My turn again! We've been in Paris for four days now and it has been wonderful. Except for the stairs. I think I'm climbing about 20 flights of stairs every day! Every station seems to have several flights and we have been at several stations each day. Go to the Louvre? Stairs. Musee DÓrsay? Stairs. Montmartre? LOTS of stairs! I'm going to come home with legs of steel. Sadly I'm also going to come home with a tummy of croissants, ice cream and macarons.
I loved the Louvre. I could spend a week there and still not see it all. We paid the obligatory visit to the Mona Lisa and I still don't understand why it's so famous. I know nothing about art admittedly, but there are so many paintings that I loved so much more than that one.
Musée D'Orsay was similarly amazing. But again I think I'm not 'getting' it where Monet is concerned. Obviously I can see he had talent and was an amazing artist, but Sisley, Degas and Renoir are far more appealing to me. Maybe Monet's work has been over-commercialised?
We've visited three churches here - all absolutely beautiful. Sainte-Chapelle was stunning! It was built in the 13th century to house what was believed to be Jesus' crown of thorns. I was disappointed when we first entered as the downstairs area, whilst beautiful didn't live up to the expectations I had. Plus it had a whole row of stands selling merchandise. Then I realised there was an upstairs. Wow! Massive stained glass windows all around, beautiful frescoes and statues. Just breath-taking! I was equally as awe-struck at Notre Dame Basilica. The carvings on the outside alone made it worth visiting! The third church was Sacré Coer at Montmartre. We arrived during mass and the nuns were singing. I'm sure there must be some pre-requisite to becoming a nun that you have to be able to sing. Just as well it wasn't a calling I ever had since my singing is totally flat!
One thing I've found really annoying at several places is that in spite of signs everywhere saying "No Photos", there are people everywhere taking as many photos as possible. I don't know whether I'm angry that they are breaking the rules or that I'm too much of a rule-follower to do the same! It was particularly noticeable today at Sacre Coer where mass was in progress and there were flashes going off all over the place. I keep reminding myself that I can't tell my boys to follow the rules if I'm breaking them, so I'll keep my camera turned off where it says to, even when my fingers are itching to photograph the same things everyone else is!
Tomorrow we collect our hire car and start heading south. Versailles first, then down to Chartres and a night in Blois. We haven't planned any further than that. So much to see, so little time!
Jess
Sunday, 28 September 2014
Our time in Paris
We arrived in Paris a few days ago and its been very good and very funny when we try to communicate to the people that speak little English. We found a nice ice cream place that we had dessert at two nights in a row. The people smoke and spit a lot but are all nice. Even those asked questions on the street have been nice. The Eiffel Tower was a lot taller than I thought it would be and is great at night when it's lit up but we didn't climb up it. Today we went to Sacre Coer Cathedral in Montmarte which was amazing because all the mosaics were all made of the little square tiles even a giant one on the roof. We also had a picnic today. We got cheese, a baguette, raspberries, strawberries and macrons but the baguette was amazing it had a nice crunchy, hard crust with a nice soft inside. My favourite thing in Paris so far has been either the paintings in Musee D'Orsay or a room in Sainte-Chappelle with stained glass windows everywhere telling many biblical stories. Overall I think we have covered Paris well and I don't feel the need to come back even though we haven't seen all of it, we've seen all of the things I wanted to see. Unless it was after learning some French and coming to live for a few months there is little incentive to come back for more than a few days. Soon we will be in Italy just as I started getting used to saying merci instead of thank you to people I will have to start saying grazie.
-Ethan
-Ethan
Thursday, 25 September 2014
Paris
Arrived in Paris today after spending yesterday at Disneyland.
Got to the Louvre this afternoon and saw the Mona Lisa in the flesh so to speak. Such a massive collection that we saw maybe 1/8th at best, but great to see, and the building it's housed in (former palace) was just perfect, with it's high rooves and ceiling fresco's.
Tonight we're in a tiny apartment in the heart of town. Tomorrow we transfer to a hotel. The area we're in seems to be a Japanese version of China town. So dinner wise it was tough to find somewhere serving French food - everything is Asian, mainly Japanese. But with persistence and a few helpful people we found a lovely little local restaurant. Really nice.
Tomorrow, Eiffel Tower.
Paul
Got to the Louvre this afternoon and saw the Mona Lisa in the flesh so to speak. Such a massive collection that we saw maybe 1/8th at best, but great to see, and the building it's housed in (former palace) was just perfect, with it's high rooves and ceiling fresco's.
Tonight we're in a tiny apartment in the heart of town. Tomorrow we transfer to a hotel. The area we're in seems to be a Japanese version of China town. So dinner wise it was tough to find somewhere serving French food - everything is Asian, mainly Japanese. But with persistence and a few helpful people we found a lovely little local restaurant. Really nice.
Tomorrow, Eiffel Tower.
Paul
Sunday, 21 September 2014
Catch up post!
It's been a while since I've had a chance to post anything that I'm not quite sure where to start. Maybe I'll go with a highlights post.
Doha
Our visit to the mosque was really informative. I think it was great for the boys to realise how much Islam and Christianity have in common and hopefully a reminder to them in the future to focus on those similarities rather than the differences.
That night we visited Souq Waqif. A souq is a market, and this is the most popular market in Doha. It was unlike anything I'd experienced before. Arabs in their long white robes everywhere. I don't remember ever seeing an Arab in traditional dress in Melbourne just wandering on the streets. It was easy to see the practicality of it though because it was scorching hot, even at night. The smells were amazing - so many spices and perfumes! Angus bought himself his "first" fez. He wants a red one like the 10th and 11th doctors in Dr Who but he couldn't find one. So he bought a different colour and decided to start a collection.
Another thing we saw in Doha which I found fascinating was actually at the airport where there were three Arab men with hooded falcons on their arms. They didn't look too friendly when we went to have a closer look so I'm still not sure what they were doing with them at the airport!
London
Where do I start! We had greatly overscheduled our time here and had to cut several things out. But I thoroughly enjoyed all we did do. St Paul's Cathedral was breathtaking and I preferred it to Westminster Abbey.
One of the most moving things I saw was all the hand-made ceramic poppies in the moat of the Tower of London. They are continuing to add them until they have 85,000 poppies - one for each British person who lost their life in the Great War. That huge sea of poppies really brought home the reality of those deaths.
I loved the location of our apartment! It was right around the corner from Covent Garden Market - in fact we could see it from our bedroom window and could hear the buskers as well. There was a beautiful old-fashioned toy shop there that specialised in cardboard puppet theatres. I managed to buy myself a Cinderella theatre which I have no idea what to do with! It comes with a script, so you'll all have to come over and I'll put on plays.
Edinburgh
The most beautiful city I've ever seen! I loved Edinburgh Old Town with all the little closes off the streets. We arrived the day of the referendum which was exciting. There were news cameras all along the Royal Mile the next day interviewing people about the result.
Edinburgh Castle was wonderful. Despite the cold, the drizzle and the mist, it was still beautiful.
That night I had drinks with a very, very distant relative on the Lothian side. We decided that we are fourth cousins. The funniest thing was her talking about how all the Lothians in her family look alike because they all have "the Lothian nose". This is exactly what my family says about the Lothians too! Good to know the Lothian nose spans generations and continents!
The next bit
The last couple of days we've been driving down from Edinburgh in search of family graves. I've found Lothian, Oliver and Goodrich graves, including direct ancestors so I'm very excited! The town where the Goodrich family came from was particularly picturesque and the church they attended has a history of over 1000 years!
We also went to Rosslyn Chapel (known by many from The Da Vinci Code). I know I'll probably say this many times through this trip, but it was the most amazingly spectacular church I've ever seen! The carvings were worn, but you could still see the detail and the craftsmanship. I loved that rather than having a building and decorating it with art, the building itself was the art.
Now we're in Stratford-Upon-Avon and about to head out to explore the town.
There you go. A very brief summary of what we've been up to. Only 1/4 of the way through our trip and we've seen so much already!
Jess
Doha
Our visit to the mosque was really informative. I think it was great for the boys to realise how much Islam and Christianity have in common and hopefully a reminder to them in the future to focus on those similarities rather than the differences.
That night we visited Souq Waqif. A souq is a market, and this is the most popular market in Doha. It was unlike anything I'd experienced before. Arabs in their long white robes everywhere. I don't remember ever seeing an Arab in traditional dress in Melbourne just wandering on the streets. It was easy to see the practicality of it though because it was scorching hot, even at night. The smells were amazing - so many spices and perfumes! Angus bought himself his "first" fez. He wants a red one like the 10th and 11th doctors in Dr Who but he couldn't find one. So he bought a different colour and decided to start a collection.
Another thing we saw in Doha which I found fascinating was actually at the airport where there were three Arab men with hooded falcons on their arms. They didn't look too friendly when we went to have a closer look so I'm still not sure what they were doing with them at the airport!
London
Where do I start! We had greatly overscheduled our time here and had to cut several things out. But I thoroughly enjoyed all we did do. St Paul's Cathedral was breathtaking and I preferred it to Westminster Abbey.
One of the most moving things I saw was all the hand-made ceramic poppies in the moat of the Tower of London. They are continuing to add them until they have 85,000 poppies - one for each British person who lost their life in the Great War. That huge sea of poppies really brought home the reality of those deaths.
I loved the location of our apartment! It was right around the corner from Covent Garden Market - in fact we could see it from our bedroom window and could hear the buskers as well. There was a beautiful old-fashioned toy shop there that specialised in cardboard puppet theatres. I managed to buy myself a Cinderella theatre which I have no idea what to do with! It comes with a script, so you'll all have to come over and I'll put on plays.
Edinburgh
The most beautiful city I've ever seen! I loved Edinburgh Old Town with all the little closes off the streets. We arrived the day of the referendum which was exciting. There were news cameras all along the Royal Mile the next day interviewing people about the result.
Edinburgh Castle was wonderful. Despite the cold, the drizzle and the mist, it was still beautiful.
That night I had drinks with a very, very distant relative on the Lothian side. We decided that we are fourth cousins. The funniest thing was her talking about how all the Lothians in her family look alike because they all have "the Lothian nose". This is exactly what my family says about the Lothians too! Good to know the Lothian nose spans generations and continents!
The next bit
The last couple of days we've been driving down from Edinburgh in search of family graves. I've found Lothian, Oliver and Goodrich graves, including direct ancestors so I'm very excited! The town where the Goodrich family came from was particularly picturesque and the church they attended has a history of over 1000 years!
We also went to Rosslyn Chapel (known by many from The Da Vinci Code). I know I'll probably say this many times through this trip, but it was the most amazingly spectacular church I've ever seen! The carvings were worn, but you could still see the detail and the craftsmanship. I loved that rather than having a building and decorating it with art, the building itself was the art.
Now we're in Stratford-Upon-Avon and about to head out to explore the town.
There you go. A very brief summary of what we've been up to. Only 1/4 of the way through our trip and we've seen so much already!
Jess
On the road
Enjoyed our 36 hours in Edinburgh - what a beautiful city with the castle on the hill (extinct volcano) overlooking the town.
We picked up a car in Edinburgh and have been on the road the past 2 days looking around. The little country towns are great to see, and the volume of historic monuments just incredible. Whilst it didn't look like much, my most memorable was seeing Hadrian's Wall, the northern boarder of the Roman empire. For one it was amazing it was still intact roughly 1,900 years latter, two it's size - height, width, and length (from one side of England to the other), and then just thinking about how far it was from Rome and what an incredible feat their Empire was.
Tomorrow Oxford, then on a train to France.
Paul
We picked up a car in Edinburgh and have been on the road the past 2 days looking around. The little country towns are great to see, and the volume of historic monuments just incredible. Whilst it didn't look like much, my most memorable was seeing Hadrian's Wall, the northern boarder of the Roman empire. For one it was amazing it was still intact roughly 1,900 years latter, two it's size - height, width, and length (from one side of England to the other), and then just thinking about how far it was from Rome and what an incredible feat their Empire was.
Tomorrow Oxford, then on a train to France.
Paul
Thursday, 18 September 2014
The Scottish vote
Paul
Charlie And The Chcolate Factory The Musical.
Yesterday, we all went to the show: Charlie And The Chocolate Factory The Musial. First, we got some dinner at a pub. I had a beef hotdog and some hot chips. Next, we arrived at the venue. (It was MASSIVE!) Then, we took our seats and the show started. It was the third live show I've been to and it was my favourite. My favourite part was when Augustus got sucked up a pipe and the Oompa-loompas first came out. After the show we were tired so we went to bed/couch.
Angus.
Angus.
Wednesday, 17 September 2014
M&M'"S WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yesterday, we went to M&M's World. At M&M's World, we went into a machine that says what coloured M&M you are as well as a reason. We also got personalised M&Ms. on ne half my M&Ms it said Angus and the other M&Ms had a picture of a ghost. On one half of Ethan's M&Ms it said Awesomesauce (probably describing me.:)) and the other half had a picture of a stormtrooper (from the Star Wars movies.)
We had loads of fun! Good day and goodbye.
Angus.
We had loads of fun! Good day and goodbye.
Angus.
Tuesday, 16 September 2014
London
Yesterday we were at the Tower of London and my favourite part of the day was there was a exhibition of a bunch of kings armour and they were all very impressive with the amount of detail engraved on some of them. Another impressive thing we saw were the Crown Jewel, the amount of diamonds on some of the sceptres, crown and orbs was amazing. I got a photo with a guy dressed as a WW1 British soldier and learnt a bit about the firearms they used. After the Tower we saw the place Diagon Alley was filmed in Harry potter and the Philosophers Stone. We then went to Piccadilly Circus and saw a real police phone box that unfortunately looks nothing like the TARDIS. After that we went to Trafalgar Square and had dinner. We next saw M&M World and Angus and I got personalised M&Ms mine said Awesome Sauce and the second variety of mine had a picture of a Storm trooper. Angus' said Angus and his picture ones had a ghost on them. Overall it was a great second day in London.
-Ethan
-Ethan
Monday, 15 September 2014
Out the window
We have arrived in London. In our apartment there's a really good view from our windows. We can open the windows and lean out. I can see people busking with an unusual instrument that sounded like a harmonica. I can see lots of shops. Most of the buildings look old. I can see a small park with park benches surrounding it. I can see a statue of a man falling off a donkey or a horse. I can see some sort of tent and quite a few plants and a building that looks like a hotel.
Angus
Angus
Qatar Mosque
This very impressive building is the Qatar Mosque Fanar. It holds an Islamic information centre and we spent over an hour there talking to an English guy who was a volunteer their. He'd grown up as a Catholic and went to Catholic school, and then converted to Islam as an adult. So he was great at explaining what Islam was all about and the overlap with Christian beliefs. Time well spent for all for us.
Paul
Sunday, 14 September 2014
Awesome Breakfast.
Today, I had an AMAZING breakfast. I had 4 waffles, 1 custard pie, LOADS of lemon juice and some rockmelon. (They were all amazing.) After that we went to a pool. I had lots of fun. Well, this recount is catching up to present time. good day and goodbye.
Angus.
Angus.
We're here!
We're finally in Doha, waiting for our transfer to the hotel to arrive. The flight was probably the best flight in terms of the amount of sleep we all got, so we're raring to go now!
Jess
I'm looking out over the construction site that is Doha. Plenty of money being spent here. Reading their propaganda magazine in the plane their aim is to do everything to a 5 star standard, and certainly their new airport ticks that box, very impressive.
It's hot. Forecast for today, min 31, max 40. And yet it's 2 pm and I can see workers beavering away on a construction site outside (we're quite sensibly in air-conditioned comfort). Hard to imagine how they will play a soccer World Cup here.
Looking forward to getting out and exploring a bit more tonight.
Paul
Jess
I'm looking out over the construction site that is Doha. Plenty of money being spent here. Reading their propaganda magazine in the plane their aim is to do everything to a 5 star standard, and certainly their new airport ticks that box, very impressive.
It's hot. Forecast for today, min 31, max 40. And yet it's 2 pm and I can see workers beavering away on a construction site outside (we're quite sensibly in air-conditioned comfort). Hard to imagine how they will play a soccer World Cup here.
Looking forward to getting out and exploring a bit more tonight.
Paul
The boys do love a breakfast buffet. And as this "breakfast"was about midday Melbourne time, we were starving. This is Angus on his 3rd helping of waffles.
Saturday, 13 September 2014
And We're Off!
After a couple of hiccups in the last 24 hours due to Qatar Airways inputting Ethan's date of birth incorrectly and having to purchase a whole new full price ticket for him, we're finally at the airport, through customs and waiting to board! We'll worry about trying to get our money refunded next week, or after we get home.
Everything is set up for our variety of house/pet sitters and hopefully the four legged members of the family will be having so much fun playing with their new friends that they won't even notice we've gone.
The last couple of times we've been on an overseas holiday the boys have completed a travel journal. We couldn't find one we liked this time so have decided to keep a family blog instead. Hopefully we'll print it as a photo book after we get home. We just have to make sure we keep it up to date! I'm hoping that we will all contribute. Maybe we could each choose a colour to type in so everyone will know who has written what. As is customary in our house, my colour will have to be pink. I know no-one else will pinch my stuff if it's pink!
We should be boarding in 15 or 20 minutes. First stop is Doha in Qatar. 24 hours of hot weather before we move on to London! Time for a message from the junior Bensons...
Jess
I'm sitting on a uncomfortable chair being bored and I wish we could hurry up and get on the plane so that I can just go to sleep.
Angus.
we're at the airport waiting for our boarding call and we have been waiting for nearly two hours. I'm looking forward to being in Doha and getting our trip started in the blazing hot then going to the freezing cold in London.
Ethan
Everything is set up for our variety of house/pet sitters and hopefully the four legged members of the family will be having so much fun playing with their new friends that they won't even notice we've gone.
The last couple of times we've been on an overseas holiday the boys have completed a travel journal. We couldn't find one we liked this time so have decided to keep a family blog instead. Hopefully we'll print it as a photo book after we get home. We just have to make sure we keep it up to date! I'm hoping that we will all contribute. Maybe we could each choose a colour to type in so everyone will know who has written what. As is customary in our house, my colour will have to be pink. I know no-one else will pinch my stuff if it's pink!
We should be boarding in 15 or 20 minutes. First stop is Doha in Qatar. 24 hours of hot weather before we move on to London! Time for a message from the junior Bensons...
Jess
I'm sitting on a uncomfortable chair being bored and I wish we could hurry up and get on the plane so that I can just go to sleep.
Angus.
we're at the airport waiting for our boarding call and we have been waiting for nearly two hours. I'm looking forward to being in Doha and getting our trip started in the blazing hot then going to the freezing cold in London.
Ethan
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