<><> <><> <><>

Destination June 11




This journey started with a dream.
A dream born out of a desire to be able to just sit somewhere out of the mainstream of our normal lives here and do what we have not done before in our adult lives - look, observe, stare and maybe not even think about anything. To walk, swim, ride, canoe, in a far away land and just be part of the moment together.  To experience the joy of doing things for the first time in your life that no one else wanted to do with you.  To discover serendipity that you thought you could never experience because once you were near but not close enough.  To say "We did it together and the sacrifices justified the effort and the rewards that paid to get us there to the village were taken in recognition".  If we didn't reward ourselves none of this would have happened.

Since the day we met we wanted to travel to France to discover the village, any village where time could stand still for a couple of weeks.  We wrote this journey into our 10 year plan.  We wrote it because what is not planned usually doesn't happen.  We kept dreaming of this trip and pasting pictures all over the place to reinforce our efforts to save our bonuses from the business and our jobs.

However life kept getting in the way.  3 years of legal battles over Ariane pretty much stopped everything else from happening and two Dads with terminal cancer took priority in terms of keeping a presence nearby to them and the family.  As all things came to pass, my Dad said "go and enjoy it like we did".  The morning that he passed to God's arms I said to Caroline "when we leave this Earth is not of our choosing, lets go now".  I brought the airfares.  Dad went 8 hours later.  Yesterday Caroline's Dad departed to be in Heaven, 21 days before take-off.  The numerology says they both left on a 3 number,,,,,, the same date in May our plane lifts off from Melbourne's International Airport. Just a number.

FRIDAY 5TH MAY 2012
Here we are finally. Running amok at Schiphol's massive airport. The stuff here is wonderful and we are finding lots of ideas for presents on the way home.

It began all rather early yesterday morning for us at the Dolmo hotel, our residence for the last few days. Packing and repacking bags before our final checkout and removal to The Family's Sunshine residence. Via office works for last minute envelopes. Poor guy's mum had been waiting for quite some time, expecting us sometime earlier. However we sat there in the cold (and wet outside) waiting for Sharon. Guy elected not to retieve his electric rasor from the garage, and is paying for it now. Sharon made good time and we were soon heading to the airport. Checked in and chatted and had a drink. Checked out Sirroco again for more suitcase bargains. The place was to time and were soon heading off to Asia, Kuala Lumpur. Guy had a caring eye out for his neighbour and elderly Indian woman (not seated beside her grand daughter and helper). Made sure she was cleaned up after her dinner. First time to KL for me, though only the airport. They had 2 Harrod stores here, though rather expensive.

We had KLM for the next leg. Again a bit anxiously whe n we had to queue up to check our seating, but all ok and we were soon snoring in our seats! Missed all the exciting bits with takeofF, emergency drill, head phone drop off (found those on us when we woke up for the meal), Guy had to wake me up when the meals came. The staff for both flights seem to be long term attendants and very professional, helpful and friendly.  Guy scored peanuts and drinks for the wait at Mayalsia from the Malaysian attendant.

There were lots of babies aboard both times, the second one there was a baby Carter, the name of my cousins baby we are about to see tomorrow! This particular couple was from Perth heading to Manchester.

This airport is bigger than all the airports combined. Its shops rival Chadstone is number, scale and every other measure you could compare.This airport is bigger than all the airports combined. Its shops rival Chadstone is number, scale and every other measure you could compare.
I am drooling all over the food here, as you can expect, my Dutch heritage coming back on sight of all these delectable items! Still to see the Chocolate shop. The shops here seem to be much better value, the Dutch don't like to be ripped off!!! The museum shop is fantastic also.
Waiting now for the last stage of our journey today. Prague, then Jonny tomorrow.

Wow! Prague! what a place. First time for either of us to be here, so don't know anything about the place. Guy managed to find us a little hotel in the old part of town, which is great for walking around the place. He had also organised for a chaffeur of the hotel to be waiting for us at the airport. Which was great, and quite a drive with interesting scenery. The 5th floor room is lovely, with a nice view situated at the back to the building, so extremely quiet.

We are both feeling a bit spaced out still, trying to keep ourselves awake so that we can have a good night sleep and prevent jetleg. We have taken so many photos already, can't take in all that we see, let alone pronounce or understand. we did walk to the central station and book our train tickets for the next few days. So better ring up Jonny shortly. Guy got the sim card so already called his sister.

Things that stand out are the paved streets and pavements, all very irregular and dangerous, and so many trams ... The lovely old buildings, lovely and cheap food! And cheap things everywhere of great value!!!

Will continue tomorrow.