Saint Aignan, France by Mel and Kev
2–6 jul. 2025, Frankrijk ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
Hello from Saint-Aignan.
Saint Aignan is a town near Tours in the centre of France, located on the river Cher. It is on the one of my favourite regions in France as it is the castle area. There are hundreds of castles around this region (from small private one to massive one transformed in museum). There are so much to see around here and so much history.
We arrived on the 2nd of July after 5 hours drive from Saint Quay in Bretagne. We came here to visit one of my best friends, Sophia and her daughter Clara. Sophia and I meet in Business school and she is one of the only people I kept in touch and we always tried to catch up when we are in France.
We arrived and spent the evening catching up while the kids played in the pool with Clara.
The next day, Sophia had to work, so the four of us went to visit ‘les caves Monmousseau’ which are caves used originally to be excavated to get the rocks to build the castles in the area in the 15th century. In 1886, Alcide Monnouseau decided to use the 15km of abandoned cave to make and store fine wine. The caves are always around 12 degres which make it ideal for that purpose.
Nowadays, there is still some wine being stored there (a lot of it: we saw hundreds and hundres of bottles) and you can visit it. They also added art to the wall of the caves. NaDa (Nathalie Dahon) et Reno Menat, 2 artists, inspired by the castles in the area used painting and projectors to decorate the walls of the caves. Each projection uses the shape of the walls to give lives to the painting. It is truly amazing to watch. I realy enjoyed the walk inside those caves transformed in a magical art gallery.
The end of the tour end back in the wine shop where we did a wine tasting. Kev did most of it as I was driving. I still had a tiny taste of each wine, and they were good. They are all sparkling wine, including a red sparkling wine which was intriguing. Kev liked it, but it was not my favourite.
After that, we visited the city of Loches. The history of the Royal city of Loches begun in the 9th century with the construction fo the castle. Over the following centuries, more building where added, for example the keep in the 11th century and several churches. A lot of history happened in Loches. Several kings used the castle for different reasons: as a prison, as a place to establish a favourite, as a place to live.. French and English kings fought over this place.
Joan of Arc told Charles VII that her "mission" was to free Orléans, besieged by the English, and take him to Reims to be crowned king. After the liberation of Orléans on 8th May 1429, she met Charles VII at the royal lodge in Loches and convinced him to take to the road to at last be "graciously crowned". The royal lodge is now a museum with a lot of information about all the history that happen there. It was very interesting.
The church near the royal lodge is beautiful as well and looked different from the traditional churches: the imagery used is more based on imaginary animals than the traditional religious figures and 2 octagonal pyramidal towers decorate the roof, not the traditional domes.
We end up our day eating a raclette: potatoes with ham and/or melted cheese on top. This is normally a winter dish, but I love it too much to not have some when we are here. When we went to the cheese shop to get some raclette cheese, they had to get the cheese from the back room as it is not common to buy some at this time of the year!!!
The next day, the 4th of July, marked our 6 months on the road. It is a weird feeling: we did so much in 6 months, it feels like we have been gone for ever, but it also feels like it is going so fast! It is confusing. I love traveling with my family. We are all growing so close to each other. The kids are wonderful and I love watching them discovering the world. They are so easy to travel with!!! Kev and I are also a lot closer than before. I am so grateful that he accepted to go on this adventure, as I know it was scary for him at the beginning. I know he misses home sometimes, but I know he is enjoying the experience. I could live this life forever! But I know we have to go back home at some point, I will just have to plan our next adventure!
Anyway, on that day we went to visit one of my favourite castle: le chateau de Cheverny. This castle has been in the same family for around 6 centuries.
The house (there is only one drawing of the house drawn in 1624) was built at the beginning of the 16th century by Jaques or his son Raoul. Raoul applied for permission of the king to fortify the new house in 1510. The lands were purchased by Henri Hurault, Comte de Cheverny, a lieutenant general and military treasurer for Louis XIII, whose descendant, the Marquis de Vibraye, is the present owner. It was one of the first castle to open its door to the public. The interior is beautifully furnished, and a lot of art has been kept there. This castle is a must see if you are in the area.
The creator of Tintin, Herge, was inspired by Cheverny to create “the Moulinsart castle” of The captain Haddock. This is why there is also a permanent exhibition about tintin and the adventure that happen in the castle!
There are also beautiful gardens to walk in and around. This castle will always be on my list of visits when I am around!
We then meet Sophia and Clara for lunch for a delicious galette. After lunch, we visited the mini castles garden: this is a garden with 41 castle at 1/25 scale. The reproduction are very loyal to the original and have little characters staged in and around it. It was pretty fun walking around the mini castle and learning about the different history of it and recognising the one we saw in real.
The next day was our last one with Sophia and Clara. We went to the chateau de Jallanges, which has some puzzle and enigma to solve. It started well but by the end of it, it feel they run out of ideas and the puzzle were a lot less good. We still had a good time together. We visited the castle which is lived in as there are rooms on the first floor that you can rent. It was a lovely castle.
For our last night there, we played board games and chatted until late at night.
On the 6th, we pilled up everything in the car again and said goodbye to Sophia and Clara (with a few tears for me) and went on our way toward the south to spend some time with my other brother Gerald and his family.
I’ll see you there.
Mel
3.7.2025. Today we're off to visit des caves Monmousseau, a winery in the Loire Valley. It uses caves excavated in the side of a hill for tuffeau stone, used in the construction of castles in the Loire valley. Alcide Monmousseau (a French guy), discovered the abandoned caves in 1886, thought, “think I'll put my wine in there”, and that's how it all started. The quarry is made up of a network of 15klm worth of underground galleries, whose temperature hardly varies from 12°c year round. Making it the perfect place to age your wine. We started our tour on the outside. Walking back along a path down the hill a bit, we got to the entrance of the caves. We entered a code and the doors slowly swung open. As soon as you stepped inside the coldness hit you, ah that's lovely that is. The first tunnel was long, slightly uphill. As we walked we saw some pictures and art hanging on the walls, and read some information on the history of the place. The best thing though, was they had set projectors. Aligned with the walls and tunnels, giving us different scenes displayed throughout the tour. As we got further in, we started going past wine bottles stacked up along the walls and in metal baskets. I had a look, yep they're capped and there is definitely wine in there. This is after all a working winery. So many bottles, thousands, probably tens of thousands, maybe more. There were some old games there to play, the kids and Mel had a go. Remember when we first stepped in and I said it felt lovely? Well now I'm cold, blowing a small amount of frosty breath in the lights. We may have sped up the last bit of the tour, but it was just more bottles. Lots more bottles! We pushed through a door, out into the main lobby, where we bought the tickets. Ah it's warm here. We had a better look around, there is a smelling game set up, to see if you can guess the scents in some wines. I got 2 out of about 15 right(passion fruit and lemon). After having a bit of a look around, the person behind the counter asked if we enjoyed the tour and would we like to try some wine. Count me in! We tried a sparkling white, their most famous wine. We tried a rosé and finally we tried a sparkling red. Yes, sparkling red wine. Made from Cabernet grapes, not sweet but soft. In my opinion, delicious. We bought a couple of bottles, and then headed to our next stop. The old Royal City of Loches. We entered through the old city gate, we could see where the old gate mechanism used to be. We walked into the old city, and visited a church first. This church is different to most we have seen. Instead of the typical vaulted ceiling, this had a double octagonal pyramid. Completely different to the usual style. Made it no less impressive. After the church we found and had an expensive lunch(tourist area), then visited the Royal lodging. A castle inside the city, built high above its surroundings. My favourite part is looking out over the countryside. After the visit we headed back to St Aignan, stopped at a cheese shop Sophia likes, and bought a heap of raclette cheese. That means dinner tonight is raclette, that means yum. Raclette for those of you less informed, is when you melt cheese(has to be raclette cheese) and pour it over potatoes. Not just potatoes of course, anything. I had potatoes, zucchini, mushroom and ham. Add a little salt and pepper and it's nothing but yum. Andrew particularly liked the raclette, and I need to do it at home. I don't know where I'm going to get raclette cheese from though.
4.7.2025. Today marks our 6th month of travelling. We have seen so much in the first half of our trip, I'm forgetting stuff already. What I won't forget is the great times we've had as a family. We've had our trying times too, which has hopefully made us stronger and closer. I have watched my kids grow and mature, well grow at least. I feel closer to my wife than I have in a long time. I hope this feeling only gets stronger as the year goes on. How do I feel half way through? Would I still go on this trip knowing what I know now? I feel great and yes I absolutely bloody would do it again. We're gonna get back broke and with absolutely no leave left, and I'm fine with that. Have I missed home? A bit, not as much as I thought I would. I miss my family, outside of the looneys I'm travelling with. I miss my dog, the big idiot, and I'm starting to miss my Xbox a little bit. I'm still happy to be circling the globe with my small group of miscreants. I wouldn't give up my time with this group for anything. Anyway, what did we do today? We went to Chateau Cheverny, one of Mel's favourites and the inspiration for the castle in Tin Tin. We visited the castle, the Tin Tin museum and walked around the grounds. We checked out some of the dogs, they still have the hunting dogs here, but they no longer feed them all at once. They no longer do this as people complained about the use of a whip to keep the dogs in order. At least they still bring some dogs out for a look at. The kids really like the hedge maze, they did it twice. We had not had enough of the castle, but we were to meet Sophia and Clara for lunch. We met with them for galette. Which was as good as ever. After lunch we went to Parc mini-chateau, a place with miniature versions of the more famous castles around France. It was pretty fun, if only I still had the imagination of a child and not just the maturity. It was getting late, not that you'd know it, the sun doesn't go down until after 10. We headed back to Sophia's for dinner, then bed.
5.7.2025. We went to Chateau De Jallanges today. A castle set up with puzzle activities, mostly for the kids to work out. The puzzles started really good, but by the 13-14th they were running out of steam. All in all it was a decent experience, just think it could have been better. We did the short tour of the chateau and then headed back. Dinner again at Sophia's, followed by board games. Tomorrow we throw all our crap back in the car and head to Magalas, where Mel's other brother Gerald and his family live.
KevMeer informatie
Super les photos et simpa le château 🏰, quand vous allez revenir en France,le château de la roche guyon est magnifique,bisous 🌞 [Dada]
Sain Aignan, France by the kids
2–6 jul. 2025, Frankrijk ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
On the 3rd we were going to go to des caves Monmousseau, it was a place where they make wine, here is some information about it. It was originally dug out to build castles but then some one noticed that it was the perfect temperature to make wine, so they did it. When we got there, we learnt that it was 12 degrees inside, it was pretty cool (pun intended), when we went in we saw they had projections on the wall, it was awesome, when it finished they had a thing that you smell some wine and guess what they smelt like, after that dad and mum tried some wines and I tried a grape juice it was yum, after that we went to some churches and they were cool after that we went home and had dinner, it was raclette, raclette is where you melt a specific cheese and put it on a potato, it is delicious, after that slept.
On the 4th it officially marks 6 months of traveling 😊😊😊😊. We were going to go to Cheverny, it is a castle, the castle was used a lot for hunting, and they still do so they have lots of hounds, around 120 to be precise, around 60 males, 40 females and 20 pups. They used to feed them out in public, but they don’t any more. There is also a Tintin museum, (Tintin is a book I highly recommend you read) the reason why there was a Tintin museum is because one of the castles in the book was inspired by this castle. When we got in it was awesome, it had everything set up and it looked awesome. Mum said on every holiday like Christmas and easter they decorate it, and it is even better. After looking at the castle we went to look at the dogs, they were big and loud. Then we went to the Tintin museum it was really cool, after that we went to a place that had lots of mini castles, we even saw the castle we were at today, it was really cool, there was 41 castles, after that we went home and went to sleep.
On the 5th we went to another castle, this one had clues and mysteries to solve, it was fun at the start but then it felt like the person who made it was just running out of ideas so it just got a little boring, there was even one that was impossible to solve, when we finished it we went back home and had dinner and then played a board game and then went to sleep.
Anderw (10 years old)
On the 2nd we drove to Sophia’s place. It took 5 hours to get there. When we got there mum, dad and Sophia chatted while me, Andrew and Clara played in the pool.
On the 3rd we visited a place where they made wine. It was in a cave. There were projections on the wall. They would make a drawing and get the reflection in a mirror which had a light around it that would help project it onto the wall. It was cold. In the end, there was a smelling thing where you would have to smell the wine and guess what the sent is. Then you look at the answer and see if you were right. I got one right. I got the pepper one. Mum and dad tasted a few wines. In the afternoon we went to visit Loches. We had lunch. For lunch, we had stuff with bread. I had rillette with bread and mum had an olive thingy with bread. I don’t remember what dad and Andrew got. In the afternoon we visited Loches. We visited a church and a royal house. The church was cool because it was not like the other churches we have visited in our trip so far. It had pointy spiers, and the others had domes. The royal house was interesting because it showed us how they lived back then. The thing that really caught my eye was a rule book. In the rule book there were some rules that they had back then. I will tell you the two I can remember. The first was: you are supposed to get married at eleven. You are too young to get married at eleven. The second was: you need to stop playing games at twelve because you are an adult. You are still not even a teenager at twelve. In the evening, we had raclette with Sophia and Clara. Then we played our computer. it was a long day, so I was happy to get in bed.
On the 4th it was 6 months on the road for us. Already one half of our trip done. It is going so quick. In the morning, we visited Cheverny castle. The Cheverny castle is a rare thing within the Loire valley. A castle that appears untouched by the rebirth. (The rebirth is where they change how things look.) it could be because it has been owned by the same family for six centuries. It was built between 1604 and 1635. We had galette for lunch. In the afternoon we visited a place where there were 41 little castles. It did not really catch my interest. I am not that interested in models of stuff, I like to actually go see them. Then we spent the afternoon at Sophia’s place.
On the 5th we went to a place where you had to solve questions. Some of the questions were impossible to answer. It felt like they were running out of ideas by the end. Then we went back to Sophia’s place and played games.
Emma (8 years old)Meer informatie
Beziers, France by the kids
6–11 jul. 2025, Frankrijk ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
On the 6th we drove to Magalas, one of mum’s brothers lives there, their name is Gerald, when we got there, we set up our flat and went over to them, mum and dad talked while me and Emma watched tv, we stayed there till about midnight and the went back to the flat and slept.
On the 7th we went to Bezier, here is some information. Bezier is one of the oldest cities in France, dating back to 575 BCE, it was occupied by romans and at the time it was called Betarra. The Romans rebuilt the city to be more suitable for soldiers in 36–35 BCE. Bezier made a lot of wine and imported it to Rome. We started by going to a church, it was really big, in the inside there was lots of glass windows, after that we went to the centre of the city and looked at some stuff, then we went to a park it had some ponds were there were some birds, it was cool, near the end of the day we went to a thing where they have all the horoscope signs, I’m the ram, Aries is known for being a natural leader, confident, and independent. It is the exact description of me, (Emma edit: I think different). After that we went to a fountain that had music and lights. The fountain was in time with the music and it was really cool, after that we went a small church that had a light show on it, the talking was in French but there was a translation at the bottom. after that we went home and slept.
On the 8th we were going to go on a walk up a hill with Tonton Gerald, the hill had some walls on it that were just stacked rock, no cement or anything, they were stacked in a way to make it not fall down, it was a bit of a walk but at the top there was big windmill, there were a couple of old houses made out of rock, we had a look at some stuff and then went to Geralds place, had dinner and went to sleep.
On the 9th we went to a river that was really close to a dam, we brought our swim suits, so we got in them and went in to the water (well I only went in the shallows, I don’t like cold water), I played for a bit and then I saw something, it was a yabby, only about 10cm long but it struck determination into me, endurance into me, and most of all durability (or some word close to that), it took all my will-power not to lunge at it and try to grab it. So I carefully tip toed over to it and then the brake in my hand was off, my hand plunged in, and… and… I missed. But luckily, not soon after I saw another, I wasted no time, the second I saw it, I was heading towards it, this time I was lucky, I actually felt it, it’s just that the bloody bastard pinched me, hard, I let go of it and went to look for another one, I couldn’t try to get the same one, it was long gone. Then I saw another one, I wasn’t about to give up so I went straight to trying to catch it, this I got it out of the water but I went both pinchers at my thumb, I chucked it onto the bank and then I picked it up, took a few photos then chucked it away. After that we went to a picnic with Tonton Gerald and a few other people, the was some games like pétanque and badminton, me and dad tired ourselves out playing badminton, after that we went home and slept.
On thee 10th we did a lot of blog and then went out to a boulangerie to get some food, and then we went back home for more blog and then at dinner we played some board games and then went to sleep.
Andrew (10 years old)
On the 6th we drove to Magalas. It took 6 hours. We settled into our very big house. We spent the evening with Gerald and Chris.
On the 7th we visited Bezier. The city is built on a small hill above the orb river. Bezier is one of France’s oldest cities. People have lived there since the Neolithic age. Neolithic means “new” and “stone”. It is the newest part of the stone age. In the evening, we went to a water show. There were fountains that had lights on them. I liked it a lot more than the ones in India. Then we went to a light show. It was on a church. It was about the history of Bezier. It was pretty interesting. It was well prepared.
On the 8th we walked in the countryside and saw some rocks stacked up. Tonton Gerald told us that they were using rocks to make walls and houses. They did not use cement or concrete. They just stacked the rocks well enough that they would not fall. Then we saw a windmill. It was cool. Then we spent the evening with Gerald and Chris.
On the 9th we went down to a river. We walked around the river a bit and then decided to go for a swim. We found out that there were yabbies in the river when Andrew saw a shape moving. Andrew tried to catch one, but it bit him, and he let it go. Dad caught it and gave it to Andrew. Then we went to a picnic with Gerald, Chris and their children, Charlotte and Lucas. We played games like pétanque. Then we went home to sleep.
On the 10th all we did was blog. Then we walked to a boulangerie for lunch. Got some stuff for dinner and headed back home. Played a few games and then bed because we had an early morning the next day.
Emma (9 years old in less than 2 months)Meer informatie
Beziers, France by Kev and Mel
6–11 jul. 2025, Frankrijk ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
Hello everyone,
We moved from Saint Aignan near Tours in the centre of France to the south of France, in Magalas near Beziers. This is where one of my brothers, Gerald, lives with his family: his wife, Chris and his 2 kids (Lucas and Charlotte).
It took us around 6-7 hours to get from Saitn Aignan to Magalas with a couple of stops to get some coffee and food.
When we got there, we found the place we booked. I am driving at the moment (as we are in France) and I didn’t like driving in the tiny streets: imagine an old town with only the place to drive a cart and a horse, as obviously this area was built well before car existed and car barely fit!!! We parked a bit below where we booked and walked the last few minutes! The place is pretty big: a bit area downstair (actually there was a parking under with laundry things as well but we didn’t used it), our room, a kitchen and a balcony on the first floor, the kids room on the top floor. One really nice place! I booked it as it is close to my brother’s place. We settled for a bit then head there: a quick 10 minute walk. As always, we spend the afternoon and evening catching up and exchanging news of what has been happening since the last time we saw each other, which in this case was 3 years ago! A very late night as we got back to our place around midnight.
The next day, we slept in a bit! Lunch with Gerald then off to visit Beziers. This city is one of the oldest in France. Research shows that the ancient Greek colony of Béziers dates from 575 BCE, which make it one of the oldest (with Marseille and Agde in the same area). You can imagine there is a lot of historical monuments that can be found there. We started with the cathedral Saint Nazaire, built on a hill which dominate the Orb, the river which passes through Beziers. It was built from the middle of the 13th century on the site of a previous roman church which was destroyed in 1209 during the sack of Beziers by the crusader. This roman church was itself built on the site of a roman temple!!! The cathedral is beautiful, with stained glasses, sculptures, religious paintings, carvings and a beautiful pipe organ. We then walked in the streets of Beziers, mix of a lot of different architectural style: from renaissance building to Hausman style from the 19th century. It was a very nice afternoon, with great weather and great company.
In the evening, we met Raf, Charlotte’s boyfriend, which seems to be a very lovely person. Together, we came back to Beziers to see the evening animations: the first one was a music and light show on a fountain. It was great, lots of colours, the water was moving to the music. The songs were some classics French and English songs, the type that makes you want to move! It was fun. We then went to see a light show on the Church of the Madeleine. The light show which was very well done was about one of the bloodiest time of Beziers history. In the 12th century, the Cathars, a religious sect which called themselves “good Christian”, developed in northern Italy and south of France. The Pape did not like the growing number of followers. The Cathars were soon name heretics and the crusaders were sent to deal with them. The town of Béziers was besieged on 22 July 1209. The Catholic inhabitants of the city were granted the freedom to leave unharmed, but many refused and opted to stay and fight alongside the Cathars. 20 000 people were massacred, killed, mutilated and the town was destroyed by fire. The church onto which the show was projected, was used to trap in children, women and men and then burnt down with everyone still inside. I’m always surprised the horror people are willing to put other human beings because they think or believe something different.
Anyway the show was well done despite telling a horrible story.
After that, it was obviously pretty late, so we went back home to sleep.
The next day, we decided to walk in nature. Gerald took us in the countryside for a walk in nature. It was nice to walk around nature and hear the cicadas, small insects which can be very loud! We saw a couple of windmills and got to a viewpoint where we could see the whole magnificent area. We had a pizza night with more chatting and fun.
The following day we went to have a swim in the river. It was very refreshing! Andrew spent his time trying to catch yabbies and he did get one. Emma swam with me and Kev for a bit. In the evening we had a picnic with the whole family with was great. One last evening, chatting and playing games.
The next day, everyone (except us obviously) had to go back to work, so we spend the day blogging, booking things for the UK, organising pictures… A computer day!
On the 11th of July, we meet up with Gerald one last time and he lead the way to the Gare of Beziers where we are giving the car we rented back and hoping into a train to see more of my family in Nice. We had to say goodbye one more time and he was hard. As always we had a fantastic time and leaving is difficult. Tears appeared as usual (I can’t help it). The kids were very sad to leave as well.
We hoped in the train to head to our next destination: Nice, our last stop in France for now.
See you there.
Mel
6.7.2025. Loaded up the car and said goodbye to Sophia and Clara. Long drive ahead of us so we didn't want to start too late. We stopped around 10:30 for a pee break and coffee. Then again at about 1 at a big rest stop on the motorway. Fuelled up the car and then us, more coffee and off again. Took about 6.5 hours all up to get there. Found our new stay, not really an apartment, more like a really tall house. 4 floors, two showers and dunnies and a big area downstairs. Mel picked the place because it's pretty close to Gerald's, a 10 minute walk and we were there. We met up with everyone, sat down outside and had some drinks and food. Apero first, then Gerald cooked pork chops on the bbq. As you could imagine, Andrew was very displeased with that. We left a little before midnight, got back and all fell asleep.
7.7.2025. Late start, as expected. Breakfast and blog. Walked over to Gerald's around lunch time. More chatting, a lot to catch up on. Had lunch with Gerald then we went to Beziers for a look around. It is one of France's oldest cities. We walked the streets, taking in the city. We visited a big park and saw both white and black swans in a pond. Back to the Silvestri’s for some dinner, pasta with sauces. I really liked Chris’s ratatouille sauce. After dinner we went back to Beziers again, this time to watch a sound and light water show. After that there was a light show projected onto an old church. Both shows were very good, the light show on the church was especially good. It described the events that happened in Beziers many centuries ago. There was an English translation in the bottom corner of the light show, very helpful. I was able to read it to Emma while Andrew read it himself. It recounted the events from 1209, when crusaders of the Catholic church besieged and eventually sacked Beziers. The Catholic church was not happy with the growing Cathar movement, a religious sect that challenged the teachings of the Catholic church. The very church we watched the light show projected onto, was once used to burn heretics trapped inside it. Lovely stuff some of these religious types are into. After the show we went back to our stay, another late night. But as with every other night in France so far, a good night.
8.7.2025. Kids are sleeping in again, not surprised. I can't seem to manage to do it. The house we're in has almost everything, pot and pans, fridge and freezer, lots of tea. No coffee. The essential elixir of life. This will be reflected in the review given on the house. We're off to Gerald's again today, no surprise there. I was able to secure caffeine there and we were once again fed. Leftover pasta with the sauces, yum. This afternoon we are heading into the countryside for a bit of a hike. Along the way we see old fences, made by stacking flat rocks like a big jigsaw puzzle. They have stood for hundreds of years, though some have needed repairs lately. They were created as a means of forming paths, setting boundaries and as Gerald explained, as a way to guide excess water when the rains were heavy. There are also small buildings here and there. These were created for anyone to use as shelter from rain or the sun. We got to the top of a hill, where a windmill still stands. It was used to produce flour, and the whole top part could be turned to face into the wind. People would use donkeys to bring grain up the hill and flour back back down. Afterwards, we went back to the Silvestri's. We ordered some pizza for dinner. We drank and chatted more, before heading back to the house again.
9.7.2025. After breakfast, we wandered over to see Gerald again. After lunch today, we headed to a river. There we found a weir and further up a dam. We walked along the river side when a yabbi was spotted in the shallows. Andrew stripped off and went hunting. Emma changed into her swimsuit and went in as well. Soon Mel was in the water. That left only me, ah what the hell. I stripped to my undies and plunged in. Bloody cold! I had a swim then helped Andrew with his yabbi hunting. He managed to catch a smallish one, which then grabbed him with a nipper. The yabbi was now airborne, landing in some grass. I showed Andrew where to grab it so it couldn't grab you. We got out and walked back, slowly drying out. Later that evening we went to a small park for a picnic dinner. Baguette sandwiches, and nibblies. I played a heap of badminton with the kids and will be a bit sore tomorrow I'm sure. We then played a few rounds of pétanque. We helped pack up, went back to the Silvestri's and then walked back to our house.
10.7.2025. Not much going on today, except blogging. We've been busy and up late a lot lately, so the blog has suffered. Today the kids blogged heaps, Mel and I got some planning done and spent more money. Ya know, necessities sorta stuff. Like where we're gonna sleep and things like that. It was lunchtime now, and we're all getting hungry. I found a boulangerie not far from us, so we went for a walk. There is also a small supermarket across the street, sweet we can get some pasta for tonight. We walked there and found both of them closed, they closed at 13:00. Great, what now? There's an intermarche about 20mins walk, let's head there. Just before either there was a boulangerie that was open, so we grabbed sandwiches and ate there. Then we grabbed some pasta and cheese for tonight, as we're not heading to the Silvestri's tonight and will need to fend for ourselves. A 20min walk back, a big drink for everyone, did I mention it's pretty warm here, and then back to blogging. We ate the pasta I made, played some card games and tried to have a bit of an early night.
11.7.2025. Up early and packed. We went to Gerald's and he led the way to Beziers. We have a train to catch and he is seeing his mother-in-law. Our train is supposed to be here at 10:18, but it's late. A little concerned as we have a changeover in Marseille, with only 20mins between trains. Now our train is 15, so maybe we'll make it to our next train, we'll see. There's been lots of fires here in the south, and some signals have been damaged. Because of this we're told our train will get even later as we travel. Well now we will definitely miss our next train, we'll work it out when we get there I suppose. As we got closer, an announcement came over and said we just need to get on the next train to Nice. We got off at Marseille, found some baguette sandwiches and hopped onto the first train to Nice. It was a bit more cramped as there is no luggage storage anywhere. We piled some on Andrew and myself, Emma had their feet up on a bag. It wasn't necessarily the most comfortable but we got there. Mel's uncle Marco was there to pick us up. We got to their place and settled in. Mel's cousin, Cynthia came for a visit. Pizza was ordered for dinner, and Mel went about catching up.
KevMeer informatie
Nice and Monaco by Kev and Mel
11–15 jul. 2025, Frankrijk ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
Hi everyone,
Today I won’t do my regular blog. As I have the main computer, I’m the one using it to book things, do a bit of work for my business, sort out the billions of pictures I take; so when the other 3 are blogging, I am often doing a lot of other things too. Which is exhausting and I am behind with my blogging! I will let the other 3 telling everything about our few days in Nice, a city in the south of France on the Mediterranean Sea. We spend one day catching up with the whole family from Nice (lunch with 15 people and a few dogs). We also visited Nice and Monaco.
What I would say as it is our last stop in France is how grateful I am, to have the time to catch up with my family and friends. We were received like kings and queens by everyone. We had such a fantastic time. Every time we had to say goodbye, it was hard. I will miss them all. The hardest part is not knowing when we will see everyone again. This is the hard part about living the other side of the world.
After Nice we move to Italy, where our first stop is Genoa.
I’ll see you there.
Mel
12.7.2025. We spent the morning just hanging around as there was a big family get together planned. Not for us, this is something that happens all the time. We just happened to be here for it, which worked out great. Marco and Sylvie spent the morning getting a lot of stuff ready. I wanted to help, and did I guess by staying out of the way. Just after 12, people started turning up, Sylvie's side of the family, most live in and around Nice. We started with apero, drinks and snacks. Then came the food, salads that Sylvie had been preparing and Marco was on the bbq for ages. Andrew was in heaven and ate his fill of meat. There was a young fella there, he was 8 I think. He and my two got on really well, even though they couldn't understand each other. We ate and drank, ate some more and had to have a drink with that. I drank Ricard for the first time. It's an anise flavoured liquor, they mix it with water. It seemed to make Sylvie's dad happy when I tried it, apparently that's all he drinks. After we'd had enough food, we made a move. We walked to Sylvie's parents place, about a 10min walk. Their house is beautifully made and decorated. The reason we're here though was for a swim. A nice size pool with a bar area that made me just a little envious. Time for a dip! I spent a good while in the pool, chucking the kids around and dodging the dog jumping in. Hopped out and dried off. Time for more apero. Snacks were placed out and drinks sorted. I tried some spicy pickled green tomatoes, really nice, especially when you pair it with some cheese. It was starting to get late again, can really sneak up on you when you're having fun. Hopped in the car with Marco and headed back. Kids in bed, I had a nice soak in the tub then slept off all the food and drink from the day.
13.7.2025. Today we blogged a little bit in the morning after breakfast. We then headed into the centre of Nice with Marco and had a look around. We walked up, up, up to the top of a hill, through a park. It overlooks the beaches of Nice, which are pretty bloody big. It also offered us a great view of the mountains and countryside all around. Nice is a beautiful place, a bit too busy for me, but I am just visiting. Later that evening we met up with Sylvie's family again at a restaurant on the shoreline. Afterwards we stayed for the fireworks. French national day is the 14th, but several years ago something truly horrific happened here in Nice during the celebrations. So now they celebrate on the 13th, and let people remember and mourn on the 14th. The fireworks were great, and people were everywhere. We said goodbye to everyone again and made our way back home.
14.7.2025. Today we are visiting Monaco. A city state, a Principality, within France, and the second smallest country in the world. It's also the most expensive place on earth to live. No wonder it's the world leader in millionaire density, with around 32% of its population being millionaires. Here I was, in my best star wars t-shirt and shorts. We wandered around, looking at money everywhere. Whether it was floating or on wheels or decorating some person. If you've got shit loads of cash and love flaunting it in people's faces, have I got the place for you. The place was clean and tidy. There were parks and trees. But it was too built up for me, too tight. Almost like you couldn't breathe here. I don't know how they manage to race a grand prix here. It was nice to visit, and I enjoyed looking at some of the things I'll never own. We were visiting Cynthia this Arvo, and without noticing it had become the Arvo. So, with only a small amount of trouble, we found where we parked the car and headed to Cynthia's. At Cynthia's we had a tour around the house, then settled in with some cool drinks and the chatting began. We had to leave because she had an appointment. Goodbyes were said, knowing we wouldn't see her again anytime soon. So a bit sad. Back to Marco and Sylvie's, a little dinner and bed.
15.7.2025. Guess what! It's new country day! Yay! Thankfully, we packed last night, so just breakfast to do this morning. After that, we said our goodbyes to Sylvie, then Marco drove us to the train station. More goodbyes, then we hopped onto a completely packed train, with big bags. Yay! Soon into the train ride we get texts from Telstra, “welcome to Italy”. Hey we must be in Italy, alright. Telstra only sends you texts to remind us that they have international packs available. No thanks. A changeover of trains, then continue our journey to Genova. Mel done good, our stay is only a 10min walk from the train station. No need for a taxi. We met the guy who owns the place, nice old fella who gave us a pretty decent run down on the area and places to visit. We had a bit of a walk around just to have a look at the place, then had dinner close to our apartment. Pasta with basil pesto, not bad. Back to the apartment, clean the smelly kids and off to bed.
KevMeer informatie
Nice and Monaco by the kids
11–15 jul. 2025, Monaco ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
On the 11th we went on a train to nice (pronounced: nee-s). Mum’s uncle and aunt lived over there and a couple of other people too. When we got there, we went to Marco and Sylvie’s place (that’s the name of mum’s uncle and aunt), we talked and got to know them a bit, after that we went to sleep.
On the 12th, Marco and Sylvie were holding a barbecue with a few other people, there was another kid there that me and Emma were playing with, he was fun to play with. They had some food too, I manly just had meat, they had a delicious rib bone with scrumptious meat. After that we went to Sylvie’s parents’ house which has a swimming pool, it was pretty fun, they had a dog that every time I went under water it would jump in and try to save me, it was hilarious. When we got out of the pool, we played foosball, and then I played with a diabolo. After that we went back to Marco’s place and then went to bed.
On the 13th we did some blogging and then we went to visit central nice, Marco’s place was not in the centre, it is in fact pretty much on the exact outside of nice. There was a couple of stuff to see, but the main reason we came was because there were fireworks happening tonight, it was for French national day. French national day is actually on the 14th not the 13th it’s just a horrible incident happened on the 14th, so they don’t celebrate on the 14th anymore, they use that day to mourn the dead. When we got to the firework place, we had dinner at a place and then went down to the sand on the beach the ultimate place to watch them, the fireworks were really close to the airport and there were planes landing every 2 minutes, so the fireworks had to wait for a gap. When they started, they were really cool, it lasted about 15 minutes. When it was over we went back to the car and went to sleep.
On the 14th we went to Monaco, it is the second smallest county in the world, it is 2.08km2 and has a population of 38,328, it is a really rich country so there is a lot of expensive cars and houses. 32% of the people in Monaco are millionaires, including multiple billionaires. When we got there, we had a look at some different things, it is very interesting, we probably would have been called poor, and we can afford to travel for a year. When we were done, we went to Cynthia place, we talked a bit, then we went home and to sleep.
On the 15th we took a train to Genova, in Italy, we went to our apartment, set up and then had a little look around, in the night we watched a movie, then slept.
Andrew (10 years old)
On the 11th we took two trains to Nice, (Nice is a city). The first train was late, but we got there. Marco was there to pick us up. Then we went to stay at Marco and Sylvie’s place.
On the 12th we had a big lunch with our family. Marco worked the grill. I had chicken, potatoes and a sausage. It was awesome. there was another kid there and we got along well. Then we went to Sylvie’s parents’ house, and we played in the pool. There was this dog that when we put our head under the water, she would start barking and jump on your back.
On the 13th we visited nice with Marco. He had his dog with him. It is a big place with lots of buildings. We heard music. We also saw the port and it had lots of boats. We had dinner at a restaurant which was expensive. There were dances and then fireworks after. The fireworks were for the next day, which was French national day. French National day is to celebrate the beginning of the French revolution. They stopped having kings and queens and started a republic.
On the 14th we went to Monaco. People call it a city state because it is a city and a state. Monaco is the second smallest city and state in the world. Monaco is a big place with lots of rich places. We saw lots of monuments, lots of palace looking buildings. I found Monaco too crowded for my liking, but it is still interesting and beautiful. Then we stopped at Cynthia’s place for a few drinks and then back home and good night.
On the 15th we took a train to ITALY. I am so excited to visit Italy because I have never been there before and there is so many monuments I want to see. Also I can’t wait to try Italian food.
Emma (almost 9 years old)Meer informatie
Genova, Italy by Mel
15–19 jul. 2025, Italië ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
Buongiorno,
We are in Italia! In Genova to be more precise. I have seen it written Genoa and Genova, and I am still not quite sure which is the correct spelling! I think Genova is the Italian name and Genoa the English name. I will be using the Italian name.
Genova is a city in the north of Italia on the Mediterranean Sea. The city is one of the oldest continually inhabited city in the world as it started in the 5th century BC. It became the republic of Genova in 1099. During the 11th century, Genova took part of the first crusade and developed its influence. From the 12th to the 15th century, Genova became one of the largest port in Europe and took the lead in developing trade and was considered as one of the wealthiest city in the world. From the 16th century on, the city slowly started to decline due to too many wars, a plague in 1656-1657 which killed half of the population and revolution in their colonies. In 1797, Napoleon creates another republic in the area and Genova was part of it. Following this, different region and country hold Genova in their kingdom for a little bit but it became part of the country Italy in 1861 et regain a bit of its former glory. This was a very succent history class about Genova!
Today Genova is a city with 1.5 million inhabitants (including the wider metropolitan area).
We arrived here on Tuesday the 15th of July after taking 2 trains from Nice to Ventimiglia (just after the Italian border) and from Ventimiglia to Genova. We didn’t have number seat and both train were packed, so we stood up for most of the time with our bags. We managed to sit down for a bit, which was nice as we were carrying our big bags!
Anyway, we arrived at the main train station in Genova and walked to our place. This is a cozy little apartment, nice and comfortable.
The host of the appartement gave us plenty of details of what to see around. He was insistent on “when you are leaving the building, go left!”. He said it a few times. We knew why, as this is the way we arrived and we saw a few streets with what appeared to be a fair few people either intoxicated or under the influence of something.
After settling a bit, we decided to go walk into our first Italian city. We went left when leaving the building, and walked around small streets. Our host told us that those tiny streets were made as a maze in case of pirates coming into the city: they would get lost and would be easier to catch. I’m not sure if this is historically accurate, but I like the idea. It is very easy to get lost!
We visited the Cattedrale di San Lorenzo which was built at the end of the 11th century and is pretty impressive. The outside is very recognisable with its black and white bands (we saw that pattern in other places around the city). The inside is very decorated with sculptures, paintings and carvings, each more beautiful than the last. We walk around the fountain on Piazza De Ferrari (not named after the cars but after a politician and banker who in 1875 donated a considerable sum for the enlargement of the port). The fountain is big and when we got there, a lots of kids where playing in the water (it is hot here!). We learnt that this is the place where the city celebrates big sporting events and other important dates. We also walked near the port which is one of the biggest port of Italy and I believe it! I think we saw 7 massive cruise ships there and there were still space for more! After a while, we came back to the little place around the corner of our street to have some food. We tasted our first pesto pasta of the trip and it was delicious. A local bottle of wine between me and Kev and a movie night back at the apartment, and it was time for bed.
The following day, we did a very touristic stuff: we took a hop on hop off red bus. The kids have been asking for it for a while, so we did. That’s it: we did one, we don’t need to do it again! It goes too fast, no time to see things properly or take pictures. I liked the information given during the tour but again, it goes too fast and by the time, we hear what they are talking about, the building is gone! As we already walked in the old town yesterday, we had an idea of the place. We got off near a church we hadn’t see the day before: the Santa Maria Assunta church built as a private church originally, for a very rich family, who paid for it with the interest of the money they had in the bank… Obviously the church is beautiful with incredible statues in it. I really think that churches in Italy are at another level.
For lunch we found a little place which makes pizza, but not the round one we are use to: they are square and pretty simple with the ingredients on it, but absolutely delicious. We did some more walking around and find an inside market with a lot of delicious looking things! We hoped back on the bus to see the lighthouse. When we get out of the bus, they tell us the lighthouse is closed. Ok, we’ll just walk around then. It took is a little bit to find it from where the bus dropped us, but then we found the “walkway’ to it which is pretty poorly maintained and arrived near the lighthouse that we can’t even get close to. The area is pretty run down, so we walk back to the bus station and we are done for the day!
My impression of the city is a bit mixed. There are some beautiful buildings and history, but there seems to have a lot of poverty as well. There is a lot of homelessness and a fair bit a rubbish (not India level, but more than expected for a European country). It is sad to see that even in richer countries, there is still a lot of poverty and that we have found a way to help people in need.
For the evening: a bit of blogging, a bit of gaming (we are all addicted to a game we started a few weeks ago. We play together so it is nice), movie night and bed.
On the 17th, we took the bus again (we bought tickets for 2 days) and get on the coastal line. On the map they gave us, it says “fishing village”…. We went there and I’m not sure what I was expecting but not what we found. This is a tourist village: all we saw was buildings on one side of the road and restaurants or club where you have to pay to get on the beach. And that for a few kilometres it seems. The kids wanted to play on the beach, but struggle finding an free access to the beach: after a while we found one small beach accessible to all. The kids played with the rocks, as there are no sand here, but rocks on the beach. They built a small tower with rocks. One thing with noticed was the sound of the rocks after each waves: the waves would push the rocks forwards and when the waves went back, the rocks would fall back making a crumbling sound. I liked it!
After a while, I started getting too hot, as there was no shade, so we kept going on the road following the beach. We walked back to the next bus stop and hoped back on. It was a bit disappointed. The fishing village might have been there at some point, but is definitely not anymore!
We found a restaurant for lunch: yummy food but a bit pricey (everything seem to be pricey here). We then try to find a cable car that is supposed take you to a viewpoint so you can see the whole city. We looked for it for a while and when we finally found it, it was closed!!! Fine! We won’t go to the viewpoint then!!! Not the best day in term of visit, but we were together, we walked around a foreign city, so all in all, we are not complaining (much!)
We got back to our place to do some schoolwork (it was a bit neglected in France, so we need to catch up a bit), movie and bed!
Friday the 18th was much better than the previous day. We visited the Genova aquarium. The tickets were pretty expensive, but definitely worth the visit. It is a BIG aquarium! It is actually the biggest in Italy. The way it is constructed is pretty smart and despite having a lot of people visiting it, it was still relatively easy to see the fish (we had to wait a few times but we are in no hurry!) They have seahorses, penguins, manatees, sharks, turtles… a plenty more. The interesting thing was that you could see the tanks from different viewpoint as the aquarium as different level which connect with each other. It is smartly done. We stayed in there a bit over 3 hours. There are a lot to see. The other good thing about this aquarium is that they do some conservative work, trying to breed and release species which are dangerously endangered. It is sad that this is needed, but if it needs to be done, I am glad some place seems to be doing it well. As always, you have to leave the aquarium through the gift shop and Emma bought herself another plush toy: a seal that was named snowy. Yeah! Another things they have to keep in their bag! The kids have several small plus toys now: We started the trip with Otary, Tian and Sniffy, then at Easter we got Poppy, then on Andrew’s birthday we got Fluff Baby, then Liony when we got on one of the plane and now we have Snowy! I think we are reaching our limit!
We did a quick pizza stop for lunch and then off to the next place which was right next to the aquarium.
It is called the city of children (or something like that): this is an interactive museum about our 5 senses. One room per sense and a couple of extra rooms to play in. One of the room was about sound and there was a screaming box: you had to get in a room and scream and it would tell you how loud you screamed. Andrew did 118 decibel, I did 117 decibel. It was fun screaming as loud as you could but it hurt my voice!!! Kev tried too and his voice was rough for the rest of the day! It was a nice place. We have seen a lot of this kind of places and it was a good one. The kids played more than they learnt things I think, but I’m sure some information sticked a bit!!! It was fun though!
We tried our first Italian ice cream and it was delicious! So creamy that 2 scoops were a bit much!!! After that, back to our place for some more blogging.
We went back to that little restaurant/bar place at the corner of the street we are in for a couple of drinks. I tried the Aperol Spritz, which is a traditional cocktail in Italy (so I had to try it!): made of Aperol (an orangy liquor), some sparkling cheap wine, sparkling water and a slice of orange. It was refreshing, not as sweet as I thought it was going to be. It was nice but not my favourite.
Back to our place for our pasta dinner (lovingly cooked by Kev: I'm so grateful for Kev's willingness to cook everyday!) and movie night.
Saturday the 19th of July, we are moving again. Packing bags again and we are going to take a couple of trains to go to Firenze (Florence).
I’ll see you there!
MelMeer informatie
Genova, Italy by Kev
15–19 jul. 2025, Italië ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
16.7.2025. We have gone and done it. We bought some hop-on-hop-off bus tickets. The idea was sound, get on and the bus wherever, whenever you like. There's info to listen to while you're on the bus. Sounds great right? Nah it was kinda shit. “On your right you'll see some famous Italian guy's statue”, wait where? Did we pass it already? There was some interesting information, but nothing I couldn't find on google. We hopped off and walked around. Now that's how you see a city. I find Genova a bit tighter and taller than most of the French cities I have visited. One part of the city is built as a labyrinth. This was done to trap pirates who would attack the city from time to time. They would enter and have trouble getting back out. We learnt that during the crusades Genova adopted the St George red cross flag, and it had one of the most formidable armies. So much so that during the 13th century, England struck a deal with them and would pay annual tribute to them to be able to fly the Genovese flag for their armies. This would deter their enemies. The UK still uses it, and it has become part of the Union Jack. Anyway, back to sightseeing. We saw tall buildings, built up on hills, with statues and small bridges built between them. We visited churches, yes more churches. Some of the tallest we've seen, and I feel more intricately decorated than those we saw in France. Well I guess this is where Catholicism was born. I'm not religious, but I can appreciate brilliant craftsmanship. I really enjoy seeing the stained glass windows and huge pipe organs. We found a little pizza/calzone/Italian stuff place in our wanderings, and since it was lunch time, we grabbed some food. This place had what I would describe as square shaped pizza. Big square's cut into smaller square's. Mel grabbed a cheese one, Andrew a pesto one and Emma a tomato one. Me? I grabbed a calzone. It was stuffed with a nice cheese and ham. The pesto got too much for Andrew, so he and Mel swapped. The tomato got too much for Emma, so we swapped. Oh man! The tomato stuff on this thing was amazing, right up my alley. We were all fed for €17. We hopped back on the bus, and rode it towards a massive lighthouse. When we hopped off the ticket person asked if we were going to the lighthouse. Yup. “Here's a map, also it's closed today”. Hoo bloody ray. Oh well, let's head there and just have a look around. Turns out the little map we got wasn't worth 2 knobs of goat shit, and after a walk, we couldn't get any closer than maybe 200m from the lighthouse. Luckily it was pretty big so we could actually see it. We started walking back to the bus stop, stopping to grab some pasta and cheese from a shop. We hopped on the bus and headed back towards our stay. It's pretty hot here and we've done a fair bit of walking, so everyone was ok with heading back and relaxing. We blogged a bit, made and ate dinner. Watched some Netflix and hit the sack.
17.7.2025. Today we're on the tour bus again, the blue line or coastline route today. We hopped on and went for a ride. We rode right to the very end, where there is/was a fishing village. What we saw when we got off was not what we were expecting. Everything is built up, nowhere can you see what resembles a fishing village. All you can see are buildings, and umbrellas. We walked, a little disappointed back towards the city. We noticed lots of beach area with lots of umbrellas. We also noticed that to gain access to these areas you have to pay. Private owned beach areas? Great. We kept on walking and finally found an area we had access to. It was run down, with broken concrete and fences around it, but it was free. It was not a sandy beach, lots of rocks of all different sizes, which made clicking sounds as the waves crashed in and went out. The kids played for a bit, first chucking rocks and splashing a bit. Then they built a fort and tested it against the waves. We sat, getting hotter on the sand. Finally we'd had enough, the kids hadn't, we had. We'd had enough walking, and waited at the next bus stop. We rode it back into the city and found some lunch. The waiter at lunch was very helpful, a little pushy I thought but helpful. We had a starter which was very nice. Then some pasta, which was also nice. When it was time for the bill, we found out that you pay for the seat. I guess that means you don't have to worry about tipping, but it was still a bit surprising. After lunch we searched for a cable car, funicular they call it here. We were interested in taking it to a view point to have a look around. We searched for a bit using GMaps, where we ended up at the top of a hilly park, no cable car here. We looked at the map given to us with the bus tickets, and headed where we thought it may be. When we were about to give up, Mel spotted the sign. Funicular something something. The sign looked legit, however, the door was closed and locked. Well that's the end of that. Feeling defeated, we headed back towards our apartment. We were done for the day. Once back, we all blogged a bit, Mel caught up on work stuff a bit and we rested.
18.7.2025. Today we are going to the aquarium, then to a sensory play place. We started with the aquarium. There was a lot in the aquarium, it did not seem to end. We spent a good 3 hours visiting, rushing a little at the end because we all wanted some lunch and we had the sensory place to visit too. Lunch was pizza from a small shop. I noticed they also sold beer on tap and cocktails. For the first time I also saw white wine on tap. That's a new one. With lunch done, we headed to the sensory place. There were all sorts of different things to try, testing all the senses. The kids especially liked the sound room. There was a small room where you could scream as loud as you could, and it would tell you how loud you were in decibels. Andrew hit the highest with 118 decibels. Which just confirmed that kids are noisy. There were optical illusions and things to smell. A big room full of foam building blocks. The kids made their own thing, then collaborated on a “marble run” construction. We finished in a room at the end that had a hand cranked crane, conveyor belt thing and house you could climb around. It was full of foam blocks and wheel barrows. Afterwards, we found some gelato. I don't normally like too much sweet stuff, but I had to try. The Caffe and pistachio gelato was good. The pistachio was very good. We then found a small supermarket and got some eggs and cheese for tonight's dinner. We walked back, blogged some more, we're trying to catch up, made dinner and finished a movie on Netflix. Bed time.
19.7.2025. Today we are packing and moving again. We have a train to catch at 12, heading to Florence. We'll see how that goes.
KevMeer informatie
Genova, Italy by the kids
15–19 jul. 2025, Italië ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
On the 15th we took two trains the first train was going to Ventimiglia and the next one was going to Genova, where we were going to get off, when we got there, we had a look around. Genova has very small, twisty streets (it’s like a never-ending labyrinth), the reason is because a couple hundred years ago pirates used to plunder the bay so when they came further in the city they would get lost and the army could capture them. After looking around we went back to a restaurant and we had our first Italian pasta, it had lots of pesto sauce, after that we went home and slept.
On the 16th we woke up in our hotel and we went to the bus station, we were going to take a specific bus that would stop at all the good places. Lots of the buildings had decoration and it was very cool, they had some speakers on the bus, and they told us some cool information. Genova was where jeans were made, plus pesto originated in Genova and Christopher Columbus was born there too. Genova was so successful and rich that the first public bank was made there. Genova is so big it covers an area of 243km2, that is 120 times bigger than Monaco, and Monaco is a country, Genova’s just a city. We looked around and we saw lots of stuff: most of the houses had carving and it was beautiful, after that we went down to the port and looked around, it was ginormous. It has enough space to hold 16 cruise ships, after that we went back to the room and slept.
On the 17th we took another bus that was going along the coast. We hopped of at a place that was supposed to have a fishing village, we couldn’t find it, so we decided to go down to the beach. When we were looking for it we figured out that you either have to be part of a club or you have to pay to get down there. We eventually found one that was free, we went down, played a bit, then we went back to the bus and went to a restaurant. The food there was nice, I had a pizza, it was yum. After that we went back to the hotel, did some blog then had dinner and to sleep.
On the 18th we went to an aquarium, it is the biggest one in Italy and the 7th biggest aquarium in Europe. We went in and they had loads of animals, let me list them: fish, turtles, sharks, stingrays, manatee, seals, jelly fish, sword fish, dolphins, sea horses, penguins, crocodiles, eels, octopus, star fish, sea cucumbers and urchins. There were water animals, but there were also land animals too, tortoise, snakes, iguanas, frogs, and a chameleon. They had a touch pool, and the animals look like they want to get touched. It was really easy to touch them as they were lying right next to the edge. After that we looked at lots of other animals and then went out of the aquarium and into a museum. The museum was about the 5 senses: taste, smell, sight, hearing and touch. The first was about hearing, they had different activities, but my favourite one was where I would go in a little enclosed room and scream the loudest I could and see how many decibels it was. My loudest was 118 decibels. After that we went to all the other rooms, at the end they had a big place where we could build a house, me and Emma were the destruction crew. After that, we went to an icecream place, got icecream and it was bloddy delicious. After that we went back home and slept.
On the 19th we took a train to Florence.
Andrew (10 years old)
On the 15th we took two trains from Nice to Genova. When we got there, we settled in and had a walk around the city centre. Lots of big buildings. Narrow streets. There are so many things that smell good in Italy. Then we had dinner at a restaurant. I had proper Italian pasta. Pesto and cheese.
On the 16th we took a bus around the city for the day. I was not so excited about the bus because I absolutely HATE THEM. Here are some facts that I remember. Jeans (the thing you wear) were invented in Genova. I like that the buses had places up the top that you could sit at and feel the breeze. You got headphones so that you can listen to them telling you facts. we walked around a bit then visited a market. Back home blog and movie night.
On the 17th we took a different bus this time. This time it went to the fishing village. Well, not really a fishing village anymore, it’s more like a place with pay pools and restaurants. We found one public pool where we did not have to pay. We took the bus back and had lunch. In the evening, we did blog and movie. We finished all the harry potter books, so we are watching the movies now. The books are better. The movies miss so much.
On the 18th we went to the best aquarium ever. We saw sharks, stingray, fish, turtles, tortoise, dolphins, seals, jellyfish, manatee, sword fish, seahorse, penguins, octopus, starfish, sea cucumber, urchins, crocodiles and eels. They were just the water ones but there are still the land ones to go. Land ones: snakes, frogs, chameleons and iguanas. We got to touch stingrays. I got a little toy at the end and named her snowy. Then we went to a museum. It was my favourite museum we ever went to. it was about the five senses. The first room was sound. There was a thing where you scream and see how loud you were. Then it was touch. Then sight. In the sight one they were stuff that proved your eyes are not always right. After it was smell and taste. It was cool. Then we had proper Italian ice cream. It was delicious. It was so creamy. Then back home and blog. Night-night.
On the 19th we took two trains from Genova to Florence.
Emma (8, almost 9 years old)Meer informatie
Firenze and Pisa, Italy by Mel
19–20 jul. 2025, Italië ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Hello everyone from the city of the Medici!
For those who wonder where that is, it is Firenze (the Italian name) or Florence (the English name) in Italy. Firenze is located in the north of Italy (275km northwest of Roma), in the Tuscany region. It is considerate to be the birthplace of the Renaissance.
A quick history of the city is necessary as we visited a lot of historic places and it will help to explain what we saw (and let’s be honest, I love doing research about history!).
Firenze started in the first century BC as a roman colony for soldier. By 200CE, it was a well-developed trader city. It continued to develop until the 14th century where several bouts of plague, killed half of the population and slowed Firenze development. The arrival of the Medici family in the first part of the 15th century, started the exponential expansion of the city. The Medicis were a family of rich bankers, merchants and politicians. 2 popes and 2 queens of France came from the Medici family. Their influence reverberated through the Tuscany and well beyond. They were the influence behind the development of the arts and sciences. They sponsored artists like Leonardo DaVinci, Michaelangelo, Raphael, Donatello (yes the four Ninja Turtles!) and plenty more! The Medici family stayed in power until the beginning of the 18th century. By that time, Florence was part of the Tuscany which passed to the Austrian Hapsburgs. In 1860 Florence joined the newly formed kingdom of Italy.
Back to us! We arrived here on the 19th of July after a couple of trains from Genova. We settled in our new place and did a bit of shopping for the few days we will stay here. We are trying to cook more than eat out as it is getting pretty expensive. We spent the evening planning and the kids played. Then off to bed as the next day was going to be a big day.
Sunday the 20th, we visited the city.
We are staying in the city centre which is great as everything is walking distance. The streets are small and full of people (as it is the full tourist season at the moment), but I love the paved streets and small shops everywhere you look.
We started by visiting the Medici Chapels, which were built in the 16th and 17th century to celebrate the Medici family and the Grand Dukes of Tuscany. It was added to the already existing Basilica of San Lorenzo (which we could not visit as it was Sunday and churches are reserved for mass on Sunday in Italy). The entrance is made through the crypt where you can see several reliquaries with pieces of bones of plenty of important people. Then you can go to the Cappella dei Principi, the Princes chapel. This is a breathtaking chapel. It has a 59m high dome and every place you look, ceiling, walls, floor, is a piece of art. There are statues, monumental sarcophagi of the Grand Dukes, marble of different colours, paintings, inlay works… This is truly a masterpiece. The proportions and the quality of work make it a must visit in Firenze. There is another smaller chapel made by Michelangelo (his first attempt in architecture) where you can also find some of his sculptures. This is less show stopping, but the sculptures are exquisite.
We followed with a visit of the Medici Riccardi Palace. This palace was built between 1444 and 1484 for the Medici family. It is now the seat of the administration of Firenze and a museum, which we visited. In the museum, we saw more beautiful rooms with magnificent ceilings, beautiful carvings everywhere. We saw one room with an hourglass on the wall and all we could think off, was the Medici family having boardgame nights in this room and using the hourglass for that! Then Emma mentioned that it might has been to time someone who was asking something to the Medicis, which is probably closer to the reality! I can not find the proper explanation, so if anybody know, I’d love to know!
In this palace, there was also an exhibition about different version of the same project: for example, we could see draft drawing of a sculpture, then a drawing with more details, then the sculpture made in terracotta or other material, then the final version of the sculpture. It was interesting to see the process of it all.
We followed this visit with the outside tour of the Cathedrale of Santa Maria del Fiore. As it was Sunday, the cathedral was closed, but we got to see the outside (we will visit the inside another day). It was another breathtaking gigantic piece of art!!! The construction of it started in 1296 and finished in 1436. There are so many details on every part of it! It is made with white, pink and green marble. The cathedral complex located in Piazza del Duomo (the place of the cathedral), includes a Baptistery and Giotto's Campanile, a free standing 84.7m tall bell tower. These three buildings are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. The cathedral has an enormous dome, which they needed to invent tools first, in order to build it. It was a good lesson for the kids: it is not because you don’t have the tool to do something that you need to give up: just create the tools that you need! You could spend a full day just looking at all the details on the outside of the cathedral. This is one of the most visited site in Tuscany and there is a reason for that!
We continue our visit of Firenze, walking in the streets of the city. We saw a shop which sell all kind of different Rubber Ducks and the kids love it!
Another thing I love in Florence is that you hear bells a lot. So many different churches and they ring different religious things during the day (not the hours though!) I always loved the sound of bells!
We found a place full of statues. Masterpieces or copy of it? I’m not sure, as we saw several versions of the same sculpture through our different visit in Firenze. Always impressive though. We saw a bronze copy ofIl Porcellino, a roman statue of a boar. Andrew loving Asterix, always love looking at anything related to a boar! We saw the original in the Riccardi Palace in the morning. Funnily enough, when I did some research about it, it was mentioned that it appears in the Harry Potter movies, and that night we watch the last movie, and we saw the boar!!! It was a fun coincidence!
We walked on the Pento Vecchio, which is a bridge with houses on it. All the houses are jewellery shops nowadays. We found a Pandora shop just before the shop, so Emma got her Pandora charm for Italy: she picked one with a pizza on it!
We finished our visit with a walk in the Boboli garden, another place commissioned by the Medici family (like everything in Firenze it seems!). It is a big garden, the first Italian garden with fountains, statues and artificial caves. It was nice to finish the day walking in ‘nature’.
We came back home, and had a board games night, then bed.
On the 21st, we went on a day trip to Pisa. It is only an hour train drive from Florence. To be honest, I wasn’t going to put it on the list of our visits, but the kids asked to go, so we did! And… I’m glad we did. We took our train and the station in Pisa is around 15 minutes walking for the tour of Pisa and the complex around it.
The tower started being built in 1173 to complete the city cathedral’s complex. But after 3 of the 8-storey construction, the tower began to tilt due to the soft ground it was constructed on. War begun between the different Italian city states and the construction halt for almost a century, allowing the ground to settle and possibly avoid the early collapse of the tower. When the construction started again, they built the extra storeys with a longer side on the leaning side to try and compensate but the extra weight still proved problematic.
Over the next 4 centuries, bells were added with the heaviest one weighing 3600kg. By the late 20th century, the tower was still losing 1.2mm per year and they had to close it to try and stabilise it, which they did. The lean is now around 46cm but is not increasing for now. It is expected to last at least for 200 years. Unfortunately, the bells do not ring anymore as it does not help with the lean of the tower.
We arrived there and obviously the kids wanted to do the touristy pose of holding the tower. We had to fight to found a space to do it, as it was packed! We then went inside the tower (after queuing of course). It was very weird! Once inside you really feel the lean and for me, it made my stomach queasy. When walking up the tower (296 steps), it was funny to see the wear on the steps moving from one side of the tower to the other side depending on where was the lean. At the top, you get a good view of the cathedral and the surroundings. The bells are still at the top, but they are fixed and do not move anymore. I am not comfortable with heights and it was slightly unnerving for me, but well, what I wouldn’t do for my kids!
We then visited the cathedral. The inside is beautiful as usual. Similar to a lot of churches in Italy. Painting, amazing details everywhere you look.
We also went to the Baptistry, a round building with incredible acoustic. Every 30 minutes, someone come to sing a few notes and you can hear the echo. It is pretty impressive.
The museum was next, where there were maps, drawings that used to be on walls, then we saw where they used to burry some of the important church people and a lot of sarcophagus.
By then, we were a bit over visit, so we found something to eat (yummy pizza in Pisa!) and went back to the train station, got into the train and back to our place. We did a bit of blogging, dinner and bed. Our legs are starting to fill the hours of visit we are doing those last few days!
On the 22nd of July, we visited the inside of the Cathedrale of Santa Maria del Fiore. We wanted to get some ticket for the tower, but the timing didn’t work for that day, so we bought some for the next day.
We were surprised of the nakedness of the inside of the cathedral. The outside is so rich that I was expected something similar inside. But the walls are relatively naked. There are some paintings and a few sculptures but not as rich as the outside is. The inside of the dome is beautifully decorated though: it is a fresco of the last judgement, You crane your neck to try to see it all. I kinda wanted to lay down to take time to look at it, but unfortunately, you can’t! The sideway chapel are also beautifully decorated.
There is also a very interesting clock. It is unique in its style. It is a 24 hour clock with only one hand which goes anticlockwise (I think to copy the movement of the sun). The first hour starts at sunset, which means the clock needs to be re-adjust every week to be on time (still today). It is called Italian time and it was probably used to tell when it was time to start vespers, the sunset prayer service. It was also when people back then, needed to know when was the sun going down, which marked the end of the farming day. It is today the only left in the world in working condition.
After that, we made our way toward the Uffizi gallery, one of the most important museums particularly concerning the renaissance work. After the last Medici died, their massive collection of art was given to the city of Florence, under the condition that they would never be moved away from the city. Some masterpieces are in this museum. There is a lot of religious art, obviously being in Italy! We saw “Primavera” (Spring) by Botticelli: a painting representing love, harmony and peace. On this painting, there are 138 species of plant that were recognised, all painted with very precise details. This painting is very enchanting, I think. I like the three graces dancing together and the flow of the painting. The meaning of which is not completely known, but I like that too. Each can see what they want to see in it. I don’t pretend to know much about art, but I enjoyed walking around that beautiful work of art and taking it all in.
We saw also “the birth of Venus”, the most famous painting by Botticelli (I prefer Spring, but this is personal). We saw a lot of paintings and sculptures. The few ones I really enjoyed were: ”Portray of a young man” by Perugino. For some reason, the expression of the face really resonated with me. “Allegory of fecundity and abondance” by Signorelli: the monochrome got my attention and I liked the characters. “The Annunciation” by Leonardo Da Vinci: I always liked this one as it is different from the thousands of others Annunciation scene. Mary is represented in a comfortable situation, reading and meditation on a book. The scene’s background, mountains, shows what will become the mark of Leonardo’s paintings. I don’t know why, but I like it! There are a lot more, but it might make to reading a bit boring (sorry if you don’t like art!).
This was a massive museum, and I must take my hat off to the kids: they did awesome. It was a lot, but they looked at art, they did not complain, they read some explanations. They are wonderful travellers and I am so glad we are doing this together.
After the museum, we walked a little bit in the city and found a window in the wall thing: this is a little window in the wall and you can order your glass of wine through it… You obviously pay more for your wine that you would in a normal bar and it is a touristy thing. So I just took pictures and left! Back to our place for a dinner and a movie I think (not sure now!).
The next day (Wednesday 23rd of July), more museums (yes plurial!)!!! To the delight of Emma who started to be a bit over museum by then! But well, this is Florence, we ca not, not see some of the masterpieces there is here!
Early start (8.15am) to the Galleria dell Academia. Another very famous museum in Firenze, mostly due to the presence of the gigantic statue of David. I am glad we got ticket for the early session (you have to book tickets for a time slot to enter most of the museums around here!), as we got to see the statue with almost nobody around.
We arrived at the museum, queue up until the let us in, pass the metal detector and hoped to find the statue quickly. We entered one room then pass to the next one, and there it was.
In this massive room, there stand the statue of David. It looked tall already when you see it and the corridor is probably around 50 meters long (I couldn’t find the information anywhere). As I said, we were extremely lucky to be there so early. We could actually look at it without being pushed around by thousand of other tourists. We walked toward it and the more you advanced, the more impressive it gets. The statue of David is a sculpture in marble created from 1501 to 1504 by Michelangelo. Its height of 5.17 metres. In the biblical narrative, David is described as a young shepherd and harpist whose heart is devoted to Yahweh, the one true God. He gains fame and becomes a hero by killing Goliath. Michelangelo was only 26 years old when he started this monumental statue in one giant marble block.
It is truly remarkable: the details of the veins, muscles, expression all from an inanimate piece of rock (albeit a big one)… Talent and hard work makes wonder.
We walked around the statue and took a few pictures obviously, admiring the work. But there are plenty more art to see there. We got back to the first room where the statue “the rape of the Sabine women” from Giambologna is. We had to explain what rape was to the kids. I’m sad to have to do that but unfortunately, we are still in the word that they need to know what it is. Nevertheless the statue is beautiful to look at. More religious painting with bright colours all around the walls.
There was also a part about musical instruments from the Medici collection. Some instruments we never saw before. The creativity here again is amazing. I would have love to hear some of those instruments played! I asked Andrew and Emma to talk about one piece of art from the museum in their blog and I think they both choose one of the instruments we saw. I’ll have to see what they research about it!
There was also a couple of rooms with some modern paintings that were interesting to see. I have to admit that, again, my knowledge is pretty limited in that area, but I enjoyed some of them, without having a clue of what they meant (some of them didn’t even had a name to help you figure it out!) But it was a nice change from all the religious pieces!
We kept going in the museum to see more sculptures and painting. I have a lot of pictures in my head now! The museum was smaller than we thought, so we were done a lot earlier than planned. No worries, early lunch with yummy pizza and lasagna for the kids (they have been dreaming of Italian lasagna for a while!), then we came back to our place to rest and do a little bit of schoolwork, then back out for yet, another museum!! We got ticket for the bell tower and it includes the museum of the cathedral as well and a few other things, so we are back at it again.
First to the Duomo museum: more religious painting and sculptures. One of the most famous one is the Pieta of Michelangelo. When I saw it, I thought: ‘it is not the one I know?’! It turns out, Michelangelo made 3 Pieta, which is the scene when Mary takes the body of the Christ down from the cross. His most famous one is at the Vatican (the one I knew about), but he did 2 others and never finished those. The one we saw is Marie, helped with Marie Magdelene and Nicodemus (who was a secret disciple of Jesus) supporting Jesus body. Michleangelo gave his face to the face of Nicodemus. When he worked on this piece he got frustrated as he found imperfections in the marble and ended up chipping it and never finishing it. It was supposed to be part of his own burial site, but it was “finished” (not completely as you can still see where the marble is polished and were it is not) by one of his pupil, Tiberio Calcagni, then sold to the Bandini family and eventually bought by the Medici family. This is truly a beautiful sculpture.
We also saw a silver altar, with incredible details and stayed there looking at all the tiny details of it for a while.
We visited the Baptistery (not as beautiful as the one in Pisa) and what is left of the first church which was built prior to the massive on that is there now and went up the bell tower. There are 414 steps! It was hard, but we did it! You get a pretty good view of Firenze when you are at the top (despite being terrified of the height!)
After this full day, we got back, rest, ate and bedtime.
The following day was moving day again!!! On our way to Roma!
Exciting!!!
Mel
(By the way, it is soooo hard to pick only 20 pictures!!!)Meer informatie
Florence and Pisa, Italy by Kev.
21 juli 2025, Italië ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C
19.7.2025. We got to Florence in the afternoon. On our way to our new apartment, I noticed how much cleaner Florence seems compared to Genova. There's still cigarette butts here and there, people in Europe smoke so much. If it's not smoking, it's vapes. We found our new stay. No keys for this one, two codes. We dumped all our gear on the floor and sorted ourselves out. By the decree of dad, kids get the futon. Mel and I had the futon once I think, never again. We unpacked a little and I sorted out the coffee situation. After a little rest, we headed out into the city. There's a church right there, 50m from the apartment. A big one too, that'll be our first visit tomorrow. We walked around and had a bit of a look, then stopped at a small supermarket for some supplies. Eating at a restaurant is great, hurts the bank account big time tho. We have breakfast and dinner sorted for a few days. Back to the apartment, put stuff away and start dinner. Gremlins fed and cleaned, time for bed.
20.7.2025. We visited the chapel that was nice and close. The Basilica di San Lorenzo. It was closed, it's Sunday. We'll visit it another day. We visited the Medici chapel, right next to it. On the smaller side for Italy, still pretty big tho. As usual the Italians are over the top with the churches. Paintings, stained glass windows, sculptures and carvings. After that visit we walked towards more monuments, Mel had made a list of them things to see last night. We came across another Basilica. This one is huge, with a massive bell tower beside it. Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Made from white, pink and green marble. We only saw the outside today, as the chapel is closed on Sundays. The outside is spectacular. Lots of statues and carvings. The use of different coloured marble. It's really a wonderful chapel to see. We'll have a look inside tomorrow. We walked and walked, then walked some more. Taking in the city, coming across more statues. There is art everywhere here. Once we had seen our fill for the day, we headed back. Because we'd seen heaps, not because our feet were sore and we were exhausted or anything like that. We made dinner, pasta with chicken and veges. While I was cooking, the kids blogged and Mel planned some more. We are away from family here, so we are having earlier nights. If I had to choose, we'd still be with family of course. It is working for us right now, as some of these museums open pretty early. It's a good idea to get in early to beat the crowds. Anyway off to bed as we have an early start tomorrow!
21.7.2025. We're off to Pisa today. Up early to catch a train. After a short walk, we came out of between some buildings into an open area, and there it was. The tower of Pisa. Leaning. Apparently it's only a 5° lean, it looks a lot more. They didn't realise at the time of building it, but an old river used to run through there. So the ground has a high sand content and not the best base for building a massive tower. During construction it started to lean, so construction paused while they assessed. Later they continued to build, adding three more floors. Much, much later, 1990 to be exact, major stabilisation works were carried out. Reducing the lean from 5.5° to 5°, 46cm at the top. When you’re inside you can really see it. Mel, who is not one for heights or boats or bouncy car rides even, struggled with the tower. Not that that stopped them. Even at the bottom, the uneven floor threw them off. After the tower we had a look at the baptistry. Every 30 minutes someone comes in and sings a few notes, letting you hear how the place echos. We had a look at the museum and inside the chapel. We noticed that one corner of the chapel looked like it had sunk somewhat as well. That didn't stop them, they just corrected for it by adding more stone and kept right on building. We grabbed some lunch, pizza this time, then headed back to the train station and back to Florence. a walk back to the apartment, then the usual afternoon/evening.
22.7.2025. We visited the Cathedral di Santa Maria del Fiore again today. This time we're going inside. It is truly a spectacular cathedral on the outside, what's it going to be like on the inside? It's not what we expected. The walls and ceiling are far more plain than we have seen in all the other cathedrals we've visited. There are some paintings and some nice stained glass windows, but that's about it. Until you notice the floor. Inlaid patterns everywhere. We're so used to looking up, my neck is sore. The work that has gone into the floor is something else. Then we noticed the clock above the main entrance. Looks different to what we're used to. Mel Googled it. It's not your usual clock, it's a Duomo clock and the only working one left of its kind. It has Roman numerals, with XXIIII at the bottom. It also spins anti-clockwise. The 24, or XXIIII, starts at sunset and ends at sunset. Letting you know how much time is left in the day. Because the sunset constantly changes throughout the year, the clock is reset on a weekly basis. Truly fascinating, and it makes sense. They didn't care when midnight was centuries ago, they cared when the sun would go down. After that we visited the Ufuzi Galleries. Lots of paintings and sculptures. I don't know a lot about this sort of thing, but I do know when something is more renowned than other things. There's people all around it. I saw so much today, and while I may not be able to truly appreciate it as others would, I am happy to be able to witness it at least once in my lifetime. By the time we had made our way through the whole museum, and we were rushing a bit at the end, we'd been in there for a little over 4 hours, and it was after 4pm. Everyone was starving, so we found somewhere to eat. Then afterwards we headed back to the apartment, stopping briefly to grab some beer. My feet were not happy with me and it was nice to take my shoes off and relax. Dinner, shower, bed, that's it.
23.7.2025. Today we have the Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze booked for 8:15. So up early and off. Naturally we got there early, that's what we do. Through security and into the museum. What's so special about this museum? The main attraction is Michaelangelo’s David. I knew it was big, I knew it was gonna be impressive. It did not let me down. Standing at a bit over 5m(517cm) and sitting on a pedestal, you see this monument as soon as you walk into the corridor, even above all the other people. The sheer size of it, coupled with the fact it is carved from a single piece of marble is amazing. Since we got there early, there was bugger all people walking around, and we got a pretty good look at the bloke. Once we'd had enough, we visited the rest of the museum. It was smaller than previous museums we'd been to, but the art was no less impressive. I am getting a bit over religious stuff tho, but that's what you're gonna get here. After that we found some lunch, the kids had proper Italian lasagna. According to them it was really good. Must have been, I didn't get any leftovers. We then visited the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore again, this time to go underneath the cathedral. There the remains of the old cathedral, the Santa Reparata, which was demolished to make way for the newer, much larger cathedral that now stands there. It was interesting. The original cathedral dates back to the 5th century, and stood until it was demolished in 1379. We then visited the Baptistery of St. John Battistero di San Giovanni, and then the Opera del Duomo Museum. We finished our day with Giotto's Bell Tower, Campanile di Giotto. A massive bell tower that we got to climb all the way to the top of. I kept waving at the people on the dome of the cathedral, but nobody would wave back. We made our way back down and walked back to our apartment. Tonight we are packing again, as tomorrow we're off to Rome!
KevMeer informatie
Firenze and Pisa, Italy by the kids
22–24 jul. 2025, Italië ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
On the 19th, we went to Firenze by train. When we got there, we went to our hotel and set up, then we got some food. Then me and Emma played on our computer, then we went to sleep.
On the 20th we visited Firenze, the first monument we saw was the Medici chapel. First let me give you a bit of history of the Medici family. The Medici family was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence. The bank they owned was the largest in Europe in the 15th century, plus it facilitated the Medicis' rise to political power in Florence. When we got in, we saw lots of reliquaries, but then we went into the main room and it was like 60 meters high, it was ginormous, enormous, huge and immensely tall. It had big tombs of people from the Medici family. After that we went to Riccardi Medicis palace, it is currently a museum that has lots of stuff, mum asked me to describe one thing, and I will. I will be describing a boar statue, I could see its exact bits of hair, it was made out of what I think was stone. (Bonus thing) If you watch harry potter the last movie you will see the boar. After that we went to the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. It was a giant cathedral that was decorated all around, we couldn’t get in because there was a mass happening at that moment. There was a giant bell tower right next to it and a Baptistery in front of it. We had a look at it and then went to a shop that had hundreds of rubber duckys. My favourite one was a Viking one, after that we went to Piazza del Republica. It had lots of statues of people from hundreds of years ago. Then we went to Fontana del Porcellino, it is a boar statue that people rub the nose, then put money in the mouth, then the money falls out and into a little hole. I don’t know why but I’m going to do research why. They do it for luck and by the way the boar isn’t the original one it is actually a copy of the original one. The original was the one I describe earlier, but this one is more famous. After that we went to the Ponte Vecchio. It’s a big bridge that had houses on it, my first thought was if I lived there, I would go fishing out of my window. There was lots of jewellery shops. After that we went to Boboli gardens there was lots of trees and they have an Egyptian obelisk, we walked around looking at stuff (it is a big park). There was an area that me and Emma were playing taxis (I on purposely took ages to get to Emma). After that we went back and had a board game night, then we went to sleep.
On the 21st we went to Pisa, we are going to see the leaning tower of Pisa. I really wanted to go there, and mum asked me to explain why, so here it is. I wanted to go there because I wondered how much it was leaning, and I had heard so much about it, and I wanted to go there. When we got there, we went straight to it, it looked really cool. It is on a 4-degree angle and the top of the tower is four meters from where it should be. When we got to the front of the line you go in if you want to climb the tower we went in. It was so tall there is seven levels and at the top there is seven bells, the last time the bells were wrung were in 1990. At the top, mum did not like the height, though it was a really good view. When we went down, we went to a cathedral, it had a really big dome, we looked at It a bit then we went to baptistery. We looked at it again and then went to a museum. The museum had lots of paintings, we looked at them and then we went to another thing, this one had lots of sarcophagus, Emma first thought they were bath tubs. After that we went home and went to bed.
On the 22nd we went to the cathedral di Santa Maria, we’ve already been already but it was closed then, it’s very decorated on the outside, what will it be in the inside, wait for it, wait for it,… actually it’s not that great, the walls are a little bit plain and there’s not much on the roof, then I looked down, the floor was covered with inlay work and patterns, but then what’s that, up on one of the walls a clock. The clock is different, mum did some research and figured out it was twenty-four hours and ends when the sun sets. After that we went to Uffizi gallery it had lot of famous art work like ‘the birth of Venus’ and ‘Primavera’ and ‘Medusa’. It was really cool after that we saw some statues like ‘Laocoon and his Sons’. It was so cool, and the museum was so big I’m sure we missed some stuff. It was sort of like a labyrinths so many thing to see and so many rooms. After that we went to the hotel and slept.
On the 23rd we went to Galleria dell Academia, it has the famous statue of David, it is made by Michelangelo. It is made between 1501 and 1504, it is 5.17 meters tall (not including the pedestal it’s on) plus it’s made out of one block of marble. Also, he’s weight is 5,660 kg, there’s a sling on his left shoulder and a tree trunk near his right leg and they used to be covered in gold leaf. David became famous because he defeated goliath, the giant, he defeated goliath by cracking his skull with a rock fired from a sling, then he chopped goliaths head of with his own sword. When we got in, it was really cool all the veins on his hand and the detail. After that we looked at all the paintings, then we went into a room that had lots of statues but also hundreds of busts, there were a few paintings but there were mainly just statues and busts, it was cool. After that museum, we went to another one this one had more statues to, there were some big doors. After that we went back home and slept.
On the 24th we took a train to Rome.
Andrew (10 years old)
Hello again friends. In this blog we are visiting a lot of cool stuff like the leaning tower of Pisa.
On the 20th we visited Florence. We visited the Medici chapel. It was owned by the Medici family. I felt small. It was so big that I felt small. The Medici family was one of the richest families in all of Europe. Then we went to visit the Medici palace and thingy. It had a lot of sculptures and paintings. We came across something that caught my eye. It was an hourglass. It was in a sitting room so I thought that it might be if people came in, they would have a certain time to tell them stuff. Then we saw the outside of a church because it was closed. It was Sunday and everything is closed. Then we just walked around the place. We were walking around and guess what we found, a duck shop. There were loads of ducks, dragon ducks, ballerina ducks. So many DUCKS!! My favourite one is the dragon duck. Then we saw a big open space with sculptures. They were big. Then we saw a metal boar. People would rub its nose and make a wish. We bought me my new pandora charm. I chose a little pizza slice, because we are in Italy and I like pizza! Then we walked on the Ponte Vecchio. It is a famous bridge. Ponte Vecchio is the only bridge that survived World War II. There used to be butchers on the bridge, but now there are jewellery shops. Then we went to the Boboli Garden. We saw a sculpture that looked like the stature of liberty. Me and Andrew played some game like taxi driver. I would walk around and when I was ready, I would put my hand up and Andrew would pick me up. It was a big day, and I was ready to go back and play games.
On the 21st we visited Pisa. First, we visited the leaning tower. When we got in, mum did not feel the best, but they still made it up to the top. By the time we got down, the lean was starting to get to me. We walked around a bit after that, and it was a nice view. then we visited all the stuff around the tower which was a dome, a baptistry and a museum. In the baptistry, we went to the top and heard someone sing. They were demonstrating how it echoed in there. In the museum there were big chains, and stuff that looked like big bathtubs, but they were actually stuff to keep dead people in. Then we found lunch in Pisa. I had a chicken sandwich. Then we took the train back home. I really wanted to visit Pisa to see the leaning tower. I just wanted to see how big of a lean it was. Then we went home and slept.
On the 22nd we visited a church with a clock that showed you when the sun would go down. The walls were not so decorated, but the floor was marvellous. Then we visited the Uffizi Museum. There were lots of paintings and sculptures. I choose one piece of art that I liked the best. It was a frame. There was a painting in it, but I preferred the frame itself. The frame had flowers on it. The flowers were so well done. You could actually see the leaves, the nectar and the veins. The rest of the museum was cool, but the frame interested me the most. Then we went back and had a movie night.
On the 23rd we went to another museum and saw a statue of David. It was just a statue of a guy. I mean, I liked the detail, but it was just a guy. Then we saw music instruments. My favourite one was the Hurdy gurdies. The hurdy gurdy is a string instrument that makes sound by a hand turned lever. There is a rosined wheel that rubs against the strings. The wheel functions like a violin bow, and notes sound similar to a violin. The hurdy gurdy was made around 1775-1808. Then we had lunch. I had my first Italian lasagna. It was amazing. We had a rest and did some blog. Then we went to another museum. There was a lllllllllooooooooottttttt of statues. I was already over museums by the end. It was cool, but there is such a thing as too much information. Then we went to a baptistry. I am not that interested in baptistries. Then we climbed the tower next to the main cathedral. It was a very high tower, so it took a little while to climb. It was impressive, but the thing that impressed me the most was mum. They have a fear of heights, but they still made it up. They were wonderful. Then we packed.
On the 24th we took a train to Rome.
The end.
Emma (8 years old)Meer informatie
Roma, Italia by Mel
24–30 jul. 2025, Italië ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
Hello from Roma!!
We are in the capital of Italy!! This is exciting! I love Roma. I came here a very long time ago and I love coming back.
We arrived on Thursday the 24th of July. It is full on tourist season obviously, which made the city even busier than normal! But well, I wanted the family to see Europe in summer, so tourist season it is!
We arrived by train from Firenze and took a public bus to get to where we stay. It is pretty easy to use the public transport here, and not too expensive, so we will use it during our stay.
We arrived at our place, went to do a bit of grocery shopping and came back. The kids did some schoolwork and blog and I napped!!! For some reason, I was exhausted, so a bit of rest was needed. We didn’t do much at all that afternoon, as we have been doing so much lately.
The following day, we got to see the COLOSSEUM!
Even if half of it is missing nowadays (due to earthquake, abandon and stealing), it is still incredibly impressive. It would have been amazing to see it in all its splendour back in 80AD, when the construction just finished. It was and still is the largest standing ancient amphitheatre ever built. It could hold around 50 000 spectators. It is one of the newest 7 wonders of the world human made (We saw two now!! The other one is the Taj Mahal)
How to describe it: It is big, but like very big! Ginormous! Colossal! There are arches everywhere. We were wondering why we could see holes in pretty much all the walls: we found out that every wall was covered in marble and the holes in the stone were the anchor point of the marble.
They used to have hunts, gladiator fights, battle re-enactments, naval battle re-enactments and executions… you know entertainment!!! It is very gruesome! But the building in itself, is a fantastic credit to the architects of that time.
With the development of the Catholicism, roman game became less popular (too violent), so the Colosseum stopped being used for this purpose. They found evidence that for several centuries after that, shops, workshops, housing and even a church were built inside the wall of the Colosseum.
It was a very interesting and amazing visit.
Next to the Colosseum is the Roman forum. This is a huge area which used to be the centre of day-to-day life in Rome during the 8th century BC to the 8th century AD. After that, it was mainly abandoned and slowly became ruins. Nowadays, it is still possible to imagine and guess how romans use to live by walking around and using a fair bit of imagination.
To learn a bit more about it, we found a National geographic documentary on youtube in the evening and watch that to finish our day.
On the 26th of July, we visited a lot!
We started with a kid museum, as we have been visiting a lot of ‘serious’ museums, so a bit of fun was needed for Andrew and Emma. It was a pretty well-made museum: a lot of different activities, all interactive and fun covering a lot of subjects: nature, radio, water reaction, inequalities between man and woman (I loved that part!), sound, colours… a lot of things. The kids had fun!
After that we saw the Piazza del Popolo: this is gigantic place with arch on one side, an obelisk and fountain in the middle, a couple more fountain on each side and 2 churches on the opposite side with 3 streets opening like a trident. We continue our visit to the Spanish steps. The Spanish Steps, built between 1723 and 1725, climb a steep slope (29m long) between Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the Trinità dei Monti church, at the top. There are 135 steps. We have been climbing a lot of steps during this gap year! The Fontaine at the bottom, called the Fountain of the long boat, is a favourite place to pose and have your picture taken: the kids obviously wanted to do that! So we did! We climbed up, looked at the view, visited the church and climbed back down to continue our visit to one of my favourite spots in Roma: the Trevi fountain.
It was, non-surprisingly packed with people. They only let a certain amount of people close to it at the same time, so we just looked at it from a bit above and slightly further. It was still close enough to have a good look of it. This fountain is beautiful. It was built between 1732 and 1762. It features the titan Oceanus (in Greek mythology, he is the son of Uranus and Gaia, the husband of his sister the Titan Tethys, and the father of the river gods and the Oceanids) springing from the central niche on a shell chariot pulled by two hippocamps and two cascading tritons.
A lot of people follow the tradition of throwing a coin in the fountain to favour a return to Roma. An estimated of €1.5 million (AUD$2.68 million) is thrown into the fountain each year. The money thrown into the fountain is donated to the Caritas association, which uses it for charity work.
I love this fountain: the flow of the sculptures, the size and creativity is for me, one of the most beautiful thing to see when in Roma.
We kept walking after that with no aim. One thing I like in Roma, is the number of fountains everywhere. Water is flowing at every corner. From the massive one, like the Trevi fountain to the small simple ones where you can fill you water bottle with deliciously cold and refreshing water.
In our walk, we found a small wax museum. It was not the best, but they had an interesting video about how they make the vax figures.
We finish the day visiting the extremely ginormous monument for Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of the kingdom of Italy newly united (before it was a lot of smaller kingdoms). It has three levels connected by stairways, with different statues at every corner, middle, and everywhere else. The top is surmounted with a colonnade of 15 meters high. The style of architecture is neo-classical with eclectic influences. It shows that Italians are masters in architecture and creating incredible monuments.
After that we jumped on a tram and went back to our place with achy feet!
The next day, we did a fun day. Emma found a Colour Hotel, 30 minutes train ride from us. I wasn’t quite sure what was going to happen, but we tried. It is located in a shopping centre, so we got there and bought our tickets. The entrance is like a hotel with a weird looking red eyes giant teddy bear as the concierge, then they take you to the first room which is the elevator with wall covered with screen giving you the impression of going up in the sky and then back down. There are 10 rooms overall. You can stay as long as you want in each. My favourite ones were the one which looked like a massive, padded room where you could jump, the pink fur room, all covered in pink fur where you could dress up in pink fur, the one we could wrote on the wall and copies of art, and the roller-skating one. It was fun!!! The kids loved it, so I am sure they will give you way more details!
We came back to our place to rest and in the evening, we went to listen to some Queen music, opera style. There again, we were not sure what to expect: we arrived in a smaller place than we expected, with only 6 tables set up with wine and nibblies. We took our table. Then the concert started: there was one pianist and 2 singers, one soprano and one tenor. They were all talented, but the soprano was astonishing. Her voice could lift the roof! I had goosebumps so many times! They did some of the most famous songs from Queen either on the piano by itself with the public singing (all 10 of us), or with one or two singers. I loved it, but it was finish to soon! It only lasted one hour and I could have listen to them for much longer than that!
But everything must finish, so went back home singing Queens songs and that was it for that day.
On Monday the 28th of July, we did one activity that Andrew found: guess what it was? A video game museum!!!! Of course Andrew will find that! There was a lot of old game consoles and some information about the beginning of the industry (I think I am the only one who read some of it). There was a lot of arcade games we could play, as well as old games on different console systems. I played Wreck it Ralf on arcade and Crash Bandy Coot on the old PlayStation, and it was a lot harder than I remember! Kids had fun! Kev too I think! Me too, but it was a lot of computer screens all around and I was happy to leave after a couple of hours!!!
After that, we went to do the museum of the Vatican, which is a massive museum with everything in it: from Egyptian art, mummies, Etruscan vases, renaissance paintings and sculptures, rooms decorated from top to bottom… It was a lot to take in. Add that to the number of people visiting… It was a lot! This is a museum that could be done in several days to see everything. Vatican, by the way, is the smallest country in the world. It is a city state, with its own money, government, laws. Which means we visited the 2 smallest country in the world: the Vatican and Monaco! The kids were super excited to be able to walk from one side to the other side of a country in a matter of minutes!
Back to the museum: I enjoyed it, but I wish I had more time and less people in it who push you to try to take a selfie.
I loved the room dedicated to statues of animals and the 120m long map room (the maps were great but the roof of the room is amazing too). One artifact I loved was the tablet written with cuneiform writing, inside an envelope made of clay with cuneiform writing on it too.
The visit finishes with the chapel Sistine. Which is always a big thing to see, but again there are so many people there! And I have to admit that after seeing so many paintings, rooms covered top to bottom with painting and decoration, it lost a bit its effect. I almost wish we could start with it: the beauty we saw before wouldn’t diminished the beauty of the chapel. Don’t get me wrong, it is magnificent, impressive, and all the other descriptives word you can associate with beauty, but after several hours in the museum, your brain is so tired that I think we couldn’t appreciated it to the maximum.
I was not supposed to take pictures, but everyone was taking then so I snapped a couple. I normally respect when we can’t take pictures but I really couldn’t see the issue here (as long as not flash is used).
After that we tried to get a bus to get back to our place, but there was so many people that the buses were packed to the brim: we ended up walking just under one hour to get to our place. Again, the kids amazed me: by then, we have been on our feet since 8.30am and it was late in the afternoon and still walking. They just played their game while walking and did not complain once. I was exhausted and I could have complain (maybe I did a bit!)!!! Those kids are amazing travellers.
On Tuesday the 29th of July, we visited the Pantheon. This is the only monument still standing from the ancient roman era. This is because it has always been in use. All the other monuments, at one point were abandoned and fell into ruins. Not the Pantheon. It was originally a temple dedicated to the 12 Roman gods built between 25 and 27BC. It was reconstructed in 118-125AD and it is pretty much still what we see now. At the beginning of the 7th century, it officially became a Christian church and has been used as ever since. The monument is rotunda with a rectangular front, which was at the time a unique design (It was copied a lot after). In the middle of the dome is a 9m in diameter hole, an oculus, made to open the building to a better connection with the divine. It also allowed to lighten the dome, as it is the biggest dome unsupported and not re-enforced by anything. The oculus let the light and the weather enter the dome and give it a very special atmosphere. The inside is beautifully decorated obviously. There is a recent sculpture of a giant broken crown of thorns in the centre which will receive the rain and hold the water for a while. I asked the kids to do some research about this place, and I think they found some great information, so go read their blogs about it.
We continue the day with a walk to the Piazza Navona, one of the best piazza in Roma. On the way we saw one of the many fountains of Roma called the book fountain. I liked it!
The Piazza Navona is built over an ancient stadium, so it has an elongated oval shape. There are 3 beautiful fountains on it (yes more fountains!) and some beautiful buildings all around it. As I said, on that place used to be a stadium, commissioned around AD 80 by Emperor Titus Flavius Domitianus as a gift to the people of Rome. It was used for athletics contests, but also poetry, songs and music contests. Like the Colosseum, it was abandoned with the decline of Roma and like the Colosseum, was used as living quarters then forgotten and the earth slowly cover it back up. It was uncovered in recent time and you can visit a small part of the stadium, which we did. They had audioguides for adults and some different audioguides for the kids, with more fun facts: I hope they remember some and write them it their blogs!
There was a sign about the average reign of a roman emperor: during the 503 years of the roman empire (27BC-476AD), there was 105 emperors: 34 died of natural causes and 71 of violent death! Which made the average of 5 years per emperor!!! Not a fun job, is it!!!
After that, we had plan to visit Saint Peter church in the Vatican. We got near the Vatican and the crowds were insane. We thought that is a lot: there were a lot of groups of young people with flags, singing songs… We arrived near and got told that we couldn’t get in until 4pm. It was still only around 1pm, so we went to visit a couple of other churches (all amazing) and came back a bit before 4. I looked it up and found out, it was youth jubilee day. Turn out that 2025 is a jubilee year for the Catholic church: which is a special year of remission of sins, debts and universal pardon, with a lot of special mass and events. And obviously, we came here during that year and that day!!!
There were even more people when we arrive!!! We became a bit squished. When they opened the gate to get in, some groups formed conga lines to push through and get in. I got worried. There were too many people and I asked if we could still visit the church to one of the guard: he said yes, but you need to follow the line and keep walking with it. This was not the best day to visit St Peter church, so we didn’t. I don’t like massive crowd especially with 2 kids with me.
I was really sad, as it is a shame to come to Roma and not seeing the biggest catholic church in the world. I was really disappointed to miss that. I should have planed that better.
We finished the day by ice cream and we saw a cat colony! Apparently, there used to have a lot of cats in Roma and they were protected. It is against the law to hurt them or move them if they decided to live somewhere. When some cats decided to call some place their home, people created cat colonies and installed nice beds and toys and food for the cats. We saw one and it was so cute. But nowadays there are a lot less cats in Roma.
After that, we got back home, packed our bags as it was our last day in Roma.
Our next stop is Pescara on the east coast of Italy. We are planning on resting a bit, catching on schoolwork as it has been pretty thin lately, and refueling in energy before another big tourist destination.
I just want to finish with my love of Roma. This city is magnificent: everywhere you look, there is a statue, a fountain, a museum to visit, some type of art, a beautiful building… This is such an amazing city!!! I hope I’ll come back one day!
MelMeer informatie
Roma, Italia by Kev
24–30 jul. 2025, Italië ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
24.7.2025. Up early, breakfast, finish the last bit of packing and off to the train station. Where we wait, because our train is late. Not like India late, this is Italy late, so only 10mins or so. On we hop, no struggling trying to get the big bags into the cargo space above us. Not since the last train where we noticed people put the big bags on the floor, between the seats. It's not like it's clearly labelled with a bag sign or anything like that. The trains in Europe, so far, have been really good. Andrew noticed at one point, that we were travelling at 250kph. It was smooth as too. We got to Rome, Roma to the locals. Discussed whether we should get an uber or try a local bus. Much to Emma's dismay, we decided on the bus. Uber was gonna be €30, the bus was €3. I'll take a bit of whinging for that kinda discount. The bus really wasn't bad as it was not as crowded as I thought it would be. We got to our new apartment and met up with the owner. He let us in and showed us around. Gave us a few tips on the very near area then shot through. We settled in a little bit, which means we spread shit everywhere. It's now just after lunch and we need supplies for the stay. Grabbed some bags and headed out. We found a small food place, they serve you pizza by weight. They make long rectangular pizza, then cut off how much you want with scissors. We all had pizza, except Emma who tried some spring rolls and crumbed potato things. All fed for just over €13, and the spring rolls were a hit with Em, so we'll be back. We did some shopping, pasta and breakfast stuff for a few days. We headed back, I put stuff away while others blogged. Had a couple beers, then shared a bottle of wine with Mel. A Pinot noir made in Italy, it wasn't great, won't get that one again. Made dinner, watched a movie and went to bed.
25.7.2025. Kids had noodles for breakfast again, it's starting to be a favourite. We stayed in a bit this morning as we had nothing planned. So what did we do? Why we caught up on some of the kids favourite activities, blogging and schoolwork, yay. At lunchtime we went back to the little pizza place we found yesterday and gave it another crack. After that we hopped onto a tram and headed towards the city centre. Where are we headed to? What has Mel booked for us this Arvo? Stay tuned for the next episode to find out! It's the Colosseum, we're going to the Colosseum. We were cruising along in the tram, watching all this ancient Roman stuff pass us by, thinking, there really is a lot of stuff to look at here. Around the corner we went, and there it was. Bloody huge, and it only got bigger. My first thought after getting a closer look at the place was, that must have taken a lot of people to build. It's 189m long, 156m wide and 48m high. As I already said, bloody huge. The main pillars on the outside holding everything up are about 4m thick. There's holes chiselled into them everywhere too. We found out later that they used to have sheets of marble covering everything, and used these holes to fit everything up. Must have been spectacular back in the day. Still pretty spectacular now. Once inside we made our way around, reading most of the info they have placed around the joint. The whole thing was built between 72-80 AD. So they didn't muck around. We learned in the 5th century, the Gladiator fights were banned and animal hunts stopped in the 6th century. At the end of the 6th century a small chapel had been built inside, and there are records up to the 12th century of the rooms under the seats and arena being rented out. It was even used by one family, the Frangipani’s, who fortified it and used it as a castle for a while. I enjoyed walking around the Colosseum. I like looking at old structures in partial ruin, and imagining what it must have been like to see it in its prime. Tickets were free to families of the area, and were distributed using a class system. You sat where you were told to sit, owing to your social status. We finished our visit with a look through the gift shop. Some more postcards and another magnet to add to the collection.
26.7.2025. Today we're headed to a kid museum Mel found. It's a timed activity, you get 1h45m to let your kids run around silly. There were a few things there that the kids enjoyed, some water stuff and a production line thing. The production line activities proved to be the most popular with our two. It involved moving small balls around 7 different stations, from one to the other. There were a few other things that held their attention for a bit, but not a lot going on. Outside the centre is a flying fox, the kids played on that for ages. Then I got hungry and we had to go. After food we walked to Piazza del popolo, a massive open area with an obelisk in the middle. Afterwards, we walked to what is called the Spanish steps. There's a fish fountain thing at the bottom that is very popular, the kids lined up to get their picture taken. We walked up the steps to the top and visited a small chapel at the top. We checked out the views on the way back down. Next stop, we walked to the Trevi fountain. Huge fountain, and it was very popular, there were people everywhere. Lots of sculptures amongst the several fountains. On our way to the next destination, we came across a small wax museum. Not my cup of tea, but the others seemed keen. We saw lots of Italian people I have no idea about, and a few celebrities. It was pretty dodge, but it got us out of the sun for a bit I suppose. To finish the day, we ended up at an absolutely massive building, built as a Monument to Victor Emmanuel II. Who was the first King of a united Italy. After all that, we're knackered. Time to hop on a bus and head back. Showers, dinner and a little tv. Then bed.
27.7.2025. This morning we're headed to something Emma found. Called the Colour Hotel, who knows how this is gonna turn out. Pretty good is the answer. We started in an elevator, not a real one but had screens to make you think you were. After that we went into a massive padded cell. Mel called it a mattress room, it had a huge blow up floor and walls. After chasing and being chased, I was stuffed. Right, what's next? Into a room full of yellow balloons, we played keepy uppy for a bit, popped at least one balloon and moved on. Next was a pink fluffy room, with dress ups and a couch. Got hot wearing a coat, not to mention how many people had worn it previously. Next, a toilet room, you slid down a toilet into a huge ball pit. Lots of rooms, lots of fun. A big white room with sculptures that you could draw on with whiteboard markers. There was a big double ping pong table, some basketball hoops. At the end the kids played with some big foam block things and built a fort. We finished up, found some lunch. When we got back, it was time to blog and rest. Later that evening we went out again. Mel found a show, some Queen/Freddy music mixed with opera. It was a good show, the guy on the piano was good, one guy singing was pretty good, and there was a lady singer. She stole the show. Her voice was amazing. When she really let go, the whole place shook. Mel said they got goosebumps. After that, home and sleep.
28.7.2025. This morning we're doing something Andrew found. What did he find? A video game museum, that's what. We spent a couple hours there, playing a few different games. I saw the first game console I ever owned. A sega master system. Andrew really liked Mario cart world. Emma really got into super Mario world, I had to drag her away from it at the end. After that we went to another country, the Vatican. We have now been to the two smallest countries in the world. The Vatican being the smallest and Monaco the second smallest. We visited the museum, lots to see. So many paintings, so many sculptures. Everywhere you looked there was art. The walls, the roof and the floor. Finished with the Sistine Chapel. Lots of paintings on the walls and ceiling. Lots of mostly naked, ripped dudes covering one of the walls. Lots of people. Not allowed to take pictures in the Sistine chapel, but with that many people, I saw plenty taking them anyway. After that we called it a day and headed back.
29.7.2025. Today is a day I planned, we'll see how that goes. We started with visiting the Pantheon. Apparently, it's the only building in Rome still in its original state. It's said that's because it's the only building to have never been abandoned at any point, so it has always been looked after. There's a big oculus in the centre of the roof, approximately 9m in diameter, which is from the original design. It was never closed up, they just let the weather in. After the Pantheon, we walked and found a small book fountain. A better description would be, a fountain with book sculptures in it. After that we went to Piazza Navona, another huge open area with 3 large sculpture fountains. We found the place to get our tickets for the next stop. Which was not very far away, actually underneath the piazza. The place? The Stadium of Domitian, an ancient stadium built by the emperor Domitian in the year 86 Ad for athletics competitions. Here they did chariot races, foot races, javelin, discus, boxing and much more. They didn't just offer physical sports, but mental sports as well, with poetry readings, singing and instrumental competitions. It was 276m long and 106m wide and seated around 30,000 people. It looked like an elongated horse shoe. It fell out of use in the latter years of the Empire. It's believed to have still been in existence in the 5th century as it in documents, tho it is believed to have become a place for the poor to live. Later, it fell into ruin and ended up covered and built on-top of. The Stadium now sits 4.5m below steer level, and only part of it has been excavated. After the stadium, we found some lunch and headed back to the Vatican. We want to see St Peters cathedral. When we got there tho police had closed everything off and said it wasn't reopening until 4pm. Well bugger. We walked to another chapel and had a look then came back. By now there was a lot of people waiting. As it got close to 4 there were more and more. Mel looked on their phone, apparently today there is an extraordinary mass for a youth Jubilee. The longer we waited the more people turned up and the crazier it got. As all these people started to push towards the gate, even tho it's not open yet, it got crazier and crazier. People pushing past others into somewhere already overcrowded, bumping us out of the way as they went. I had to hold Andrew, to keep him up and safe. At some point we said stuff it, and we let the loonies have their fun pressing up on each other, I just hope no-one got hurt. After watching the huge amounts of people pouring into the Vatican, we gave up. It sucks to have not seen the biggest chapel in the world, but it was not meant to be. We decided to go and see another chapel, and it was beautiful. Then we got gelato, because why not? After that we visited a cat colony. We saw 1 cat, we were expecting more than that, but you take what you get. We then walked back to our apartment, did the evening thing and went to bed.
30.7.2025. Today is moving day, we're off to Pescara today. Packed and headed for a city bus. Onto another bus, then wait at the intercity bus station until our bus turned up. 2.5hrs later we're in Pescara. We found our stay, not as great as we'd hoped but it'll do. Blogging in the afternoon, probably go out for a light dinner later.
KevMeer informatie
Roma, Italia by the kids
24–30 jul. 2025, Vaticaanstad ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
On the 24th we took a train to Rome (or in Italian, Roma), when we got there, we went to our hotel and did some blog. Then we went to sleep.
On the 25th we did more blog but in the afternoon, we went to the Colosseum. It was ginormous, so high, I am so happy we went here, mum ask me to do some facts about it, and I will deliver. The Colosseum was built between 72 A.D and 80 A.D under the rule of Emperor Vespasian. It is189m long, 156m wide and 50m high, it had 80 entrances and could hold approximately 50,000 spectators. The events had gladiator fights, wild animal hunts and sometimes they would flood the place and hold naval ship battles. Back then the entrance fee was $0.00, cheap, emperor Vespasian built it, but the first game was held under the rule of emperor Titus (the son of Vespasian), and they ran for 100 days straight. To protect the spectators from the sun and heat of Ancient Rome, there was an awning that could be pulled over the top of the seating area to provide shade. When we got into the Colosseum it was really cool, we could see all of it, all of the Colosseum, there is so much of it. we walked all around the inside of it, and it was really cool. The seats used to be marble but there now gone, there is still some remaining and its pretty cool. We looked at all the things we could, we saw stuff that they used long ago, it was cool. After that we went to our hotel and slept.
On the 26th we went to a place that had some fun stuff to play with, we stayed there a while, but the time limit was 1h 45m. After that we went and looked at some of the monuments in Roma, the first one was a fountain, we looked at it and then we went to another fountain, this one was pretty popular, everyone wanted to put their hand in the water. Then we went to the most famous fountain in Rome. it was really cool, there were lots of statues and carvings. After that we went to a big monument and looked at that. Then we went home and slept.
On the 27th we went to a place called colour hotel, we weren’t sure if it was going to be good, when we got there the entrance room was all in red, it looked like one really fancy hotel. There were 11 rooms, the first one was called the elevator room. It was a fake elevator that had screens all around and on the floor, it looked like we were actually moving and threw the clouds. The second room was where they had a big white mattress everywhere. It was absolutely awesome. Next it was a room that had lots of green balloons, then it was a fur room. It has pink fury fabric everywhere, there were clothes that were pink, and I dressed up and I looked hilarious. After that there was a toilet room that had a big toilet and sink and there was a slide into a big ball room. There were lots of little balls everywhere, I buried myself a few times. Then we went to a room that everything was made out of white board and we could draw on it, I wrote my name about 50 times. Then we went to a door room, it was more like a labyrinth, there were doors every where and they just lead to more doors or some time dead ends. After that we went to another room that had a pool table and a couple of basketball hoops, oh yeah, and a ginormous table tennis table and two humungous foosball table. They were like 4-5 meters long, each, it would take like 15 people to play it properly. After that the next room was a little course that had roller skates, I learnt how to skate (sort of). It was fun, mum was the best of us. there was one last room, the block room, it has lots of blocks that me and Emma made a castle out of. Then we went to an orchestra. It had some Freddie Mercury songs, after that we went home and slept.
On the 28th we went to a video museum, it had lots of old games, they also had a big projector that I could play Mario cart on it. After that we went to a museum in the Vatican it had lots of Egyptian stuff, there were a couple of mummies and sarcophagus. There were statues of gods and pharaohs. There were scriptures in hieroglyphics to. After the Egyptian stuff we went into the Sistine chapel that was covered with paintings and in the middle there was the painting called “the creation of Adam”. I thought it would be way bigger and would be in a frame. It’s actually pretty small and is in the middle of lots of other paintings. After that we went home and slept.
On the 29th we went to the pantheon it is the oldest still standing building in Roma, when we went in we saw a big domed roof, it was so high, it is 43 meters high and 43 meters in diameter. It looked really cool, after that we went to the piazza Navona, it is like a big square that has three fountains, one in the middle and one on each side. After that there was an underground stadium, it was half ruined but we could still see it. It looked pretty cool, there was a big arch still just standing up, it was cool. After that we went to saint peters church, we tried to get in but there were to many people. So we went to two other churches instead, then we had ice cream and then went to a little cat colony (harming a cat is illegal in Rome) we looked at it (the cats here live in luxury) and then we went home and slept.
On the 30th we went on a bus and went to Pescara it was long and tiring, when we got there we got of and went to our hotel, it was nice, then we did some shopping and in the night we walked around the beach. Then we went back to the hotel and went to sleep.
Andrew (10 years old)
On the 24th we took a train to Roma (in other words, Rome). Then we went to get some food from the shopping centre. We did blog and schoolwork. Mum had a nap.
On the 25th we did blog. Then we went to the Colosseum. It was a big oval shaped amphitheatre. Massive. It could hold up to 80,000 people. It was 83 metres one way and 48 metres the other way. It was big but it didn’t catch my eye. Stuff I like are wax museums and stuff like that. Then we walked back home and watched a documentary about the Colosseum.
On the 26th we went to a kid museum. It was a museum where there were lots of fun stuff that we could play with that helped us understand more. It was fun. My favourite thing was where balls would fall and land on a platform and then you would pull a string, and they would fall. Then we went to Piazza del Popolo. In English it is called “people’s square.” Then we went to the Spanish steps. Then we went to the Trevi fountain. It was pretty big. Then we went to a wax museum. It was cool. I liked how they made the wax people. Then we went to a massive monument. I thought the Trevi fountain was big, but it does not stand a chance.
On the 27th we went to colour hotel. it was a big place that had lots of rooms with fun stuff in it. I did research and found it. The first room was an elevator room. We were in an elevator that had screens to make it look like we were going up. In the second room there was nothing but pillows. It was so BOUNCY! In the middle you sunk in but on the outside you stayed up better. The next room was the balloon room. It had so many balloons. We kept hitting them at each other. Aaannndd, I broke mums’ phone. I still feel guilty about it. So when I get back don’t bring up the subject. The next room was the fur room. It had coats, bags, shoes and clothes that had fur on them. Very pink. The next room? You ask. It was the toilet room. It had stuff you have in a bathroom but massive. There was a sink, a toilet even toilet paper but massive. Then you went down the toilet and into a room filled with balls. It was hard to move in all the balls. Then we went to a room where there were stuff we could write on. Then we went a door room. It was like a labyrinth but with doors you had to open. Behind some of the doors were brick walls. Then there was the game room. There was basketball, table tennis and foosball. I scored eleven shots in basketball and was pretty good at table tennis. I didn’t try foosball. Then there was the skating room. I figured out that I am pretty good at skating. I fell on my butt and my tailbone was hurting the next couple of days. Then the last massive room was a room that had a lot of inflated blocks. Me and Andrew built a castle. It was one of the funnest days of my life. Then we came back to get ready for a concert. We went to a Freddy mercury show. There was this woman who had the most powerful voice I had ever heard. I was very impressed. I was tired by the end. We got back and went to sleep.
On the 28th we went to a video game museum. Andrew found this one. We got to play lots of cool games. I played Mario carts. I also played mum in a fighting game. We both won twice. Then we went to a massive museum. Mostly paintings and sculptures. I will say it again “big museums aren’t really my thing.” It was big and impressive, but I much prefer small wax museums. There was one painting that stood out. It was a painting that I could see nothing in it but colour. It was red, blue and many other colours. It was beautiful. Then we saw a chapel that had paintings all over the roof and walls. The main painting was God and Adam about to touch fingers. We were not allowed to take photos, but mum was sneaky and took a few photos. Then we walked back home.
On the 29th we visited the Pantheon. The Pantheon has a big hole in the middle of the dome that on the 21st of April lots and lots of rose petals fall down. The height from the floor to the hole and the diameter of the dome is the same so that a perfect sphere could fit into the Pantheon. The dome was the biggest in the world for over 1300 years. The Pantheon is the world's largest dome that doesn’t need help. It makes sense since the pillars are six meters thick. Then we went to a place where there were three big statues and an underground stadium. We went into the underground stadium. Here are some of the facts I remember. The person who built the stadium was the son of the person who built the Colosseum (and they liked catching flies). The tickets to get into the stadium was free. The fact that really pissed me off was that woman were not allowed to come in because the man who were competing were naked. We had a kid audio guide which was a lot shorter than the adult audio guide. Then we tried to get into saint Peters church. BUT GUESS WHAT, THERE WAS A PARADE GOING ON AND IT WAS PACKED. People in tours kept pushing past us like there was nobody there. We ended up giving up because it was too big of a crowd. Then we had some delicious ice cream. Then we went to a cat colony. Cats have it good in Rome. Then we packed.
Emma (one month, almost, before turning 9)Meer informatie
Pescara, Italia by Kev and Mel
30 jul.–4 aug. 2025, Italië ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C
Hello everyone,
We are in Pescara, on the east coat of Italy on the Adriatic sea.
The town has been going on since pre Roman conquest, from small fishing village to port to trade with the orient. The town was conquered by a number of different kingdoms through the centuries. Heavily bombed during WW2, it was massively reconstructed and is now the biggest city of the region where it seems a lot of Italian come for their holiday.
We decided to have a very quiet stop. We have been incredibly busy those last couple of months, so a bit of rest was needed. This blog will, therefore be pretty boring!
We took a bus from Roma, which took 2 and half hour to arrive here. We have a stay 15 minutes walking from the bus station, which is great. Our stay is nice, but for some reason, when I booked it, I didn’t realised that it had no kitchen, which means spending money on eating out! But it has breakfast included, so that is a plus!
The day we arrived, we settled, finished our blog about Roma and did not much.
For dinner, we found a sandwich place which does sandwich on 18*18cm bread. Those are massive sandwiches. It will do for dinner!
The next day, the kids caught up on schoolwork as it has been pretty thin lately. So math, English and science were studied with more or less happiness!
Kev and I did some booking for South America, looked around for information on what to do.
We spent the afternoon at the beach. This is not my favourite thing but kids love it! They splashed in the water and built a sand castle while Kev and I rested and I read my book (as I said, nothing exciting!).
Friday was more schoolwork, some work for me and more booking and research.
In the afternoon, we visited Imago: this is a modern art museum. After all the renaissance painting we saw over the last few weeks, a bit of modern was nice! One part of the museum is dedicated to Mario Schifano, an Italian artist from the 20th century, who used mixed media that included enamel paint, wax crayons, gouache, collage, photographs, among others. I liked his work on pictures.
There is one room dedicated to one piece of art from Salvador Dali (a Spanish artist) and his wife Gala: “Couple with their heads full of clouds” I really liked this piece. It depicts the outlines of 2 heads with a landscape in it with open sky and almost empty desert scene. It looked like dreams to me. A very fascinating piece (no pictures allowed unfortunately).
The rest of the museum is divided between Scandinavian impressionist and Contemporary figurative artists. There was a really interesting video about the restoration of one of paintings of Mario Schifano: I like that the kids get exposed to a lot of different crafts and jobs that we wouldn’t necessary think of in our daily lives!
The next day was a repeat of 2 days before: Computer day in the morning and beach in the afternoon. Kev, Andrew and I got our haircut, lovingly done by Kev. Pretty easy as it is bold for him and Andrew and number 11 on the clippers for me. Emma want to keep her hair growing. Slight variation on the evening, we had dinner in a nicer place (no sandwich!) with massive pizza!
On our last full day in Pescara, we visited the CLAP museum dedicated to Italian comics: one part was about Andrea Pazienza, a comic artist and painter for the second part of the 20th century (he died in 1988 at the age of 33 years old). The second part is about the Rainbow Group, an Italian animation studio who created Winx club and Huntik. What I loved was the different storyboards and explanation of the different stages of creating an anime, and the drawing were beautiful.
After that, back to our room for some drawing for the kids (they got inspired), and some blogging for me (the kids won’t blog about Pescara, as they did a lot of schoolwork those last few days).
In the afternoon, we visited one more modern art gallery and had dinner, taking on the last walk in the friendly streets of Pescara.
Packing and movie night and bedtime.
On the 4th of August (7 months on the road) we are taking a couple of trains to our last stop in Italia, Venezia!!!
See you there.
Mel
30.7.2025. Covered most of the day in my Roma blog. In the afternoon, the kids and I walked around to a small supermarket and got some supplies. We had planned on cooking a lot of dinners again, but the apartment doesn't have a kitchenette. It does however have breakfast included. New plan, gorge ourselves at breakfast, then eat somewhere cheaper if we can for dinner. Possibly with a snack somewhere in the middle. We went for a walk along the beachfront in the evening. Not sure if we can get to the beach, there's restaurants and umbrellas everywhere. Eventually we found somewhere we could walk down to the beach, and had a walk along it. The kids ran around like lunatics. We headed along the beach, “towards” a sandwich place I found earlier on GMaps. We had to walk up past a butt load of umbrellas and through part of a restaurant, but we got back to the street. We had a nice walk through this part of Pescara, lots of places to shop, I mean Lots. I can only imagine the amount of money that passes through this place. There are thousands of umbrellas on the beach, and hundreds of expensive looking shops here. Not to mention some of the restaurants I looked into, we'd have to get a second mortgage to eat and shop here. Yet there's still homeless people here, begging. How can that be when there is so much money here? Oh yeah that's right, the rich only look after themselves, I keep forgetting. Anyway, sandwich time. We weren't sure how dinner was gonna go, who has sandwiches for dinner? They were huge! Pretty bloody tasty too. It says on the menu, 18cm X 18cm bread. The toppings were really nice, I got eggplant parmigiana. Was not disappointed. Andrew got something with bacon and egg on it, it disappeared into his mouth. Mel got a vegetarian one and was a little disappointed, and Emma only got through half of hers. Lucky I was there to help, Emma's may have been better than mine. We walked back, shower and teeth. Then bed.
31.7.2025. We had a blog day. Kids loved it. We instituted a new regime. 20mins of work, then 5mins of free time. It has since become 30mins of work, followed by 10mins of free time. It seems to be working as they seem slightly more productive, and a teensy but less grumpy. After the blog got done, we took them to the beach. The kids built a sand castle, which looked pretty good. Andrew became very protective of it after a little kid ran through a bit of it. I can tell when the boy is pissed off, and he was. After that, a guard patrol was implemented. They didn't even go into the water together until way later, as one always had to stand guard. They make me laugh. Before we realised it, we'd spent 4hrs there, and it was getting late. We found a little family restaurant and had dinner.
1.8.2025. Another day of schoolwork. We are using Pescara as a catch-up and relax stay. Planning some more of our trip and just unwinding a bit. We headed out again, this time we're headed to a museum. Yep, a museum. This one, however, is a more modern art museum, and was a nice change from all the biblical paintings and sculptures I have seen lately. After that we had planned on walking a bit on the beach again, but Emma was looking stuffed. So we headed back to the sandwich place again. This time only Mel and I finished our meals. The leftovers went into the fridge for tomorrow, then we played some boardgames before bed.
2.8.2025. Slow days. Get up and have breakfast. Kids did more schoolwork. They have been excused from blogging in Pescara since we're not doing much. Mel and I are still blogging though, sorta. Later, in the early afternoon, we went to the beach again. Mel and the kids went for a swim, I watched from the shore. 3 hours went by, and when I said to the kids it's time to go, all I got was, “no” and “not yet”. Apparently they were enjoying themselves, building sandcastles. I have to admit, the “finished” product was pretty impressive. I say finished, but it really wasn't. I'm not sure how long they would have kept building. We went back to the apartment and showered, everyone was covered in sand. After that we found a place for dinner. I'm nearly over eating pizza, will be by the time we leave Italy. Brush teeth, watched TV and went to bed.
3.8.2025. Did bugger all this morning again. Kids did some more assessments on study ladder. At 10:30 we wandered over to another museum, yep another one. This one was about comics, or more specifically, Italian comics. We learnt of The Winx Club and Huntik, or something like that. After the museum we walked back to our room. The kids, inspired by the museum, and a game we've all been playing, started to draw. While the kids created and we planned a bit more, it started pissing down. This lasted for a few hours, but thankfully it slowed before we headed out again. This time to another museum, that's right, two in one day. A modern/contemporary art museum this time. Better yet, it was free! We found a place for dinner. I got a chicken, vege and rice “poke” bowl. Lots of sriracha, I've missed the heat, India was good for that. We walked back, showered up, made sure our backpacks were done and watched some tv.
KevMeer informatie
Venezia, Italia by Mel
4–9 aug. 2025, Italië ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
Hello from Venezia,
We are in one of the most beautiful cities (to my taste!) in the world. I love Venezia.
We arrived here on the 4th of August, which was our 7 months anniversary of the beginning of our travel. I can’t quite believe it has been 7 months already! We have done a lot in those 7 months and I am loving it. Traveling is so fulfilling for me. The one thing I am struggling a bit is the planning: it is a lot of planning. Between planning where to go, booking accommodations, visits, train or bus tickets, making sure the kids keep up with their schoolwork and trying to still help for work… It is a lot sometimes. I wish I could travel a bit more slowly, with more day “off” which will give us more time to plan and work. But well, we only have one year, so we are trying to find the balance between seeing enough and doing what needs to be done!
I would still much rather be doing that forever!
Back to our day: we took a couple of trains from Pescara to Venezia. The first one was a very nice train, super comfortable. I don’t think I bought expensive tickets, but it was business class and we really enjoyed the comfort!
We got there, walked to our place: Luckily someone helped us when we got there, because I got sent the wrong code to open the door. Someone saw us struggling and called the owner (I assume) and we got the right code to get in. More and more places, do non-contact check in now, which sometime is a bit tricky as you need to find the key box or where to enter the code, or something along those lines and it can be a bit of treasure hunting feeling! Which when you have all your bags and did a full day in trains or buses, it is not always fun!
We settled in then went out to explore.
Venezia is a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; different portions of the city are linked by 438 bridges. The Republic of Venezia was one of the major European commercial and naval powers for over 1100 years. From 697 to 1797, the republic of Venezia was governed by the Doge (elected for life) and several different councils. Only men of the patrician (noble and rich) families were allowed to govern. The republic of Venezia was extremely power for a very long time. It ended when Napoleon troupes invaded Venezia in 1797.
We walked along the small streets of Venezia, climbing over bridges, looking at the hundreds of little shops selling a lot of beautiful objects (that would not fit in our bags!!). Being the touristic season, there are a lot of people, but we knew that, and it is manageable.
We got to St Mark square as we wanted to buy tickets for the main monuments to visit (and the website wasn’t clear). We ended up buying a pass for 10 museums (cue Emma’s groan!) We took the regular selfies in front of gondolas and the Doge palace and stuff.
Venezia is beautiful, truly. The small streets, the bridges, the churches, the gondolas, the atmosphere: everything makes the place magical.
Emma saw a Pandora shop and she saw a gondola charm, so she bought it with her own money, as we already bought her Italian charm. She is going to need a new bracelet soon!!
The kids also bought themselves some chocolate. It is hard to walk in Venezia without wanted to buy things. There are shops absolutely everywhere!!!
Normal evening things. Except Andrew lost his tooth! First tooth lost during this trip!
The tooth fairy was kind and gave 2 Euros (which is better than 2 Aussie Dollars).
The next day, we visited the Doge Palace, which is the place where the Doge use to live, where the republic was being governed and where you could get imprisoned as well. Busy place it was. It was built in 810, but needed reconstruction and modifications over the next centuries.
The rooms inside are incredible. Painting on every wall and ceiling: huge paintings! There is a weapon collection pretty massive. I don’t like weapon, they kill people, but if you like them, they have a lot in that palace!
One of the most impressive rooms is the Chamber of the Great Council, which was used when the Great Council was needed (obviously!): this Council was made up of all the male members of patrician Venetian families over 25 years old, which were between 1200 and 2000 people. This is the biggest room in Europe. The walls are decorated by paintings of the Venetian history, the ceiling has paintings of an allegory of the republic and also example of Venetian heroism. The dimensions of the room are extraordinary: 53 meters long and 25 meters wide. It also have the longest canvas painting in the world (22*9meters): Il Paradiso of Tintoretto, painted in 1588-1592. This is a magnificent painting: it is incredible to look at from far and close.
We walked on the bridge of sigh: which is the bridge where people were taking into prison and they would have their last view of Venezia from there. We visited the prison, as it is always interesting to see the conditions of life of the prisoners.
After the Doge Palace, we grab a bit to eat. I have to mention how expensive the food is here. I read that some inhabitants of Venice are angry at tourists for not spending enough money in Venice, but everything is so expensive! To eat a normal meal of 4 mains and 4 drinks (as we are 4 people), it costs around 60 euros (108 AUD, yes the change is killing us) at a cheap place. And it is often not enough and we leave the restaurant hungry! We can’t do that everyday and I’m sure we are not the only one! I couldn’t find a room with a kitchen in Venice, so we eat sandwich and pizza to take away a fair bit, which is slightly cheaper! And if you sit at a restaurant, there is the coperto, which is an amount per person eating, usually between 2 and 2.50 euros per person. We are 4: this adds between 14 and 18 aussie dollars to the bill!!! This is crazy!
Anyhow, back to our visits: we went to the Correr Museum, which is also on the piazza san Marco. This museum has more artifacts like boat lanterns, coins, earth and celestial globes (like very big ones). It was a nice change. The rooms are gorgeous as well of course!
There is a beautiful ballroom where Kev and Emma waltz for a few minutes. It was a lovely moment.
After that, we just walked in the street of Venice, taking minuscule streets and getting lost. It was lovely stumbling upon small piazza, bridges, streets and looking at the buildings with their feet in the water! It is also very nice to not see or hear cars! Venezia is truly amazing (I might have said that already!)
On Wednesday the 6th, we visited more famous monuments of Venezia. We started with the amazing Basilica Di San Marco. We know that Venezia is sinking, but you can really see it in the basilica: the floor is pretty uneven.
The first church was built in 836, but subsequent addition and reconstructions will happen during the following centuries. The church is where the relic of St Mark, the Saint patron of Venezia, are kept. Over the centuries, the decoration inside evolved and golden mosaic were added to the ceilings, demonstrating eight hundred years of artistic styles. Also, as a result of Venice’s participation in the crusades, many of the columns, reliefs, and sculptures now in the basilica were stolen from the churches, palaces, and public monuments of Constantinople.
We have seen a lot of churches in Italy and they are always beautiful. Saint Mark Basilica is not an exception!
After that, we did something that all tourists do in Venezia: we took a Gondola ride! The kids were extremely excited about that! We took a tour of the canals, enjoying the slow pace of a gondola ride. It was a great experience.
The next thing we did, was another really interesting place. We visited the famous clock tower on Piazza San Marco. This is, according to the guide (you must have a guide to visit it), the second most famous clock tower after Big Ben. It was built at the end of the 15th century to show Venice’s power and wealth. At the top, are two bronze statues: one old which strike the bell 2 minutes before the hour, to show the time that past: and a young one, which strike the hour, to show the new time. Under that is the lion of Saint Mark, symbol of Venezia. There used to be a statue of one of the Doge, but it was removed when Napoleon took over the city. Then come the digital clock, which was added in 1866. 2 panels show the time: one panel is roman numeral for the hour and one panel is in Arabic numeral showing the minutes at 5 minutes interval. It is in Arabic numeral as there is no zero in roman numeral and a zero is needed for the minutes. In the middle is a statue of the virgin Mary. There use to have a procession of 4 statues going around the virgin Mary every hours, but it was removed. It is now only done on the epiphany (6th of January) and 40 days after Easter. Under that is the clock with golden hand which show the time on a 24 hour-time clock (Italian time: they switch to 12 hours clock when the French invaded), the zodiac sign and the position of the moon. Under is the arch to enter the piazza. We visited the inside and could see the mechanism which run all that. Until not that long ago (mid 20th century I think), a time-keeper and his family were living in the tower to take care of it. Now there is an engineer who came every week.
We then walked around Venezia again, walked on the Rialto bridge, bought some more magnets… I need to stop buy them!!!
In the evening, we got some take away pizza, which are the most delicious cheap food around and picnic along a canal.
On Thursday the 7th of August, we visited 2 other islands of Venezia. We took the bus-boat to get there.
The first one, is the Burano Island, famous for its extremely colourful houses and its lace. We visited the lace museum. It is always amazing to see the different craft that exists in the world and how people try to keep them alive. Emma really seemed to enjoy it and want to do something along those lines when we come back in Australia. We will have to see! Walking in the island, is a pleasure for the eye with all the colours. If you go there, get there early before too many tourists arrive and you will be able to enjoy the streets, but saying that, it wasn’t too crazy anyway.
Then we went to Murano Island, which is famous for its glass. Murano is not as beautiful as Burano but it is still worth a visit. We obviously visited the glass museum, with incredible glass work. I was astonished with the miniatures: portrait a few millimetres tall made with glass! The sculptures made of glass, with glass details inside of them were also incredible. This is a must visit. I am again astonished with the craftsmanship that was on display. It is inspiring.
After those 2 islands, we came back and rest for a bit. For the evening, we got some sandwich for a supermarket as it is much cheaper!
For our final full day in Venice, we did a couple more museums and the kids were happy about them! One was a museum about textile and perfume. Venice has a long history of making perfume. It was originally in shape of soap or candle to burn to have some nice smell. Eventually someone figure out how to extract smells and perfume was born. In this museum, they had perfume which was used in Ancient Grece or during the Roman Empire. They found recipes on temples walls and reproduce the scents of old time. I loved it! It is easy to imagine what it looked like, but now I know what smells were used in temple in Ancient Greece: it was very sweet as they used honey. In the Roman Empire, it was more floral. I really enjoyed that. I always picture how it was in the old time, now I can add some smells to my imagination. They also explain what was used and how perfumes were made. There was also a part about textile and costume wear in Venice in the 14 and 15th centuries.
We finished our museum tour, with the natural history museum of Venice. It was really well done. The presentation was enticing and interesting. They also had a lot of items that you could touch, making it more fun for the kids. The only negative, is that there was no explanation in English, but I guess it is more a museum for local as I don’t think to many tourists go there!
We walked around to take on one last sight of Venezia.
We came back to our place to blog for a bit and in the evening, we had one last nice (expansive) dinner out.
Italy has been amazing. I love this country. The arts, the architecture, the beauty is everywhere. There is so much culture here and history. This is my kind of place! I was extremely amazed by the crafts we saw. I am glad that we managed to see some old art and new ones. We mixed fun stuff the kids found and some visits of more cultural things.
A few negatives are, the prices: when you book hotel, you need to add the tourist tax on top of the price. When you eat at a restaurant, you need to add the Coperto on top of it. There is always some extra fee somewhere! It is not a cheap place! I know Kev will talk about the food, which we were a bit disappointed in, so I won’t go in details for that.
I loved Florence, Roma and Venezia: those cities are amazing. But I know there is so many other cities that I would like to visit. Maybe we will come back to do more of the south of Italy.
MelMeer informatie
Venezia, Italia by Kev
4–9 aug. 2025, Italië ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
4.8.2025. Packed, breakfast and off. Hopped on a train to Venice. We arrived in Venice around 3, then walked to our new stay. Google had trouble, small streets, bad signal, but we found it. After a bit of fun with the front door, which involved a phone call made by a guy walking by to the owner/manager, we were in. I reckon he knew them and has dealt with this before. In we went. Past a biggish communal area, up to our room. One big room, two beds and our own shower/toilet. We settled in once again, then ventured out into the city. Emma bought another Pandora charm. Both kids bought a box of chocolates each, the same box, so Mel put names on each. We found some pizza to eat for dinner, then headed back. Tried the shower, works ok. Wifi is shit and barely works in our room. Today is the end of our 7th month of travelling. It's hard to believe that we have been away from home for that long. I’m still ok with this travel thing, haven't killed anyone yet. I do start to miss things. We called my sister yesterday, and she showed us our dog. It was really nice to talk to Bec, though it reminded me how much I miss coming home and being greeted by my big furry idiot. Travelling is not all sunshine and skittles and foreign beer. We've had our tough moments. I would not, however, change how this year has gone, and I do not for one moment wish I hadn't done this trip. If we can get through being this close for this long, the rest is easy. Goodnight.
5.8.2025. Today we have an early start, yep again. It's the best way to beat the crowds. We're visiting the Doge’s palace, a massive building in a massive open area with a massive bell tower next to a massive Basilica. That's a lot of massive’s I know, but it's all pretty big. The palace was the home of the Doge, the “duke” of Venice. It also housed government offices and prisons of the Venetian republic. The palace has the largest room in Europe, where 1200-2000 councillors would gather to decide the best course for the republic. Of course, all these people were men, and all from families with power and wealth. The room itself is absolutely huge, with no supports in the middle. Paintings all around and a couple of sculptures. As with everything here, art everywhere you look. Be it paintings or sculptures, or even the floor. We walked through the old prison cells, across the “bridge of sighs”. So called, because prisoners would sigh as they walked across it. It's a bridge that is fully enclosed, there was no chance of escape. We finished our tour of the palace, then went looking for some lunch. We found some sandwiches and crumbed things, not bad. After the sustenance, we headed for the Correr Museum. Yep a museum, don't see many of those here. More sculptures, more paintings. Some plaster models that were made before the final piece was done in marble. One of them had what looked like nails all over it. We read this was so the artist could measure the plaster model, in order to get it right on the final piece. There were a few miniature ships, which the kids enjoyed looking at. A weird map of the world, made in the 16th century that didn't have Australia and really didn't look like the world as we know it. After the museum, we just walked. Took in the city. It's not to my liking, too many buildings, everything too close together. Mel loves it, and don't get me wrong, I think it is beautiful too. I just prefer more nature, less people. We have only been on the main island, there are 118 islands that make up Venice. The main island may actually be several. But the main part, where we have been, there are almost no trees. Grass grows only in tiny tufts, between stones on the ground. The canals are nice, you see fish here and there. It would be fun to have a boat instead of a car, for a while anyway. After walking for a fair while, we headed back. Rested, played games, then headed out again for some dinner. The dollar to euro exchange rate is murdering us in Europe, so we try to eat at places a little more affordable. So far pizza and lasagna have been good to us, pasta from these places has been less so. Mel tried a risotto tonight. While they said it was good, when it arrived I thought they must have dropped half of it somewhere, because it was a tiny portion. Kids had lasagna, as they always do if it's on the menu. I had pizza, can't miss with pizza. I gave Mel a couple slices, they had finished and we're drooling on the other side of the table. We went back after dinner and did the nighttime thing.
6.8.2025. Up early again. Today we're off to, duh, duh, duh… a Basilica! Yay! We'd had a look at the outside on previous days but didn't visit as this is the first Basilica we've had to pay to enter. Not only that, you have to pick the time you enter. We chose 9:30 in the morning. It was a nice well decorated Basilica, like most of the ones before. I think though, that this one had the largest pillars I had seen of any of them. It hasn't stopped it from sinking, as we had seen from the outside, one corner was at a bit of a wonky angle. On the inside it was even more noticeable, the floor had sunk in a lot of places. I took a picture of Andrew standing next to a pillar. If you look closely, you can't see his feet. Hopefully it will be one of the photos Mel picks for the blog, to illustrate my point. It is still a very beautiful Basilica, and as always, they would have spared no expense with the design and decoration of the place. While I have definitely seen enough Basilica’s, chapels, churches, temples or whatever. I still marvel at the craftsmanship. The ability of people to create something so huge, so ornate and so bloody fantastic. It's mindboggling. What to do now? Oh yeah we're in Venice, what do they have lots of in Venice? Gondola’s! That's right! Can't go to Venice and not ride in a gondola. So that's what we did. You know what? It was pretty nice. We chose a slightly longer trip, 45-50min around the canals. We got a good look around, passed lots of other people and gondola's. The guy told us a bit of info, I'm half deaf and struggling with accents so I missed most of it. We got off the gondola and wandered over to a bridge. Apparently a famous bridge, Ponte di Rialto. A 16th century, covered bridge that has shops in the middle of it. We didn't look at the shops, just tourist stuff. We walked back to the big square near the palace, we have another booking. This time to see the clock tower. It's a guided tour, and not very big. But it was very interesting. We went up the stairs, learning along the way where the family that lived in the tower, the family of the “timekeeper”, used to live. We saw the weights and pendulum. We got a brief description of the mechanism and how it worked. We saw the “digital clock tick over. It does this every 5mins. After that, we went right to the top and saw the big statues that ding the bell. We had to get back down before that happened, apparently not because of the sound, but because of the vibrations. The guide told us about the clock. It has the days, months, zodiac sign, moon phase and of course the time. The days being the smallest, are hard to see now. We headed back to the room, rested, then blogged. We went out again later for dinner. I found a little takeaway pizza place not far from the room. We got our pizzas, then sat on the side of the canal and ate them. I had spicy salami and gorgonzola, best pizza of the trip. We walked back slowly, taking in Venice at night for the first time. It is beautiful here.
7.8.2025. We bought bus tickets this morning. Water bus tickets, boat tickets if you like. Our destination? Burano island. Why? Because. Any more questions? More seriously, because there is a lace museum there, and apparently it's beautiful. We'll find out. About a 40min boat ride, we hopped off at Burano. It is beautiful, with lots of brightly coloured houses. Trees! Grass! It is not a big island, and did not take us long to explore most of it. The lace museum was far more interesting than I expected. Once again, the time and effort that goes into creating this art is staggering. The incredibly fine details they are able to put into these works is truly amazing. Emma, who, it has been mentioned before, is over museum's, seemed renewed. She was captivated for the whole visit. We exited, then looked for something to eat. I chose pasta, a carbonara. I was disappointed. I should have known better, and gotten pizza. I have made way better pasta on this trip myself. We even had to ask for the parmesan, this is Italy right? Kids had lasagna, and while it looked on the small side, they said it was good. I was the one who chose Italy as a destination. I chose it because I thought of how good the food must be. I can honestly say, I have been disappointed with most of it. Sure, if you can afford to spend €50-100 each it's probably great. I had thought pizza and pasta was their staple and that even the small, cheaper places would offer better than what I could get in Australia. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I have had better pasta at the Centenary Hotel, and that makes me sad. I hold out hope that, if you get away from the big touristic places and out to the small village areas, this is not the case. That it's only because of the tourists that the pasta is subpar (my opinion), and that Italians would not stand for this. If we ever come back, I would rather spend my time visiting the small places, away from the top tourist spots. We walked around Burano a bit more, before getting back onto the “bus” and heading to Murano. Another island, this one famous for its glass blowing. Another museum, a glass museum. Once again, my mind was blown. We saw things done with glass I would not have believed possible. Tiny faces and designs done in cane. Mesmerising artwork. Stuff that looked almost real. It was another amazing museum, and another that captured the kids' attention fully. We walked around Murano a little afterwards. All the stores selling astonishing glass work. We looked at so much in the windows. We hopped back on the boat and headed back. Trying to save some money, we bought dinner at a supermarket tonight. Dinner, desert, beer and wine. A little tv, then bed.
8.8.2025. Today we hit a couple more museums. Starting with a museum about costumes and perfumes. Another interesting one for the kids. They loved smelling everything. It wasn't just perfumes, it was also essential oils that were used in temples in ancient Egypt. We all imagined what it would have been like, walking into a temple and smelling what the people smelled all those years ago. The costumes I found less interesting. Then we were off to yet another museum. This one the natural history museum. Lots of fossils and artefacts. One room full of man's conquests! In other words a lot of animals, some people shot, then stuffed. At the end we listened to whale and dolphin songs. By now it was after 2pm and we're getting hungry. Another trip to the supermarket! Sandwiches, chicken legs and some crumbed stuff. Pretty yummy. Now blogging in the room and drinking lots of coffee. I am writing this before I do it. Tonight we will eat at one last restaurant in Italy. I won't be having pasta, maybe I will try the lasagna. Then maybe one more walk around Venice at night and bed. On the bus tomorrow and off to the UK.
What are my thoughts on Italy? A beautiful country, not just the cities, but the countryside as well. I saw lots of the landscape while on the train. I have seen so much art and culture. I have seen rubbish and homelessness. Mostly in Genova, it was a mixed introduction to Italy. It's also the place I got the best pasta from, apart from the pasta I cooked in the apartments we had. I came to Italy knowing I would see more than I could possibly remember. I am glad for photos and our blogs to help with that. What I was not expecting was to be this disappointed with some of the food I ate. All from restaurants. When we shopped and cooked in the little kitchenette in some of the apartments we booked, the food was delicious. Ripe tomatoes, smelly, crumbly and tasty cheeses. The pasta! Even the cheap store bought pasta cooked up absolutely beautifully. I discovered basil pesto. Mixed through pasta it is fantastic. I have discovered a new love of coffee, and will be buying a decent coffee machine when we get home. I have found the people very friendly, warm and helpful. Rome was beautiful, as was Venice. Florence was my favourite visit here. I will miss Italy. It's hard to believe our time here is done.
KevMeer informatie
Venezia, Italia by the kids
4–9 aug. 2025, Italië ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
On the 4th we took a train Venice. It was a long one, when we got there we went to our room, it was ish, after that we went out to take our 7th month anniversary picture (yay). We had a look around at Venice a bit. Then we went back to the hotel and slept.
On the 5th we went to the Doge’s palace, but before I cover that I’m going to tell you some fun facts about Venice. The first casino opened in Venice, it opened in 1638, and it was called Ca’Vendramin Calergi. There is a law in Venice that all gondolas have to be black, there is around 400 gondolas in Venice. You are not allowed to ride a bike or skate board or anything like that in Venice, boats and walking are the only way to move around. Lots of movies were filmed in Venice, here is a little list, 1. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, 2. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, 3. James Bond – Moonraker, 4. James Bond – Casino Royal, 5. Spider Man: Far from Home. When we went in we looked around there was so much in the Doge palace, there are lots of paintings, there were lots of councils and some courts to. there was one big main room that they had the main council, the room is the biggest room in Europe, it looked really cool. After that we went to a weaponry, it had lots of weapons, then we went on the bridge of sighs. It is called that way because that’s where prisoners walked when they went to the prison, it is closed all around so prisoners can’t jump out. We looked around the prison, it had lots of security. Then we looked at the Doges place again and then went to another museum. This museum had lots of statues, they had some different types of painting too, and it looked cool. After that we looked around at Venice again, I could live here, it is a really nice city. After that we went home and to slept.
On the 6th we went to the basilica, when we got there we went in the line waited a bit and then went in. When we got in it was really cool there were lots of gold painted stuff, it looked awesome, the roof had lots of gold and paintings, there were lots of people painted on the roof. It was really cool, the thing I liked the most was the giant chandelier in the middle of the basilica, there were like 100 candles on it. After that we went on a gondola ride. I was really excited about it, at the front of the gondolas are a symbol that has a curve at the top and six sticks that are poking out the front. When we found a gondola station we had a look at the price and guess how much it was, …… any one… (random viewer) “50 dollars”, (me) “no, oh yeah, the price is in euros, but its still not 50 euros”, (another random viewer) “75”, (me) “no”, (random viewer) 80, no, 90, no 100, 110, 120, 94385540, no. The actual price was 150 euros, which is like 267 dollars for like 40 minutes, expensive. When we got on it was really cool, it is expensive but it’s awesome, we saw a lot of Venice. The driver had been doing it for 30 years and really knew what he was doing. When we got off we went to a museum, we weren’t going to do the museum it was just the meeting point for a tour. In the tour we were going to go see the clock tower, it is pretty big and had a really big clock. When we went in the clock the tower leader explained that a while ago they used to have a time keeper that would live in the house with the family. They also had a guard and guess where they slept, right in the room just below the bell, the kids’ room was next to the mechanism the ran the clock, and it also made a loud noise every five minutes. We got to see a close up of the bell and it was big, then we went down and got out quick enough to see them ring. After the clock tower we went to look around Venice (yet again) and then we went home and slept.
On the 7th we took a bus/boat to Burano, Burano is famous for having really colourful houses and making lace. When we got there I instantly saw all the coloured houses, every single house was coloured in a different colour. We then went to look at a lace museum, it was cool there were some really small delicate pieces. After that we took the bus/boat to Murano, Murano is famous, wait no, change famous to world famous for glass, we went to another museum, but this one was about glass (and all the glass was from Murano). It had so many beautiful works, giant chandeliers, tiny pictures, amazing sculptures, it was amazing. and then it came to me, the glass that is protecting the glass, is it made in Murano too (hmm???). After that we went back to the hotel and slept.
On the 8th we went to another museum (HOW MANY CAN I TAKE!!!!) this was a perfume museum. When we got there we went in and we saw that they had found perfumes from Egypt, Greece and Rome. we got to smell lots of perfumes, one of them smelt like Madeleine, oh wait you won’t know what they are, they’re a French snack (it’s delicious). After that museum we went to… guess what… you got it correct, it’s another museum. It’s a natural history museum, when we got in we saw a fake model of a whale, it was cool. There was also lots of dinosaur bones and some were on display to touch, some were little and some were heavy. we saw lots of stuff about bones and humans from really long ago, and some animal skulls. After that we went back home and did some blog then we watched a movie. And then went to sleep.
Mum asked me to write a summary of Italy, and I will, Italy has been nice, the food was yum, the monuments were beautiful, the only thing bad is that it is really expensive, this is my advice if you are spending a while in Italy, “save for a while”. I will miss being able to see a monument every where I go, Italy has sent amazing stuff at us, some stuff I will never forget, bye bye Italy.
Andrew (10 years old)
Bonjour. On this adventure, we are going to Venice. Were we are going through a world of museums. Enjoy.
On the 4th we took a train to Venice. It was officially our seven months on the road. It is going so quickly. I am going to be happy when we get back and see our family and friends. I have enjoyed traveling so far. A little bit tired of museums but doing fine. On that day it was one month till my birthday. So, I will be nine on our eighth month.
There are four hundred and seventeen bridges in Venice and seventy-two are private. In 1608, the council of ten approved wearing masks only in carnivals. The people who broke the law were badly punished. Venice is sinking at the rate of 1-2 millimetres a year. Then we walked in town. Then I bought a pandora charm. Bought some chocolate and had pizza for dinner.
On the 5th we visited the Doge’s palace. It was massive. It had lots of detail on the outside and the inside. It had so many paintings but lots of statues as well. So much on the floor. It was amazing. So many different patterns. We saw so many different types of paintings. Then we had lunch. Then we went to the Correr museum. There were lots of statues at the beginning. Then there were boats. My favourite thing was a big boat that had big sails. Then we walked around. You see lots of rivers when you walk around Venice. So many bridges. I like Venice a lot, just realllllly expensive. Then we went back to our room to rest. Then we had dinner out.
On the 6th we visited the basilica. When we entered it, THERE WAS SO MUCH GOLD. The floor was on a big tilt and dad took a photo of Andrew standing in a dich where you could not see his feet. Then we went on a gondola. A gondola is a boat that is human powered. It has one person standing at the back who is paddling, and all the passengers sit at the front. They are all black. They have little seahorse statues on the side. They are long and weigh a lot. Then we visited the clock tower. There used to be a family living in there, but they don’t anymore. There are two statues at the top of the tower that are called moors. On mum’s birthday (which is on the 6th of January) three fake people would come out of the tower. They were being led by an angel. Then we walked around a bit afterwards. We had pizza for dinner.
On the 7th we took a bus\boat to Burano. Burano is famous for having so much colour. Every house has different colours. Then we went to a museum. It was a lace museum. I loved it. lace is like string. People make collars, cuffs, fake butterflies and pictures out of it. I was very interested in it that I decided I want aunty Bec to teach me how to sew. I just liked the artwork. I don’t know why but I do. It is so beautiful. Then we went to Murano. Murano is famous for its glass. So, we went to a glass museum. There were vases and stuff but the thing that impressed me the most was a huge garden made out of pure glass. There was coloured glass. Whitish glass. SO MUCH GLASS. I liked the glass museum, but it did not stand a chance against the lace museum. I love seeing what people can do with lace and things like that.
On the 8th we went to a perfume, costume and textile museum. It was cool but not my favourite. I liked the lace museum more. There were perfumes you could smell. There was one that smelt like madeleines. There was one that was vanilla, and it smelt good. They showed us some of the stuff they used to make perfume. Then we went to a national history museum. There were fossilized bones of dinosaurs and stuff like that. there was information about different animals that are now extinct. I got a little bored by the end. Then we went home and blogged.
Ok. Mum wants me to tell you what I liked about Italy. Here goes. I LIKED THE FOOD. I liked the museums and thingy thingy, but I loved the food. We saw too many museums for my liking. One of my favourite things was seeing the lace museum. Bye-bye.
Emma (1 month of being 9 years old)Meer informatie
London, UK by Mel
9–15 aug. 2025, Engeland ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
Hello from London!
New day, new country. Well, actually it took us 1 days and a half to get here, from Venice…
Slightly longer than expected. I try to avoid taking plane when doable, as it is bad for the planet. So from Venice, we booked a bus to Paris, which was supposed to stop at Milan then Paris. Then we had the Eurostar booked to get to London. We bought tickets a fair bit ahead so the price was reasonable.
Well it didn’t really went that way. The bus from Venice to Milan broke down an hour before Milan. We got dropped at a station, saying that we will get a message. Okay….
We did get a message 15 minutes later, saying that we had a bus coming for us, but it was going to Munich in Germany, then Paris!!!! Originally, we were supposed to arrive in Paris at 6am and take our Eurostar a bit after 9am. Well, the new itinerary made us arrive in Paris around 1pm! I went on the Eurostar website to change the tickets as it said, you can change them until 1 hour before departure with no fee… just pay if there is a price difference. Well there was a price difference of 500ish euros for the 4 of us, which was just under 1000 aussie dollars! We didn’t had a choice as we knew we wouldn’t make the Eurostar we booked. So we hopped in our new bus, and I jumped unto our travel insurance website to see if we could get something out of it. I spent 1 hour on the wifi of the bus, uploading documents and things to their website. We ended up getting half of the money back. It is better than nothing.
We arrived at Munich in the middle of the night, waited for a couple of hours for our next bus and jumped on it. As we were added last minutes, none of us are sitting next to each other. Luckily, I was not too far from the kids. Halfway in the trip, the person next to Andrew left, so Emma could sit next to him.
We arrived in Paris, exhausted, but valiant! Underground it is to get to the Eurostar station. 3 hours to wait, as I booked one a fair bit after the time we were supposed to arrive, just in case something else happened! And we wait. Around 5pm, we lined up, and it is slow!! Check the tickets, pass French border control, pass Uk border control, pass security thingy… Gosh it is long! Then more wait as the 2 trains before us are late… We finally get into our train, only 15 minutes late and we are on our way to the UK. Arrived in London, bus to get to our place and we crashed!!!
We left our room in Venice at 10am on the 9th and arrived in our room in London on the 10th around 9pm.. Some walking, 3 intercity bus, Paris underground, 1 Eurostar, 1 city bus, a lot of waiting, all that for the same price of a 2 hour flight… Gosh I love that planet, but next time I might take the plane!! As usual, the kids did amazing: no winging, they adapted to every situation with ease and while creating games to keep themselves entertained. They are wonderful travellers.
Anyway we arrived in our room, tiny room with 4 bunk beds and that is it as there is no place for anything else! But it was cheap (for London), so there you are! We went to bed and got to sleep very quickly!
The next day, we had a lot booked. Fun activities for the kids, as we did a lot of cultural activities lately, so a change was needed.
First one of the day, London Sea view aquarium. Both kids absolutely love fish, so aquarium is always high on the list of the things they want to do. And this one is a good one. A lot of fish, well organised, different area representing different habitats. It was great. I really enjoyed the ants (I know they are not fish, but they had an area about rainforest): they had 2 ‘aquarium’ type thing a fair bit apart with small see through tube where the ants were moving around and cutting piece of leaves and carrying to the nest. It was fun to see them moving around. The penguin area is always fun of course because they are so cute!
After that we had a disappointing lunch: fish and chip in the tourist area: expansive and not good! But we are feed… ish. That will do.
Then we did the Shrek experience. I am not sure why there is one in London, but there is and it was great fun! You are going from room to room, in each there is an actor who play a part of the story, there is light, sound, water splash effect and it was fun! The kids loved when Kev got picked to be Cinderella’s prince charming, called ‘Princey’ and had to sit in Shreck toilet! The kids loved it! Andrew got picked to hold one of the element we needed for a potion to escape the witches… It was really interactive and fun. A great experience!
After that we did the London dungeon experience: it was a similar experience as the Shrek one, except the setting was in London during the plague and Jack the Ripper and Sweeney Tod… It was advertised for 8 years old plus. Well, the kids didn’t like it too much and spend most of the experience eyes closed, hands on ears and cuddled with us. It was not bad (for an adult) but not as good as the Sherk one.
Then we finished this busy day, but going onto the London eye. It is 135 meters high with a 120 meters diameter. When it opened in 2000, it was the tallest Ferris wheel. Now it is the second one after one in China. Funnily I wasn’t to worried with the height inside it. It feels very steady; don’t get me wrong, I still couldn’t looked down, but I wasn’t too freaked out either! The views are great from there.
We found a playground right next to the London Eye, so the kids had some fun and we got some rest! Then sandwich from a supermarket eaten in the park and got back to our tiny room.
On Tuesday the 12, we visited Madame Tussauds. I was expecting a regular vax museum, albeit a great one, but it is so much more that that! Obviously, you start with celebrities: most of them I wasn’t sure who they were (celebrities aren’t my thing!). We were happy to see Eddie Redmayne, who plays Newt Skalamander in fantastic beast as we are watching the movies at the moment! And we found out, he is born on the same day and same year as I! Then, were the musicians, sport people, the royal family and a few historical figures. You can go into the scary London, similar to the London Dungeon experience. We decided to skip that area, as Emma said: “Didn’t you traumatise us enough yesterday!” Then, there is a ride who take you inside London’s 19th and 20th century history. And you finish the tour with the Avengers area and Star Wars! It was awesome. A must do visit if you are in London.
After that a bit of fresh air was needed, so we went to the park next to Madam Tussauds. The kids saw they had pedal boats, so we had to do some. I refused to pedal, so the kids rose gladly to the challenge and pedal for 30 minutes around the lake.
By then, we were pretty hungry, so Kev found us a small place to have lunch. Kev and Andrew got their first full English breakfast of the trip and I think they liked it! Emma got a smaller version of it and loved it too. Lucky for me, vegetarian options in the UK are relatively easy to find. Then we got back to our place to rest a bit and do some schoolwork.
On the following day, we went to see the sights of London: Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the house of parlement, Trafalgar square, Piccadilly circus, Leicester square, Oxford circus. I love London, walking in the street of London is magic. I love the pubs, how they are decorated, often with flowers, the architecture, the name of the streets and shops. There are also art pieces in a lot of places. I really enjoyed Leicester squares with statues of famous film characters (Marry Poppins, Harry Potter, Charli Chaplin, Paddington bear and a few others). There was also a M&Ms shop and a lego shop. I had read that there were worth a visit, so we did. The M&Ms shop was insane: merchandise everywhere, walls with different colours M&Ms, full of people… consumerism at its best! We bought 100gr of M&Ms and that was it! It was eaten very quickly!
The lego shop was great. So many cool creations. The kids could have stay there forever!
On Oxford circus, we found the Pandora shop for Emma. She chose a guard charm for her English one (I preferred the bus with the UK flag on it, but she only wanted the guard. Oh well, it is her bracelet after all!)
We visited one more temple of consumerism: Hamleys. This is the oldest toy shop in the world (according to the Guinness book of Records). It started in 1760 with William Hamley, called “Noah’s Ark” in London. It moves to the current London location in 1851. This shop is over seven floors with more than 50 000 lines of toys and receive around five million visitors each year.
Toys everywhere!!!! The kids were amazed. I felt a bit bad because we can’t really buy anything as we don’t have much space in our bags, but they are awesome and were just happy looking at everything without buying. They got to play with some toys as there are little set ups through the shop.
Dinner at a pub (good food but disappointing compare to the price we paid).
We spend a bit of time in Covent garden listening to singers, as it is an area famous for street performers. It is a great place to spend the evening.
Then walk back to our place, taking on the sigh of London at night time.
Thursday was our last full day in London; we went to see Tower Bridge, Saint Paul cathedral (from the outside as it is pretty expansive to visit the inside and we did a fair bit of churches in Italy, so we are taking a break). Again we walked in the street of London, came across monument after monument. One impressive one, is the one made in remembrance of the big fire of 1666. It is a huge column with golden sculpture at the top and a beautiful carved rock at the bottom.
We went to see Buckingham palace. We missed the changing of the guard as we got there on the wrong day for it. Lack of planning on my part… It is hard to think of checking everything.
After that, we went to Harrods. It had left great memories from my previous visits (many years ago) but I didn’t find it that great this time around. Either it changed since I went, or I remember another place. The food court on the ground floor is pretty cool but the rest is just expansive stuffs. I thought it was prettier than that but maybe I remembered wrong!. The kids still like the toy section and Emma bought herself a small toy which spin a small rope in it and you can do some cool tricks with it. It is small and will fit in her bag! We went to Hyde park next to Harrods to test the new toy. The kids had some fun and then back to our place to pack, yet again!
A bit of tv on the computer then bed.
Friday the 15th of August, we got up early, got to a place to get our rented car and drove all the way to Stirling in Scotland.
See you there!
MelMeer informatie
London, UK by Kev
9–15 aug. 2025, Engeland
9.8.2025. Today we're hopping on a bus and heading for the UK, Via Paris. Well, that's what was planned. We left the apartment at 10, a 40min walk with our bags ahead of us. The kids are so much better with their bags. Yes Emma asked us to slow down at one point, and we stopped briefly for a drink break. We all trooped on, and we're happy to get there. Now we wait for 2 hrs. The bus arrived and we hopped on. Our first stop is Milan for a changeover, then onto Paris overnight. Once again, that was the plan. Plans however, have a way of changing. Ours didn't change, ours openly revolted against us. The driver stopped a few times along the way, for no apparent reason, then when we were about 1.5hrs from Milan, Mel got an email from the bus company saying our trip cannot continue. What? We pulled into a bus station, and got told, by another traveller who translated for us, that we had to get off and another bus would come pick us up. Well crap. Mel asked the driver when the other bus would be here, he didn't know. We only had an hour up our sleeves for a changeover, so we hope the other bus gets here soon. Another email. We're not going to Milan anymore, we're going to Munich. What? We were supposed to get to Paris at 6:30am, now we won't get there until after 1pm. We have the Eurostar booked for 9:30 to go to the UK. So we have to reschedule our tickets. Mel changed them to 18:10, it only cost us $1005 to do so, yep, that's right. Another $1000 to move our tickets back. That's nearly twice the price of the original tickets. This is not the way I wanted to first go to Germany. It'll be nighttime, so we won't see anything. Plus I won't be able to go to any proper beer halls. Alright, the bus is here, let's talk to the driver. This guy doesn't talk English, at all, great. We managed eventually. Though nobody is sitting next to each other. 7hrs later, plus a border/passport check going through Austria, another passport check getting into Germany, and we're at the bus station. It's midnight and we have to wait until 2:45 for our next bus. Once on the bus, I drift in and out of an uncomfortable sleep. We finally make it to Paris, late, after 2 I think, I was pretty fuzzy. We grab our gear and head to the metro. Now we're at the train station and waiting. The Eurostar is running late, ah FFS. Mel's done, ready to tap out. I'm seriously considering taking up drinking as an Olympic event. The kids were great, hardly anything from them. Good travellers those two. We went through security and passport control, to wait more. There's people everywhere, why? The 16:10 hasn't left yet. Hmm, it is only 17:30, that's not so bad, is it? It eventually left a little before 18:00, with the 17:10 leaving just a little after it. Ours wasn't so bad, being only 18mim late leaving. We went through the tunnel and came out in England. We got there with more time, we went back and hour from the timezone. My back knew it was late though. Onto a bus, and finally made it to our next stay. Tiny little room we barely all fit in, oh well it's only for 5 days and for London it was cheap. Shower, because we'd been travelling for over a day and starting to get a bit wiffy. Straight to bed.
11.8.2025. You may have noticed I didn't do a 10th. It disappeared in the travelling that took two days and I wasn't going to split that up. It's now Monday, and we have stuff planned. So let's get that done. We booked a multi pass ticket. First up, Sea Life aquarium. Kids loved it. There's something about watching fish swim around that is somewhat relaxing. After watching fish, turtles and penguins go round and round, it was lunch time. There's not much where we are and we don't have a long time so we hit a fast food joint. Fish n chips, chicken n chips, burgers, all of it shit. Not only that, bloody overpriced shit. £51 for our food, the kids didn't even eat all the chips, they were pretty dodge. If you're wondering, £51 is about $110Aud. Once again, the Centenary comes out in front. I didn't even get a beer. Next activity, Shrek's adventure, or something like that. It was pretty funny and the kids loved it. I got picked out as Cinderella's prince charming, which made the kids, Andrew especially, laugh their arse off. After that, now and then, Andrew would look at me with a stupid grin and say “princey”. I also got picked to sit in Shrek's toilet and look for something while they made lots of farting noises and worse. That made all the kids laugh. It was a great show, all the actors did a great job. It was a huge hit with the kids. Next was the London Dungeon. We figured it might be a little scary for the kids, but thought, eh they'll be right. Emma had her eyes closed for half of it I think. A woman had been pushing and bumping me, but after we were stopped at a doorway and she tried to go around us and started pushing past the kids, I told her how I felt. She went back giving a half arsed excuse of being half blind. You found your way around us, bugger off. Anyway, back to the tour. Yep, it was a bit scary for the kids. Also the actors may have overdone it trying to be as scary as they could be. Not all, some were very good. We skipped out on the last bit, which was a ride, a sudden drop to represent being “hung”. Mel and the kids went out a side door and I did it. It was kinda lame, imo. After the least favourite activity of the day, we lined up for the London eye. Kids enjoyed that, Mel not so much, as it goes very high. Though they are doing better with heights. There was a playground nearby, so the kids played for a while. Afterwards we went to a supermarket and got some food for dinner. Tuna salad for me, which was so much better than lunch. Also cheaper. Mel was getting really tired and it was getting late, we hopped on a bus and headed back. Into bed a bit earlier than we have been, trying to catch up on some sleep. Seeya tomorrow.
12.8.2025. Today we have another booking, Madame Tussauds. But before that, we hit Sainsbury's for some breakfast. I tried these pecan pastry things, eh. Oh well, onto Madame Tussauds. Now, if you don't know, Madam Tussauds is a wax museum. We've done a couple of wax museums on our trip so far. One in India which was, imo, complete rubbish, but they tried. Another was in Roma, a bit better than the Indian's effort but still pretty dodge. Madame Tussauds however, is a different affair. Music, lights, themes and above all else, believable wax mannequins. The first corridor is a stitch up. Here, Mel waited for some people to get their photo taken from a photographer. I had to say “that's not a real person”, it was very believable. We passed the wax paparazzi and continued on. I saw some mannequins of people I knew, mostly of people I don't. The Freddy Mercury mannequin was done really well. At the end there was a star wars section, here is where I got a few photos taken. We all had fun, kids recognised the guy from fantastic beasts. As usual after this sort of thing, when you finish you have to leave through the gift shop. That's where they get ya. Mel got some more postcards, surprisingly cheap. The kids got a slushy each. Afterwards we walked to a big park area and went on a paddle boat. I started getting hungry, and why not! It's almost 2 o'clock. I found a small cafe on GMaps that seems to have a decent menu and prices. We walked the 25mins it said to get there, and were greeted by a nice looking little cafe. With a couple tables outside, flowers and decorations. We went inside, and luckily there was a 4 seat table available. I got told to sit down, then come over to order when ready. Full English breakfast for £8.50, I'll have that. Andrew did too. Emma picked a smaller breakfast and Mel got a vegetarian sandwich. There were several vegetarian options, which was promising. We ordered two coffees and our food turned up pretty quick. Maybe not the best breakfast I have had, but pretty bloody decent. Sausage, tomato, beans, hash brown, mushrooms, bacon, black pudding, eggs and a plate of toast to share. Pretty sure there's a picture somewhere. Andrew couldn't finish all of his, so I had to step up. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make. Four people fed well and two coffees for £30.50, and the people running the place were really nice. Mel said, look who's eating here. Looks like all locals, older people. Yep we found a good one, I even gave them a review on GMaps. We hopped back on a bus and headed back to the room. We stopped at an ATM and did a disappearing trick on our bank account. Got a big bottle of cold water at a little Tesco's, partly to drink, but mostly so we had some change to put in Andrew's collection. Back in our room, time to relax.
13.8.2025. Today we're visiting the city. We started with having a good look at Big Ben. We walked past Westminster Abbey and the house of Parliament. We walked until we found a huge M&M shop. It had 3 floors and who knows how much chocolate. It was also totally packed. After that, we walked across the street into the biggest Lego shop I've ever been in. When we decided to leave we noticed it had been raining. It had almost stopped, so we walked out. The temperature had dropped, it was almost cold. There were lots of bronze statues in the little area outside these shops, we took a few pics. We had a look at all sorts of “squares” and “circuses”. We found a Pandora shop, Emma got another charm. Our next stop was Hamleys Toy store, the biggest Toy store, ever. The kids had a ball. They had all sorts of displays and remote controls set up for them to try. We joked that we could drop them off in the morning with a £20 and pick them up in the afternoon. Andrew said he'd be cool with that. Afterwards, it was time for a treat for the parents. We found a pub and ordered some drinks. Since it was getting late we grabbed some food too. I had a couple pints of London brewed lagers. Not the best I've had, but decent. We settled our bill and walked some more. This time we headed to Covent Square. There are lots of street performers here to watch. We saw a few that were pretty good. One guy sang some of our favourites. We stood there and listened to him until he’d finished. It was starting to get late, so we began to wander back towards our room. We walked along the Thames, with London at dark as the backdrop. It is true, the city can be beautiful. We made it back and went straight to bed.
14.8.2025. Today we're off to see the Tower Bridge and the London Bridge. We walked across the Tower Bridge, then had a walk around the Tower of London. We saw London Bridge, but didn't walk across it. It was interesting to find out that they had kept wild animals in a part of the Tower of London. They had usually been gifts from someone mightily important. We started walking towards Buckingham Palace, finding a huge monument, erected after the fires of 1666 that ripped through London for 4 days. We found a place to get some cheap sandwiches on the way to Buckingham palace. Once there we had a look and sat down near the fountain out the front and had our food. We then walked over to Harrods, another ginormous shopping centre. Here, Emma bought a toy for themselves. Some rope spinning thing that can also glow in the dark. We walked back towards Buckingham Palace, the kids played and we saw some of the guards getting inspected at the barracks. On our way back we stopped at Sainsbury's and grabbed stuff for dinner. We got back and ate, then packed. Onto our next stop tomorrow!
KevMeer informatie
London, UK by the kids
9–15 aug. 2025, Engeland ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
On the 9th we took a bus to Milan to take another bus and, well that’s what was supposed to happen, it did not. Half way through the first bus broke down and we were told by one of the passengers (because the driver didn’t speak English) that the company was going to send another bus. Luckily the other bus arrived in like ten minutes, this bus had some people in it but not that many people so we all could fit. The bad thing is that this bus is going to Germany and then to Paris oh yeah, the bus we were supposed to take from Milan was going to Paris. When we got to Germany we waited for the next bus and when it arrived we hopped on. We were still in the bus when night fell so we slept.
On the 10th we were still in the bloody bus, it was 2pm by the time we arrived in Paris we went straight to the train station so we could get a place to wait, we were going to take the Eurostar to London. when it arrived, we hopped in and went to our seats, me and Emma played with each other, I won. When we got to London we went on a bus to our hotel and slept.
On the 11th we went to an aquarium, it was a biggish aquarium, it had some fish and sea horses and other stuff but my favourite bit was seeing the Gentoo penguins (penguins are one of my favourite animals). The Gentoo penguins are the fastest type of penguins in the world, and they are the third tallest, they live in the Antarctic. We looked around and then we went to a Shrek adventure thing, the first thing we went on was in a magical bus that had donkey driving, the bus crashed, and we went in to a forest thing, we saw different people from story tales. My favourite bit was when the person who acted as Cinderella called dad princy. After that we went to something called the London dungeon, it had some stuff that were scary like blood and guts and plus it really stunk. After that we went on the London eye. It was really big and there was a really long line, when we got to the top it was a really good view, I looked around a lot. When we got back down we went to the hotel and slept.
On the 12th we went to madam Tussauds, it is a world-famous wax museum, it has some of the most famous wax models in the world. We saw famous actors made out of wax, there we singers, they even had all the James bond actors. They had E.T. they even had marvel characters, there was a ginormous hulk. After that there was lots of Star Wars characters. It was pretty fun, after that we went to a park the was pretty close, there was a big pond where we could rent a boat, we rented a boat and looked around, it was fun. After that we went to a restaurant and I had a full English breakfast, then we went home did school work and then slept.
On the 13th we went to see all the famous stuff in London. We first went to Big Ben (obviously), it was so big, and it had some really awesome decoration. What made it even better was that right next to it was the house of parlement, it was a huge amazing building, we walked around and looked at it and then we went to Westminster abbey. It is where the king and queen get married, it has lots of carvings on the front of it. After that we went to Trafalgar square, it had a big collum in the middle with a statue of someone on the top of it. Then we went to Leicester square it had metal sculptures of famous actors, there was also a huge Lego shop and a huge M&M shop, we first went to the M&M shop. There were big tubes full of M&Ms, we got a little bag of them, after that we went to the Lego shop. When we were in we saw huge Lego structures it was bloody awesome, we looked at everything, they even had the thousand sunny, (that’s luffy’s ship (Luffy is someone from one piece (one piece is a manga and I’m ashamed of you if you don’t know it). After that we went to get Emma a pandora and then we went to a pub, I got a nice tender medium raw steak, it was nice. After that we went to a place that had a couple of street performers. We looked around a bit then we went back to the hotel and slept.
On the 14th we went to see tower bridge it was really big, it had two ginormous towers on each side, and a big bridge up at the top. And pretty close there is the tower of London, we didn’t go in we just had a look from outside, we looked around a couple of other stuff and then we went to see Buckingham palace. It was really big, we came at the right time to see not the change of the guards but the inspection of the guards. We didn’t actually see it we saw another one just a little bit away, it was cool they are very strict. After that we went to a toy shop called Harrods: Emma bought a spinning thing and I played with the remote-control cars on display, it was fun. After that we went to a park played with the spinning thing and then went back to the hotel and slept.
Andrew (10 years old)
Hello. I can’t believe we are in our last country in Europe already. It is going so quickly. Currently we are in the United Kingdoms. We are in the capital. London. It all started on two annoying days.
On the 9th we took a bus to Milan. That one broke down so we got another bus. That took us to Germany then Paris.
On the 10th we took the Eurostar to London. And walked to our room. Which is tiny.
On the 11th we did the aquarium. We saw sharks, fish, starfish, urchins, seahorses and stingrays. It was so cool. We saw a stingray that was bigger than some of the sharks. Then we went to the Shrek adventure. There were actors dressed up as characters. First donkey was driving a bus, and we ran over some person’s favourite witch. There were characters helping us and eventually we got to the end and beat them. Then we went to the London dungeon. Mum and dad did not know it was going to be that scary, but they were wrong. I had my eyes shut for about three quarters of it. I knew I was going to have nightmares that night. I can’t tell you much because I did not see much. I know that there was lots of noise. I know that there were lots of lights because I could see some of it through my eyelids. I did not like it at all. Then we went on the London eye. For those who don’t know what the London eye is, it is a massive Ferris wheel. It is taller than big ben. It was a great way to see London.
On the 12th we went to madame Tussauds. It is a massive wax museum. It is named after a person. Their first name was Marie. There were so many wax figures. They looked very realistic. I liked it. I don’t have a favourite part. I liked it all the same. Then we went to a park. there was boating so of course we went boating. Me and Andrew had to peddle. We had lunch in the park. we took the bus back and had a movie night (first we had to do homework).
On the 13th we visited London. We saw Big Ben, Westminter abbey and house of parliament. We saw a bunch of other stuff that I don’t have the time to name. One thing is clear, we visited a lot of stuff that day. We saw guards on horseback. Then we went to a massive toy shop. SO MANY TTTOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!! Then we went to a pub. We saw some street performances. We saw music and acrobats. I really like London. I think I am a big city person.
On the 14th we went to Tower Bridge. After that we went to Buckingham palace. It is a big place that the king lives in. we watched the inspection of the guards. Then we went to another toy store. I bought a zip string. A zip string is a thing that spins so fast that the string you put in levitates. Then we played in the park.
Emma (9 years old in 25 days)Meer informatie
Stirling, Scotland, UK by Kev and Mel
15–18 aug. 2025, Schotland ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
Halo, Guid Tae See Ye!
Gretting from Stirling in Scotland! On Friday the 15th of August, we picked up a rented car from London and drove around 8 hours to get to Stirling in Scotland. We were entertained during the trip by the beautiful landscapes of England and Scotland. The UK is such a charming place.
Stirling is in central Scotland. It has been said: "Stirling, like a huge brooch clasps Highlands and Lowlands together". It is considered as the Gateway to the highland. There is trace of civilisation in the area dating for prehistoric times. Near Stirling is the lowest crossing point of the River Forth, which made it a military advantage to hold this city. I’ll talk a bit more about the history of the city later.
We arrived in Stirling, found our place and it is so much bigger than the tiny room in London (but also more expensive! You get what you pay for!) We have a kitchen, which make Kev happy!
We found a supermarket, did some shopping and came back for our nightly routine (we don’t really have a routine, but you know what I mean!).
On Saturday the 16th of August it was the Highland games in Stirling. It also was Kev and I’s wedding anniversary. What a way to celebrate to see our first Highland games: as good as any!
The first reference to Highland games was made in the 11th century, when King Malcom III, summoned man to race to find the fastest one to become his royal messenger. The modern games developed in the 19th century. In the Stirling games, we saw different events. The stone put, similar to shot put but with a heavy stone. The Scottish hammer throw where they throw a stick with a round metal ball at the end. The competitors wear shoes with stick at the end to dig their feet in the floor to be stay fix while throwing. The wight throw, which is a stone attached to a chain with a handle: the aim is to throw it as far as possible. The weight over bar, which instead of throwing it forward, they throw it above a bar, which get higher every time. The competitor who won throw it over 16 feet (4.88 meters). The caber toss, where they hold a long heavy trunk up, then run and throw the caber up in the hope that it will turn and land straight in front of the competitor. The aim is not to send it far but for it to land straight away from the thrower.
The Stirling game has one event that is nowhere else: the Striling stone, where the competitor, carry 2 stones connected by metal rods which goes around the carrier, of a combined weight of 164kg, the further they can. All those events had categories: junior, adaptive and man. Some games have women section, but not in Stirling.
There were also some racing, bike racing and light field events and a mock battle with explanation about the weapon and clothes.
We learnt that the quilt used to be just a giant plaid that people were wrapping around themselves. Eventually they started wrapping it around the waist and tucking it so they didn’t step on it. This is where the name come from, a Dannish word which mean to tuck up.
And obviously, there was some highland dancing. It was fun to see the different dances they were doing. The kids knew the basic one, but there are so much more!
It was a fun day watching the different events. The only thing is I didn’t always know where to look as different events were happening at the same time! But it was fun. We are going to another highland game at our next destination: it will be nice to see woman heavy lifting events.
After that we had a very nice dinner at a pub called Portcullis. Kev and Andrew ordered a dish with some Haggis and found it delicious. Emma tried a bit a liked it too. I found out that there is vegetarian haggis, that I will have to try! I love the pubs in the UK: the decoration is always great and warm and I just love the atmosphere.
On the way to the pub from where we stay, we had to go through an enchanting path through a hill, where we saw rabbits and where you can very easily picture fairies and elves hidden just behind the bushes. Scotland is beautiful and magical.
The following day, we visited the Stirling castle. Stirling castle was a royal palace and a place of defence. The different part of the castle we can still see now, were built at different times between the 15 to the 17th century. But there was a castle here from several centuries before. A lot of history happened there: because of its important position, built on a crag (a rocky isolated hill) above the lower crossing of the river Forth, it was fought over and changed hands pretty often. Kings and queens were born, baptised, crowned here through the centuries.
The castle has a building where the royal lodgings were, one royal chapel, one great hall and the King’s old building. You can also see the kitchen with mannequin and food there to show how food was prepared. The protective wall, you can walk on and see the magnificent view of the surrounding Scotland. There is also a lot of flower everywhere which makes it even nicer to look around.
It was a lot bigger than we thought it would be! A lot to see and learn there. The visit was enhanced by the people in costume, playing music or giving more information and stories about the castle. I heard a few times now and I agree for the moment, that Stirling castle is the best castle in Scotland!
After that we walked back through the enchanted hill and back to our place for a bit of blogging and packing as we are moving to the highland tomorrow.
See you there,
Mel
15.8.2025. Our day started early. Grabbed all the bags and off to the bus stop. Hopped onto a bus with all our gear and off to pick up our hire car. We have a Ford Kuga, which thankfully has enough room in the back for all our bags. Which means the kids get some leg room! Yay! First stop? A fuel station, because they gave us the car with about 1/8th of a tank. Just give it back like for like. Cheers, thanks for that. Alright, we're out of London and on the road, cruising. After Mel turned off some of the “safety” things for me, it was easier going. Who likes lane assist? You do? Ya bloody weirdo. Anyway, around 8 hours and a pee/food stop, we got to Stirling, Scotland. We got to our latest apartment, and largest. All the bags got chucked into various rooms, then we grabbed our shopping bags and headed to Sainsbury's. Which was a 5min walk. Back to our stay and made dinner. Bed time
16.8.2025. Today we're off to our first Highland Games! Woo hoo! We arrived when it first opened, and had a look around. First up, two blokes playing bagpipes. I love hearing well played bagpipes, and these guys were pretty good. We walked around and found where most of the events were going to take place. We watched some people fighting in traditional armour, sweating their arses off. It was a warm day here. We had a good chat with one of them. He was happy to explain the various pieces of armour he was wearing and the weapons they all used. The kids got to hold a few weapons and I got a pic of Andrew wearing a helmet. We moved back to the main area and watched the junior heavyweights. Throwing the hammer and finally the caber toss. Soon after that came the open heavyweights. These are some big dudes. Chucking a 22lb weight as far or as high as you can. What we were all there really for tho, was the caber toss. There's nothing else like it in the world, as far as I know. There were other events, including a stone carry. You lift 164kg of stone and walk as far as you can, then they measure it. Everyone cheered them on, but maybe not as much as for the lady who carried it back to the starting point after every competitor. She had the technique and obviously the strength. Often making it look easier than the competitors. We got a good mix of throwing things, lifting things and running events. There was another event that boggled the mind. Riding a road bike around the grass area, flat out. I was knackered just watching them. We had a great day. We saw some dancing and field events. We saw a mediaeval reenactment, sort of, it was packed. The kids wiggled their way to the front. We had overpriced burgers. Mel and I also tried a new beer, Belhaven Black. It poured and looked a lot like Guinness, but tasted a little different. Very bloody good, would 100% recommend. Everything was wrapping up, except the Highland dancing. So we watched a bit more of that, before heading back to the apartment. It had been a pretty warm day, so we rested a bit. Coffee's were made, snacks were had. Later that evening, I led us towards a restaurant called the Portcullis. Named because it was the Portcullis to the Castle. On the walk, we had to pass through a park, over a hill. No one really seemed that impressed with the idea of hiking 10-15min to get to dinner. Especially after being out all day. But after only walking for a minute or so, we came across rabbits, lots of them. Now everybody had forgotten their tired little legs and their hungry bellies. Now they just wanted to see more bunnies. We saw quite a few more, and arrived at the restaurant. We went inside a lovely looking Scottish pub, with nice decorations and a decent size outdoors area. First up, drinks! Kids got something, can't remember, toilet water or something similar. I, however, ordered a Whiskey Sour. My now favourite cocktail. This one did not disappoint, the best I have had so far. Now for food. Chicken with haggis and potatoes. Have never tried haggis, so why not. I love offal and grains, what could go wrong? Nothing went wrong, at all. I knew I would like haggis and I was right, no big surprise. The meals were delicious. Andrew had a beef and haggis burger, which disappeared into the abyss. Emma had lasagna, very original. I was once again told that, while my lasagna was good, it was not as good as this one. Cheers Em. I can't remember what Mel had, I'm sure it's in their blog tho. When I was paying, I had a chat with the server. I mentioned that was my first try of haggis and that Mel was a vegetarian. She then informed me that, there is in fact, vegetarian haggis. Right, put that on the shopping list. We had another nice walk through a bit of the park on the way back, it was later so not so many rabbits. Brush teeth and bed. Oh yeah I forgot to mention it was our anniversary so that's why we hit the pub!
17.8.2025. Today we walked back through that park on the hill again. We took our time and really explored. Found out that because it was close to the Castle, and kinda overgrown back in the day, that one part of it was used for executions. Lovely, let's take a stroll over there then shall we. Why the park again? Well because this time we're going to the Castle, Castle Stirling to be exact. The home of Scottish Kings and Queens. I enjoyed walking around the exterior wall and looking out over the countryside. The place is full of plants and flowers, with its own beehives as well. While I enjoy walking through and admiring the architecture of places, this castle is another great example of that. I am still drawn to nature, and often find myself taking pictures of bright flowers I have never seen before. After saying all that, the Castle is still very impressive. Lots of sculptures on the outside, one of them is King James V himself. After we'd had our fill of castle, we wandered back through the hill Park again, trying to spot more rabbits. Once back, we blogged and packed. We're off to the Highlands tomorrow.
KevMeer informatie
Stirling, Scotland, UK by the kids
15–18 aug. 2025, Schotland
On the 15th we went to a place where we rented a car to drive to Stirling, the drive was long but the country side was beautiful when we got to Stirling we went to our hotel, it was nice then we went out to get some food then came back and went to sleep.
On the 16th we went out and we went to sports field, there was a bunch of other people there, why, because it was the highland games. There was highland dancing, racing, bike racing and my favourite, heavy weights, the heavy weights included caber toss, hammer throw, weight over the bar, weight for distance, shot put and the Stirling stones. My favourite was the caber toss, they chucked it really hard that it flipped over, it was cool. There was a lot of racing, and they had bike racing, ON GRASS, we looked a bit at the racing and then we went to the highland dancing it was really good. After that we went to a nice restaurant because it was mum and dad’s anniversary, it was a bit expensive, but it was really filling, I got a burger with haggis, it was delicious, after that we went back to the hotel and slept.
On the 17th we went to a castle but to get there we had to go over a hill to get there, the hill had lots of plants and greenery, it was beautiful, we kept walking and in a little clearing guess what there was, there was rabbits. We looked at them for a bit and then kept going. When we got to the castle it was really big and looked awesome, we wanted to look at everything we could. There were lots of interesting pillars and statues they had a life-sized statue of the king, but before I tell you about that I’ll tell you some facts about the castle. It was built from between 1490-1600, it was constructed by James V, there was lots of statues on the walls they had a statue Venus and Jupiter. After looking on the outside we went into it, there were different styles of buildings because they were built at different times. They had a couple of exhibitions about stuff it was cool after that we went back to the hotel and slept.
Andrew (10 years old)
On the 15th we took a bus to a place where we picked up our car. Then we drove to sterling. When we got there, we did shopping.
On the 16th we went to the highland games. It was mum and dad’s anniversary. We saw dancing, sword fighting, weightlifting and running. There was one activity where there were two big rocks on a metal pole, and you had to pick it up. I really liked it. then we stuffed ourselves at dinner. I had a big lasagna.
On the 17th we visited the Stirling castle. But first we saw bunnies. I liked seeing bunnies hopping around. I also loved walking on the hills. The Stirling castle is big and made of stone. Stirling castle is one of the largest and most important castles in Scotland. It had rooms were the king and queen would sleep. They also had the great hall where they had meetings. There was also a room filled with fake heads of people. Then we walked back through the hill and to our place. We had dinner and went to sleep. Dad prepared a lot of food we ate until we were full.
On the 18th we packed and drove to Nairn which is near Inverness. I loved the countryside.
Emma (9 years old in just over 2 weeks)Meer informatie
The highlands, Scotland by Mel
18–24 aug. 2025, Schotland ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
Hello from the highland in Scotland!
Let me start by saying how beautiful this place is!!! I might repeat it a few times during this blog. I think we all fall in love with Scotland!
Anyway, we drove from Stirling to Nairn, which is a wee bit north of Inverness. It took us around 2 and a half hours to get there. We are in a really nice little house with a greenhouse/ rest area at the back, with grapes and plums growing there! We love it!
We arrived on Monday the 18th of August. When we arrived, we did a bit of shopping as usual and found some vegetarian haggis! Yeah! The important part of the Haggis is the grains and herbs to get that great taste, so the meat is not mandatory.
We settled and did some blogging and schoolwork. For dinner we tried the vegetarian haggis and the regular one (well the other 3 did). They still think the meat one is better, but I really enjoyed my vegetarian one!
The next day, we visited Fort George which is just a short drive from Nairn. This fort was built after the battle of Culloden to make sure a Jacobite revolt would not happen again. They wanted to have a fort to keep a hand on the region. The construction started in 1748, 2 years after Culloden. History will tell us that the battle of Culloden was the end of the Jacobite revolt, and this fort would never be used as a defence fort. They will use it to train highlander as British soldier and is still in use now.
The fort is on a point between the north sea and the Moray firth (Firth is the Scottish word for estuary). When you are on the rampart, you have a splendid view of the surrounding areas.
The fort is well kept as it is still in use today. There was some dress up for us to try, which we did of course.
There is also a museum about the highlander: the Scottish army corp. There is a lot to see there. The kids had a paper with some things to find. All the museum we have been in, have things for the kids to do. There are often pretty well done.
At the far end of the fort, if you are lucky, you can look above the rampart and see some dolphin in the firth, and we did! This was really cool.
We then had sandwich on the side of the water, where of course some ricochets were done and a throwing rock in the water activity happened!
In the afternoon we did some archery. We booked one hour and it went pretty fast! After an introduction on how to hold the bow, put the arrow in and how to lose the arrow, we were off to 3 different areas: one with dinosaurs, one with zombies and one with dragons to try to shoot them all! Kev did great and won all the challenges we did of course. The kids did great and hit the aim several times. I did hit some target.. Not a lot though! It was still fun. Allan, our instructor, was very patient, great with the kids and overall a great instructor. We had a great time there and could have stay there a lot longer!!! But everything has an end and we got back to our lovely place for a bit of blogging, food, tv and bed.
On the 20th, we spend the morning on the site of the battle of Culloden. I have to do a little history lesson here!
In 1714, Anne (from the house of Stuart), queen of England and Scotland, died with no children. The crown passed to George I (from the house of Hanover, related to the Sturat by his grandmother), a protestant king. But many Scottish people thought that the rightful owner of the crown were the Stuart family, who were catholic. Prince Charles Edward Stuart (also called, Bonnie Prince Charlie) tried to reclaim the throne for his father, who were called King James VIII by its supporter. James being Jacobus in Latin, its supporters were called the Jacobite.
The official king by them was George II and his son, who was at the head of the English army (the government army) was the Duke of Cumberland.
Prince Charles arrived in Scotland and started a rebellion in August 1745. French troops were supposed to support him, but for various reasons they never showed up! His army grew though and some battles were won, some lost.
On April 15, the government army celebrated the Duke of Cumberland’s birthday. The Jacobite thought that they could attack them during the night while they were sleeping their brandy off.
But by lack of communication and organisation, they did not arrive in time. Some part of the army got lost. They decided to retreat, and some arrived on the site of Culloden where they met the government army. By then, the Jacobite army was tired, hungry and some part of it never made it to the battle.
The battle was over in one hour and 1500-2000 Jacobite were killed or wounded.
The battle was very brief and the Jacobite were defeated. They were chased and killed during the days following the battle. This battle marked the end of the Jacobite revolt and the end of the Scottish clan system. Bagpipes, tartan, kilt, speaking Gaelic were forbidden after that and people were severely punished if they were caught breaking the rules.
The site in itself today, is a beautiful land with flowers and plants growing everywhere. There is now memorial cairns, grave marker and clan marker on the site to honour the clan and people who fought there.
We also did the museum, which is full of artifacts found on the site and historical explanation from both side (the Jacobite and the English). It is well worth a visit.
After that, we drove to Inverness, only a few kilometres away and visit the city. We found the biggest Scottish second-hand bookshop called Leakey’s bookshop. This is a massive shop with books everywhere. I could live there! Just get me a mattress somewhere and I’ll be fine!
The kids got a book each as they are missing reading ‘real’ book (as they only have Kindle books for the last 8 months!).
We walked in the city, along the river Ness, visited the St Andrew’s cathedral, found a small botanical garden and finished the day at a pub for some live music.
We already had some sandwich for dinner to avoid having to pay for an expensive dinner. We wanted to just have a couple of drinks, so we didn’t book a table. When we arrived at one of the famous pub of Inverness, we got told that kids can not be at the bar, so we need a table, which were all booked… We tried a second pub, and same issue. Our third try was the good one! They had a couple of free tables, just in front of the music. We sat at our table, order drinks and enjoy a duo, one singer/guitarist and one guitarist, singing Scottish and Irish songs for a few hours. The kids spend most of their evening reading the books we bought earlier that day.
It was a lovely day.
The next day, we visited the Urquart Castle, which is located on the shore of the Loch Ness. The drive there is beautiful. Hills and plains, warm colours of Scotland in Summer, just enchanting.
The Urquhart Castle was built, as often on a previous medieval castle site in the 13th century. During the next 500 years, the castle was passed back and forth between the hand of the English and Scottish. Even when the Scottish were holding it, some clans were fighting over it! During the 17th century, the last English people to hold it, blow it up when they evacuated to prevent the reoccupation by the Jacobite. After that, it was never rebuilt.
It is a lovely castle to visit with magnificent views and interesting facts.
We visited a cairn, which is burial or memorial site. In this case it was a burial site. For many years, people thought it was for a chief of a clan, but latter study show that the position the body was in, was more typical of woman burial. It would have been a very important woman, because of the size of the cairn, probably why people thought it was a man! But anyway, the site was interesting to see.
On the way back, we stopped to look at highland cows, which have long hair and massive horns. They are very typical of the region and it was fun seeing them close. They are pretty!
Then back to our place for our regular evening things.
On Friday the 22nd of August, we did something I was looking forward to: we saw the Jacobite train, which is the train used to film the outside view of the Hogwarts Express train in the movies! I am a Harry Potter fan (the book, more than the movies but I don’t mind the movies) but I refuse to give anymore money to JK Rowling (as she use it to try to destroy trans people rights), which mean we don’t buy anything HP related: but the Jacobite train is free, so nothing goes to her!
We drove there (it took a couple of hours from where we are) and thought we were there early enough…Not to get a parking place though! The parking was full, so we had to park further up the road, and there is not much more space, so we park somewhere we were not supposed to, but we saw on our way back that a lot more people did what we did!
We hiked to the Glenfinnan viaduct: we hiked fast, as we had to walked from further than plan and I didn’t want to miss it! When we got there, there was already a lot of people, but we found a good place and waited. The train arrived nice and slow on the viaduct and slowed down to a stop toward the middle, then the driver did the whistle and let the smoke out. I forgot to mention that the Jacobite train is a steam engine. Then the wheel started turning with that very specific train wheel sound: tch, tch, tch… slowly then faster and faster and it keep going. It was a bit of a magical moment. People in the train were waving and we waved back. I know it is just a train, but I like it very much! The we hiked back toward the car a bit slower this time, and we enjoy the magnificent views of the surrounding Scotland.
We drove for around 20 minutes to get to the Steall waterfall. The hike there took as around 40 minutes in, I know I said it before, but breathtakingly beautiful landscapes. The hike was fun and I have to mention how impressed with Emma I was. At the beginning of this year, she didn’t like walking that much, but now she is comfortable walking and so much more confident with her body. She has grown a lot and develop a lot of confidence: this is awesome to see.
The kids built little dam on the river with rocks. When we arrived at the waterfall, they climb on rocks to get higher and jumped from one to the other (especially Andrew), giving me heart attack! It was fun. We walked back, jumped into the car and drove back home after a great day
On Saturday the 23rd of August, we went to see our second Highland games, the Glenurquart Highland games in Drumnadrochit. I choose the see this one as it had other events that we didn’t see in the Stirling games. There was bagpiping competition. People of different age, come in the traditional dress and play bagpipe in front of a judge. I have no idea how they decide who win, because honestly, they all sounded great! We got our fill of bagpipes! I love the sound of it.
Another event, I wanted to see was the woman heavy weight, as it didn’t have any at the last game we saw. What I didn’t know was that it was the first World Female Heavy Events Championship! What a day to be there. There were 8 female competitors and they were all amazing. They did all the events: shot put, weight for distance, hammer throw, weight over bar and the caber toss.
One of the competitors was a 16-year-old, called Juliet Ramsay, who won the shot put, the weight for distance, the hammer and the overall, making her the first world champion of Heavy weight event. She also broke the record for weight distance throw as being the first woman to throw over 100 feet (over 30 meters). This was unofficial as there was no athletic official there.
It was great to see strong women being celebrated. It was a great day.
After one last look at the Loch Ness, we drove back to our place, pack up as the next day, was moving day again. We are going near Edinburgh, which will be our last stop in Scotland! I’m not sure I’m happy about that! I love Scotland.
See you then!
MelMeer informatie