It's hard work trekking up a sand dune, and of course, we picked a harder path, that's just what we do. I can honestly say my legs were close to giving out right at the top. Andrew said he was tired, tho showed no signs of slowing down. Emma trudged up the dunes with no complaints, just resting when we all did. At the start of the trip, Emma could not have done this, she has come a long way, both physically and mentally. I still remember having to push her up a hill in Battambang. Emma received no help today, just praise. The view from the top was something else, looking out over kilometres of sand dunes to mountains far away. we had our fill of being on top a sand dune and decided to head back down. So much easier to go back down, and way faster. We just went straight down the slip face of the dune. It looks really steep from the bottom, but we have learned that a dune can't be steeper than 33°, and was pretty fun to go down. At the bottom I took my shoes off and emptied them out. Chock a block full of sand, and it was getting painful. 2 hours to go up, a few minutes to get down, sounds about right. We walked around the huge open area for a bit, it really is something special to see. We headed back to the campsite, had some lunch and relaxed. Later, we packed again as we are heading back to Windhoek tomorrow. Our time in Africa is coming to an end. We got everything ready for a quick takeoff and the kids played. Dinner around our last campfire, then bed.
    13.6.2025. We woke up early as we have a 5 hour drive back to Windhoek to catch our flight to Paris. The kids went down the ladders, and went to put on their shoes. One problem, one of each shoe was missing. I looked out of the tent and shone a light down. There were small tracks around both ladders, heading off into bush to who knows where. My assumption is, jackals. Bloody jackals! They took one of each of the kids' shoes. Why not both of one pair? Now we have to buy two new pairs of shoes, and Andrew's shoes were barely a week old. That sounds like a Paris problem. We packed up the tents and headed off. We were about 30mins from Sesriem when an animal ran across the road, and I had to slow down. Hyenas! Spotted hyenas! Tick another animal off the list. There was a group of around 8-10, and they seemed curious but cautious of us. We drove through some amazing country, over the top of some mountains. The car said outside it got down to -1°. Happy to be inside the car. We dropped off the car and got a lift to the airport. Spent the last of our Namibian dollars on lunch and waited for our plane. First stop will be Ethiopia, then another plane to Paris after midnight.
    Kev    Leggi altro

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  • Bridsons of the worldBridsons of the worldWorld tour gap year

    Sossusvlei, Namibia by Mel

    11–13 giu, Namibia ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Hello everyone,
    Last blog we did, we were in Walvis Bay and about to go south of it to Sossusvlei. We did just that on the 11 of June. The drive took us around 4-5 hours. It was a wonderful drive. First, we saw some meerkats!!!! This is an animal that we wanted to see, but didn’t manage to see so far: we did now! We were driving and Kev saw something running on the road and thought it was one of those ground squirrels we saw a lot. We still stopped to checked and realised they were meerkats!! So excited! Emma was extremely happy as she has been wanted to see them in the wild for ages. There was a big family of meerkats. They are fun and super cute.
    We kept going after that and admire the landscapes. From Walvis bay, it is flat for a while, but then the landscape change and there are hills everywhere. But the hills are stripped, almost like they were made in sequence. I took some pictures, but they are never as good as reality. There were also mountains in the background. Just breathtaking.
    On the way, we stopped at Solitaire, which is a small place where there is a bakery which is supposed to bake the best apple pie in the world. We wanted to try, but they didn’t have any at that time! So we got some food and coffees and took a small break. They also have old cars around the place, just left there, which make a bit of a cinematic scene.
    We also stopped at the tropic of Capricorn which was on the way. There is a frame where you can take pictures, which we did of course!
    We kept going and arrive at our camp which is inside the Namib-Naukluft national park. This park is the largest conservation area in Namibia and is a Unesco site. This park is absolutely amazing. The landscapes are some of the most beautiful to see.
    On that first day, we went to visit the Sesriem Canyon. It is a natural canyon around 1 km long and 30 meters deep. It was carved by the Tsauchab river. There is only a small part which still have water in it all year long. Which mean you can walk at the bottom of it and admire the rock formations in it and enjoy the views from there. Which we did.
    After that we came back to the camp, set up and had a lovely evening by the fire.
    The next day, we woke up at 6am to get to the Big Daddy Dune in the Sossuslvei desert. The desert is known for the beautiful gold/red colour dunes. Some of those dunes are the tallest one in the world. The Big Daddy one is 325m high and we climbed it!
    But first we walked in the huge white clay pan at the bottoms of the dunes with a dead forest in it.
    A river used to run around here, but then the dunes came and bloke the access to the river. The trees which were there, became dry and even too dry to decompose. They are still here, burnt by the sun, 1000 years later. This is a beautiful sight: the white of the clay on the ground, those skeleton black trees with the red sand dunes on the background. Nature never ceases to amaze me with its beauty.
    The more I travel, the more I realise beauty is everywhere: in the green of a rainforest, in the red of a sand dune, in the dark sky full of stars... beauty is everywhere, you just need to look up!
    We did the climb… It was hard!!! Sand is very hard to walk in and even harder to climb in! When you walk, your feet keep sliding back down. It feels you are walking twice the distance!!! It took us around 2 hours to get to the top. Andrew was at the front, Kev behind him, Emma after and me, right at the back! I am not fit! It was really hard for me. But I did it!!! We all did. I was amazed by the kids on how well they did. The view from the top is worth it: dunes after dunes after dunes as far as eyes can see. Again the pictures don’t gave it justice. The climb down is so much easier! You just walk down on side of the dune, which is 33 degrees down (we learnt when we did our quad tour, that the sand on the dune start falling at 33 degrees, so a dune will never be steeper than 33 degrees). It was fun going down. Andrew did it in a few minutes, I took a bit more time as my legs were pretty tired, but it was a lot faster than going up.
    After that we were way to tired to climb anything else, so we drove back, admiring the dunes from the car and then went back to camp.
    We repacked all our bags properly (after 3 weeks in the car, there was crap everywhere!) as we were leaving the next day! We spent our last evening in Africa around the fire, talking about the thing we loved here.
    The next day, we left super early, well before the sun was up to arrive on time to our plane in Windhoek.
    Namibia had a couple of surprise for us: on the road, we came across a pack of hyenas. That was so cool as this is one of the animals we hadn’t see yet. We saw a couple of jackals, some zebras and some donkeys. It was lovely seeing a few more animals before we left.
    We got to the airport with a bit of time to spare, got some food, checked our bags and we were off for the next part of our trip in Europe.
    See you there.
    Mel    Leggi altro

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  • Bridsons of the worldBridsons of the worldWorld tour gap year

    Swakopmund and Walvis bay by Kev.

    7–11 giu, Namibia ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    4.6.2025. We had a shit night, Andrew spewed a couple times, through temps and didn't fall asleep, proper, until after 1am. In the morning, Emma spewed. They're both sick as, but we still need to pack up and move on. We think maybe it was the water in Spitzkoppe, but who knows. We got to Swakopmund and found our next campsite, Tiger reef. We went for a walk, bought everyone except Andrew some new pants. Emma ripped a pair climbing the other day. We found a cafe to have lunch, neither kid ate anything, very crook. We walked back to our campsite and booked a tour, not for tomorrow but for the next day, hopefully the kids will be better by then. We just hung around camp the rest of the day. There's no place to have a fire and it's pretty cold, so hot water bottles were filled and beds occupied. The kids are buggered so there was no arguing about bed.
    5.6.2025. Slow day today, we'll go see the crystal museum thing, then the actual museum. Kids aren't eating, bellies are not great still. On the way to the crystal place we stopped and bought Andrew a parker, it's cold and the jumper he has just doesn't cut it. The crystal museum was pretty good, lots of different things to look at, also the world's largest quartz cluster. It's bloody big, 14,100 kilos. There's 4 more too, the next largest weighing 13,000. We bought some stuff, Emma got a necklace and Mel some “gems of Africa”. We walked past a pharmacy and grabbed some medicine for the kids, see if we can speed up the healing. Hunger was setting in, for Mel and I at least. We stopped at a cafe, Andrew and Emma ordered, but that was about it. They both ate hardly anything. Mel and I ate two lunches pretty much. We then went to the museum. It was fairly impressive, with a lot more in it than we thought it would. Andrew can hardly stand and wants to sit whenever we stop. We walked back to the campsite and the kids rested in the tents, reading their kindles. It's warmer in there, and since we walked today and have a tour booked for tomorrow, we don't need to set them up for a couple days, yay. They are rooftop tents and pretty easy, but it still feels like winning. I made dinner, kids didn't eat much of it. Nice hot shower, bit of Netflix and bed.
    6.6.2025. We have today all booked out, starting with a boat trip to see dolphins and whales and all sorts of things. Couldn't convince the kids to have any breakfast, hopefully they'll be ok all day. We got picked up at our campsite and driven to Walvis Bay. We then boarded a boat call Mojo, with a bloke named Len. About 2mins into our boat trip we had a seal called Mr Moustache in the boat. This is obviously something that happens all the time, the boat even has a little platform at the back for the seal to jump up onto. Anyway, some pictures were taken, a seal was fed and patted. Like patting a wet dog, less smelly tho. The seal hopped off and we got going again. Next it was a pelicans turn, same thing. Landed in the middle, fed and petted. Ok now we're off to see some stuff. Just before we got going tho, Len asks if anyone wants some coffee? It's 8:30 and it's freezing cold, ken oath I want a coffee, and my hand shoots up. He then proceeds to get out a brand new bottle of, what turned out to be a very nice sherry. Kinda looked coffee ish in the cup. I wish I could remember the name, it did warm us up kinda like a coffee would. We kept going while sipping our sherry. He showed us a bird platform, built years ago to to collect their guano. That's bird poop to the younger reader. Apparently it's going for around $600usd a ton, and they harvest over 600 tonnes a year. It's used for fertiliser and shipped to South Africa and Belgium, he tells us. It's privately owned, I guess you could say they make shit loads from it. Very near the platform we found dolphins, quite a few of them. They swam with us and another boat for a while and we watched them jump and muck around. We had a little break from the excitement, Len got out some refreshments. Soft drinks for the kids and a beer for Mel and I. Im starting to really like Len, he's a top bloke. After that we headed to another spot where we caught glimpses of a humpback whale. While looking for the whale, we saw a smaller species of dolphin. Len said this species was rarer to find, they're about ⅓ the size of the other ones. We caught several glimpses of the whale, then headed towards an area full of seals. Seals everywhere, on the land, in the water. I was sitting on the nose of the boat when we came in. Seals were jumping and swimming all over the place. I videoed them for a bit, when I decided to come back down and join the others I was greeted with a terrific sight. Len had set out some food platters! We tucked in, not the kids, they're still sick. The food was well received. Then Len popped a bottle of sparkling wine. Wey hey Len! We ate, we drank, then Len got out the oysters! Lovely fresh Namibian oysters. Another bottle was opened, and shared around. Just to let you know, there were 4 other people on the boat, it wasn't just Mel and I getting sloshed. Though we had our fair share. The others didn't go much on the oysters either, we made out well there too. After all the food was gone and drinks were done, we headed back. We thanked Len, he'd made it a fun morning with his humour, not just the drinks. We got back on the dock, the lady who picked us up this morning was waiting for us. She led us to our next activity, and 4x4 tour along the coast to Sandwich Harbour. Our first stop was a viewpoint in front of a hotel. The guy said we can use the bathroom in the hotel. It's like he's done this before. At the viewpoint we saw our first flamingos, there was only small amount so far, still early in the season. He told us the whole place fills up with them. We set off with one other car with New Zealanders in it, stopping just outside Walvis bay to have a look at the salt farm and its surrounds. We saw a pink lake, tasted a small runoff river. Pretty bloody salty. Then headed off again. We got amongst the dunes, and made another stop. This time the guys looked for a small native gecko, only found in Namibia. It has no skin pigmentation, so is basically see through. It hunts at night, and stays under the sand during the day. We stopped again a little later and saw at least 8 whales feeding near the shore. When I say near, I mean 150-200metres. We kept going, came across some ostrich and got pretty close before they took off. We made it to the end, Sandwich Harbour, did some dune cruising before stopping on top of a huge dune. The drivers left us there at the top to go set up for our picnic at the bottom. We had a look around, you can see for ages on top of the dunes. We walked/slid down to the cars where some tables were set up. What do ya know, there's glasses of sparkling wine waiting for us. Oh, alright then, if you insist. They had a selection of meats for us to try, I enjoyed the Oryx. The kids had a tiny little bit. We saw some black backed jackals over near a lake. We had a chat, ate and drank, packed up and headed back. I can't remember the guy's name, but he was informative and friendly. Emma fell asleep on the trip back to Walvis Bay. Once there, we got shuttled back to Swakopmund. It was a bloody ripper of a day, I was glad the kids had been ok all day. Even though they hadn't eaten bugger all for the day, it was fun enough to keep them happy all day. Once back to the campsite we rested, then had a hot shower. A little bit of dinner was had by the kids, then off to bed.
    7.6.2025. We're off again today, but not very far. We're leaving Swakopmund and heading to Walvis Bay, about 40klms or something like that. No rush this morning, made a small breakfast as the kids are still sick. We got to Walvis Bay and hit the supermarket to stock up a bit, also the ATM. We then found our next stay, a small apartment. Nice and cosy, with a small kitchenette, that'll do. We had a lazy afternoon, kids are skipping their blog for a few days, as they're just not up to it for the moment. Nice hot shower, dinner and bed.
    8.6.2025. Breakfast was had, then we headed to the Esplanade. We walked for ages, as it's pretty long. We saw fish and seals, then a small pod of dolphins, which came pretty close to land. We studied jellyfish and small crabs that had washed up on the shore. Starting to get hungry, we headed back towards the car. We then drove to the dock area where all the boat tours kick off and found a restaurant for lunch. Kids had sushi, I had the biggest burger I've seen in a while and Mel had local fish and chips. I definitely know the kids are still crook, they didn't finish their sushi. Mel and I did, was bloody good. After lunch we headed back to the big mall and looked for some gloves. Early start tomorrow to do some quad biking. It's gonna be cold, so we're getting a little more prepared. After that it was time for some schoolwork, games, dinner and bed.
    9.6.2025. It's hard to get out of bed when it's cold, but somehow I managed. I dressed in layers today, singlet, 3 shirts, hoodie, 2 pants and my new gloves. Oh yeah, 2 pairs of socks too. We headed off to meet the guy doing the quad bike tour. There was only us and him, 3 quads all up as Emma rode with me and Andrew with Mel. It was a fun, educational trip into the dunes. We saw and learned about some beetles, can't remember their name. We saw 2000 year old footprints, both human and animal, in “fossilized” mud. We learned that scientists have been here and studied them all very thoroughly. He tells us that the dunes are travelling slowly north, the bigger they are the slower they move. As they move they cover things up, they also uncover things. We were shown shallow graves, lots of them. The people that lived here thousands of years ago would bury their dead right where they lived. Often with the ornaments they wore and food in a pot for the journey after. They get exposed as the dunes move, then the winds and sand erode the mud covering them. Eventually, everything will be gone. Sand blasted to nothing. We had fun zooming around the dunes, Emma cackling like an old witch sitting in front of me. Saying “no, no, no” as we dropped off, over the top of a dune, then giggling as we slid down it. I would hit the throttle as we got close to the bottom and hear “weeee”! It was a fun day, we had hoped to see more wildlife, but it was not meant to be. You get what you get with this sort of thing. Nothing in nature is guaranteed. We hopped back in the car and went back to the jetty area for lunch. Tried a new restaurant, and this time I picked something from the sea. A seafood platter. The fish was good, the calamari was bloody brilliant. Washed down with a big glass of Hansa, a local beer, originally brewed in Swakopmund but now in Windhoek. Back to the apartment, coffee and rest. Kids read their kindles before I let them play a bit on their computers. We got Mel into a game the kids like (monster legends), it was nice to see them all interact as they played the same game. Shower, dinner and bed.
    10.6.2025. We were not sure what to do today, so we booked another boat tour, this time a bigger catamaran, to see more ocean stuff. Shortly after setting off, we had the obligatory cup of brandy that seems to go with this sort of thing(not complaining). I got 2 cups. We stopped and saw lots of fur seals at Pelican point, should be renamed seal point maybe. We saw lots of the smaller dolphins, dusky dolphins I think, swimming along with the catamaran. We had food, more oysters, yay! Unfortunately, we didn't see any whales. We'd been hoping, being in a bigger boat, we'd see them better. Can't see them if they're not there tho. I had good chat with a group of 4 from the Netherlands. They'd been in Capetown for 5 months studying and were having some fun before heading home. We got back to the dock, drove to the post office to send some postcards, and are now blogging and doing schoolwork in the apartment. Off to a new place tomorrow. Stay tuned!
    Kev    Leggi altro