LIL AND JOHN

Papamoa, Bay of Plenty ,New Zealand

2009-06-24T01:23:00.000-07:00

We are home after 27 months.

There is a frost every day that it is not raining. The coldest weather we have ever had since living in the Bay! However, the frost brings glorious sunny weather and we can eat outside.

We are busy unpacking our furniture and household things as they have been stored in a shed on our orchard. The tenants in our house left several months ago so the lawns and fruit trees are overgrown. We have a big job ahead to sort the trees and gardens out. There are oranges, limes, and lemons to juice and lots of cakes, sauces and jams to make using them.

We have been to visit John's 95 year old mum who is now in care. She remembered us but has problems identifying whether it is day or night. It is wonderful to see her again.

This is our last posting on our travel blog but not our last travel adventure.
We are already planning another trip for 2010 to South Africa. John, his brother and nephews want to see the World Cup soccer matches in Cape Town so we can begin another adventure from there.

Thanks to those of you who have followed our travels, written to us, added information to our stories, helped us, had us at your place, and added us to your circle of friends! Of course we look forward to seeing some of you in our neck of the woods.
Ka kite ano.

Melbourne, Australia

2009-06-03T20:43:00.000-07:00

Phew, we are on the home leg of our travels. Had a great flight with Etihad as the plane was so empty there were no business class passengers, a couple of first class ones and those of us in economy had a whole row to themselves to sleep on.

We were picked up at the airport by our friends Pat and Barbara. We originally met them in London in 1976 and used to visit them when we worked in Melbourne in 1979 and 1980. They are both about to retire so we were able to spend quite a bit of time together. Pat is slowly winding down his electrical contractor's business and Barbara has reduced hours at a nearby rest home.

We went to an Australian Rules Football game with Pat and Barbara and were reminded of when we were at the Melbourne Cricket Ground when the Australians bowled the last ball underarm cementing their win over the New Zealand team!

We also managed to catch up with another friend from our teachers' college days. Neil and his wife and three girls live not far from Pat and Barbara so we were able to enjoy a meal with them and their daughters, Marissa, Jemma, and Aleisha (I hope I've spelt the names correctly). We were able to share some travel tips with the girls as they are off to South East Asia and Europe. We had them signed up to www.couchsurfing.org before we left the place!

When Kerri was four, her and I flew back from Melbourne to NZ and met Stjepan, his daughter Jasminka and her cousin Shane, on the flight. They parked their hired campervan at our place when they arrived in NZ and we have been in touch ever since. Stjepan lives near the Dandenong Mountains outside Melbourne and picked us up and took us for a drive around the area.

We visited Jasmine on her rural property in Kinglake. She lost her house, sheds and a couple of animals in the recent bush fires. They told us all sorts of stories of the horrific things people went through during that time. Jasminka was watching television with the curtains closed and the air conditioning going as it was a very hot night. The electricity went out and when she looked outside her deck was on fire. The fire took hold quickly and she was able to escape to her neighbour's house which did not get burnt. She has been living with her neighbour until a few days ago.

We drove around the area and Stjepan told us about the houses and shops that used to be there and we could see shops still intact and operating now while the neighbours' premises were cleared of debris. There were many properties with coroner's signs on them. These places are closed to everyone as they need to check for bodies and determine the cause of death and/or assess the properties.

We saw lots of crumpled corrugated iron rooves left from burnt houses and sheds but the majority of the places we saw were cleared of the remains. Many people are living in caravans, relocated houses, campervans and any buildings on their land that were untouched by the flames.

The rains have brought a lot of new grass sprouting up through the ashes. The eucalyptus trees have tufts of small leaves hooting out from every little knot along the trunk of the trees. These little sprouts look out of place on such tall trees.

We had a great meal at an Italian pizza and pasta restaurant organized by our friend Lyn. She used to work in the office of a school I worked at in North Melbourne and managed to get a group of ex-teachers from the school together. We had a great catch up after 20 years!

Our last night was spent with Kris who used to be my boss when I taught at a refugee and migrant centre in Melbourne. We enjoyed seeing the renovations to her house that had a historic listing.

Melbourne is just a fantastic city- our favourite one.

Dubai. United Arab Emirates

2009-05-24T01:04:00.000-07:00

We were able to catch a bus to Dubai from Muscat. It was quite comfortable and had two drivers as they do a circuit from Muscat to Dubai and then down to Salalah and back to Muscat again.

At last there were a few more women travelling with us but the majority of the passengers were Indians, with a few Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, and a couple from Iraq and a mother and her daughter from the Sudan.

The bus station was a short sweaty walk, in the 44 degree Celcius temperature, to our hotel. We had got Kerri to book our hotel so it was a much better price than we could get researching online even though we hear that hotel occupancy rates are down 16% here.

Well, what a contrast to the rest of the Middle East we have visited! There are few veiled women and lots of Philippinos. Shops advertise Philippino food and posters advertise accommodation and work for Philippinos. Many of the stores advertise in Russian for the package touriss that arrive here. This would not be a good place to learn Arabic as so many people speak English. It is so common to see people with two cellphones out yabbering in English or a mix of English and their mother tongue. There are 4.3 million people in in UAE and only 20% are nationals.

In this city you can snow ski indoors, visit (you have to book) Dubai's iconic 'seven star' hotel built like a sail from a traditional boat (dhow), do a mosque tour and learn all about the prayer rituals, kite surf, watch camel racing, and visit a Bedouin desert camp.

We headed for the tourist information office but arrived to find that it had been demolished to make way for a new metro station that is under construction at present. Lots of footpaths have been ripped up and this may also be related to the metro system. The urban bus stations have nice air conditioned waiting rooms but no information on what buses of all the buses they show on their maps actually stop at the stop.

This is all reminds us of Bangkok, without the horn tooting and tuk tuks, in many ways. It is a shoppers' paradise but even the Pierre Cardin stores are advertising 75% off.

We did a red bus tour which took us 7 hours in total. The commentary on the goings on here and the development projects reminded us of the developments on the Gold Coast when we lived there. There are dozens of shopping malls and entertainment centres like Disneyland and here they boast they will have some even larger than any thing in the US. At the same time there is still lots of construction. We could see the piles of sand 4 kilometres out in the Arabian Sea for The World development but it can only be accessed by boat or helicopter and then the islands are privately owned.

We have been able to get around on the free shopping buses. We are going to do a dhow cruise on the Dubai Creek before we pack up our gear and catch a flight to Melbourne. We will be there for 2 weeks and then head back to NZ.
Will put photos on here in Melbourne.

Muscat, Oman

2009-05-21T23:40:00.000-07:00

Oman is difficult to get around as so many people use private transport and Muscat is even more so as it doesn't have public buses. We caught a shared taxi to a roundabout on the outskirts of the city and then had to engage it as private hire to take us to our hotel, of course it cost more for the short ride than the whole journey.

Muscat is a long narrow city spreading for 50 kms along the coast and fitting in where it can around steep rocky peaks. It is divided into three parts, the old port where the royal palace is, the commercial and business centre at Ruwi, and the corniche and souq area in Mutrah.

Roundabouts are important landmarks in Oman as they are where shared taxis, intercity buses and minivans can be found and where you will be dropped. Consequently, they are well kept and often ornately decorated with some kind of theme, fish, dolphins, clock towers, coffee pots and even book sculptures. They have green well watered lawns which use treated effluent water but it seems a huge waste for a desert country.

We have been hanging out for some hot weather but Muscat has had several days of temperatures around 47 and only dropping a few degrees in the evening. The locals tell us it can get to 60 Celcius in mid summer. All government businesses close at 1 pm and lots of privately owned ones too, so everyone can get out of the heat and have a sleep. There is not much to do during this time so we usually head for the hotel and the air conditioning and catch up on the news, read, do our laundry, do some research or play spider patience on our notebook.

There are only about a handful of women working in the shops and only a few more on the streets. There is a large population of Asian workers from the Indian sub-continent and some have their wives and children with them but most don't. A lot of the restaurants serve Indian and Chinese food and we are enjoying a curry in the evenings.

One of the museums we visited was free and showed old photos of the history of the city. It was another well thought out display with models and dioramas but it was not well attended.

In the evenings the corniche is packed with men sitting drinking juice and chatting with their mates. The Asians toss bread for the fish and throw out their handlines hoping for a bite. Trucks loaded with huge rocks thunder past on their way to the Sultan's palace as it undergoes renovations. Some of the old men sit barefoot on mats playing dominoes and other board games. The grassy areas at the roundabouts are often crowded with men chatting until the early hours of the morning. Unlike Yemen, there don't seem to be many smokers here amongst the men.

The souq has been upgraded and sells jewelery, daggers, perfumes, carpets and incense and burners. There are rows and rows of fabric sellers selling matching sets for saris as well as rows and rows of Asian tailors sewing galabehas for the local men.

The local muslim men wear long-sleeved white dishdash with a little tassle at the neck. They wear an embroidered hat usually of two colours. It seems only the Asian men wear western clothes. A few women cover their faces with veils but most of the young ones don't seem to.

The main road from the airport to the city centre is called Sultan Qaboos Road after the present Sultan. It is lined with beautifully designed modern buildings and several are named after the Sultan such as the huge mosque, the university and a large sports complex.

Typically the private residences are walled and only a couple of storeys high with a tower to hold the water tanks. They include lots of arches, and often crenallations. The air conditioning units are hidden behind ornate grills or incorporated into the overall design so they blend in, even the water tanks have crenallations looking like little look out towers on top of the buildings. The Sultan has put a lot of thought into the architecture of the country.

Many old mud built houses are being knocked down so lots of places lack real character and with everything being so new it is not as interesting wandering around the towns as other places in the Middle East have been.

The shops have interesting signs like: foodstuffs sale, repairing and maintenance of electronic items, or sale of electronic and sanitaryware. There is very little advertising just a description of what business it carries out.

All our Oman photos have been accidentally deleted!

Nizwa, Oman

2009-05-15T02:37:00.001-07:00

Took a comfortable bus from across the street from our hotel and mentally prepared for the 10 hour bus trip across the gravel desert. It was the day of our 31st wedding anniverasary!

Once again I was the only female on the bus and no sooner had the male passengers boarded then they were all asleep. They draw the curtains, take their shoes off and sleep the journey away. Mind you, there is nothing to see along the way. There were a few signs warning of sand dunes and that was probably important if it was windy as the sand is so fine. There were also the odd signs warning of camels. Our guide book says that if you hit one it will be a pregnant female and a top racing camel; therefore it would be very very expensive.

We were finally dropped off by the side of the road and one of the passengers walked us to where we needed to catch a shared taxi to our hotel. Without his help we would have taken a while to find our way about.

The hotel was actually a 'residency' and it had several workers boarding there. It was licensed as a one-star place but it was pretty expensive and quite grotty. It's a long time since we have been in a place with bugs and cockroaches but it was the cheapest place in town.

Not far down the road was a fast food place called 'Hungry Bunny' and there were crowds of people as it was the first day of business for them. It looked a lot like a Mc Donald's restaurant and sold pretty much the same stuff. We ate there one night and met the Egyptian manager who was in a flap as hordes of locals turned up to try out the latest place in town.

We visited the old city which lies in a fertile oasis with plantings of date palms and vegetables. The Ministry of Tourism has spent money renovating the old fort from the 17th century. There were chutes where they would pour boiling date syrup over invaders and they had wooden planks over the steps just inside the doors which they removed as the enemy came up. The enemy would then fall through to a pit below and at the same time a guard would fire on them through a slot above. The stairs were deliberately circular so battering rams could not be used to knock down doors as they wouldn't fit. The wooden doors also had steel spikes to make battering difficult.

There were displays of the use of indigo dyes as well as an exhibit of the traditional facemasks that the local tribeswomen wear. We only ever saw one lady with a mask but each tribe has its own pattern.

The old souk has been incorporated into the fort complex but now it is a clean, cobbled, and tiled modern space which still continues to serve the locals as it did centuries ago. They were heaping up their vegetables into attractive piles and walking their goats and sheep around the stock yard for prospective buyers. All of this happens between 7am and 11am and then it is deserted as they go home for prayers, a meal and a sleep.

There are several old irrigation channels in the valley. In the olden days there was a solar clock or sand clock to measure each farmer's usage and at night they used the moon and candles so everyone had a share of the water. The Sultan took taxes from the farmers who brought their produce to the souk.

One day we flagged a shared taxi down and headed for Bahla, another old city with a fort. Unfortunatelty there are no tourist offices anywhere so we didn't know that the fort was not open for visitors as they were renovating it. Nevertheless we wandered about and chatted to the locals near the fish market. We looked in on an old man in his blacksmith's workshop. He had a small electric leafblower that he had turned upsidedown and cemented into the floor. This was his modern version of bellows. He had hoes and plough blades that he was repairing.

On Friday we were in town when all the locals came from all parts, parked in tthe streets blocking traffic and headed for the mosque and their Friday prayers. When the mosque is full they pray on the footpath outside the mosque that has a cover to protect from the sun and rain.

Salalah, Oman

2009-05-12T05:12:00.000-07:00

The bus ride from Sayun in Yemen was pretty comfortable. Luckily we decided to take a sweatshirt as the air-conditioning was really cold. There were not many passengers on the bus so we could spread out. Lil was the only female travelling.

There was a reasonably full moon but there was not a lot to be seen in the gravel desert nor the sandy desert. We stopped a few times at the start of the journey, at every petrol station in fact, but they had no petrol. We pulled into a petrol station and about 20 metres from the bowser we ran out of fuel. All the men in the bus, about 15 , had to get out and push us up to the pump!

At the petrol pumps there were places to eat and a place to pray so the men got out to say their prayers. The trip eventually took us 14 hours and we had expected to take 18 so it was good to arrive early. Maybe this was because the roads were in really good condition all the way. We did read that wealthy Saudis and Omanis had contributed to paying fior the roads between Oman and Yemen.

We arrived at the border to Oman at 2am and had to buy an Omani visa. It didn't take long and cost about $24 NZ.

The hotel in Salalah was a new place and a short walk from the bus station through the souq. Immediately we could see a huge difference between Yemen and Oman. All the street and shop signs were in Arabic and English. The hotel was a two star (the cheapest in town) and felt like a four star. It was so comfortable it was hard to leave.

There was not a lot to do in Salalah but we walked around the new mosque that was having the final touches done to it. The streets are well laid out and very wide. Our hotel felt like it was in the middle of a building site there were so many new buildings in various stages of construction.

Salalah is famous for frankincense. It traded the tree resin since 5000 BC to Europe, India in exchange for spices, and to China. The tree bark is cut and the resin that oozes out is scrapped off and dried. The dried resin is then burnt on a charcoal burner as a perfume. Many shops still burn the frankincense.

There are many workers here from Bangladesh, India and the Philippines. We enjoyed a few Indian curries as a nice change from rice and beans.

We visited the Al-Baleed ruins and museum. It was a well organised and beautifully presented display of the history of the region and the story of shipping trade over the centuries. It lies beside ancient ruins taht are still being excavated. There was also a section on the former king, Said Bin Taimur, and under his rule the country was closed to foreigners. There were no secondary schools, two primary schools, two hospitals run by American Missions, and only 10 kilometres of sealed roads. His only son Qaboos Al Said took over in 1970 and had his father sent to London where he stayed for the rest of his days.

Qaboos appears in photos, carpet weavings and portraits. He has turned the country around and now it is very modern, organised and CLEAN. You can be fined for littering, the taxi driver told us. You can also be fined for having a dirty car. It is also pretty expensive. It doesn't have as much oil as the other countries surrounding it either. Qaboos had tried to encourage small businesses and education is free. We have seen businesses where women are at the front desk, but not many.

Businesses open at 7am and then close at 11am. Everyone goes for prayers and rests in the heat of the day to return to work at 4pm, trading until 8pm or even later. It is difficult to cross the streets at night as everyone is on the move. They love their modern air-conditioned cars. there is no public transport other than shared taxis. They have depots where they leave from and you stand on the side of the road and flag one down going your way. It picks up more people along the way. Of course there are taxis that you can hire to take you where ever you want as well.

Salalah is famous for its summer rains and drizzle called khareef . The people of Muscat come here to enjoy the cold wet days and picnic in the valleys that burst into green over this time.

We visited teh

Sayun and the Hadramawt Valley, Yemen

2009-05-09T05:19:00.000-07:00

We were sad to leave San'a and Victor and his family. We were overwhelmed by their kindness and hospitality. It is a rare privilege to be invited to stay with a Yemeni family. The children were a delight and so eager to try to understand us and speak English with us.

We had to fly to the next leg of our travels over the desert area of Ma'rib where there is a lot of tribal tensions. Recently we saw riots on TV in the area. We could have taken the coastal road but would have had to have faced an 18 hour bus ride. The flight with Felix Air was pretty smooth and only took an hour but the captain had to have two goes at landing which was a bit nerve wracking.

Sayun is in the Hadramawt Valley and we could see the fertile oasis as we flew along the valley. There were rows and rows of date palms and fields of crops with many small towns rising up the sides of the valley.

The Sultan's Palace of mud-brick and painted white looms over the main square.It was built in the 19th century as a defensive fort and became the residence of Sultan Al Katheri in the 1920s.

It is now the base for the tourist police and a museum with stone and bronze age relics that were discovered in the valley. There were also photos of travellers who came to the area in the 1930s. Other than that there are not many sights in Sayun.

New Zealand apples arriving at the souq.

We managed to buy a small digital camera in a small dusty shop and found a couple of internet places to do some research and and catch up on emails. The locals are pretty friendly and generally leave you alone. There are hardly any tourists in town and some days we are the only ones.

We took a taxi to the nearby 2,500 year old town of Shibam.

It is thought to date from the 4th century but was built on an even older city.

The gate to the old city.

The walls of Shibam contain about 500 dwellings- seven and eight story tower blocks built of mud.

It has been a UNESCO site since 1982. Each tourist is charged $3 US towards the upkeep of the old houses. Several houses were being renovated and their old carved wooden doors were being replaced. The goats wandered in and out of open doorways looking for food and the sheep lay on the dusty narrow lanes panting in the shade while the chooks scavenged amongst the rubbish.

The houses have shafts on the outside walls running the the length of the buildings that are used as toilets.

Some children returning from school at lunchtime wanted their photos taken and displayed their Barbie exercise books.

One day we met a Russian guy and went together to another town nearby called Tarim. It was part of the weekend so there was nothing at all going on there. When we arrived the qat sellers were packing up their hessian sacks full of qat and heading off to chew and eat.

The local taxi drivers wanted us to charter their whole taxi for an outrageous price so we ate ice cream and hung around until a shared taxi was full. We had to have 4 sitting in the middle seat with us while the passenger in front bought the space beside him so he would have somewhere to rest his sack of qat and his bottles of water.

Eating with Ivan from Moscow at our local restaurant in Sayun. We ate beans and eggs, vegetable stew and omelette. He tried the local dried and seared fish with rice.

We are having problems loading photos and our blog entries so will have to wait until Oman to load some photos and fix + hours!!!!!

Amran and Thilla, Yemen

2009-05-09T04:13:00.001-07:00

Amran is situated on a small hill with a citadel above. The city marks the border between the tribal and government run areas. It lies on the old Frankincense trading route. Today there is a huge modern city on the outside of the old city. A lot of the modern buildings are government offices and military buildings.
The old city is surrounded by a high wall and the buildings inside it are all adobe.

The local children were pretty excitable and some were aggressive - snatching at the books we had in our hands and grabbing our arms and clothing. Some of the young ones surrounded Vic begging to have photos taken and then all scrambling to be in the shot. Some of the locals reprimanded the kids and others chased them away when they saw them crowding us.
It was qat chewing time when we arrived so there were very few shops open and the old souq was closed so we didn't spend too much time there.

Our next stop was Thilla ( Thulla ). On the way here we passed many poultry rearing sheds as well as the usual crops of wheat and maize.

Thilla is a UNESCO listed site, with about 8,000 people living inside the old city walls and 4,000 outside. There are 25 mosques in the old city. There were a large number of young men on well-polished and decorated motorbikes. They were
recklessly driving fast through the narrow streets. Probably they are the rewards of growing qat in this fertile valley.

The adobe houses had alabaster windows to let light in and afford privacy for the women. Some whitewashed the window frames to make them a feature and to add interest to the houses that would otherwise have melded into the same coloured hillside.

We were met by a couple of local guides who also happened to own souvenir shops. They pointed out the houses that were built by Jewish families with their coloured windows in the shape of the Star of David. There were also houses with the Maltese cross.

The streets were clean and tidy even though some animals were stabled on the ground floor.

The main water cistern had been emptied as it was leaking and now they have to wait for the summer rains to refill it.

We had a speedy trip back to San'a where we were able to burn a CD of the photos from our camera and Vic's one too. We need to look for a replacement camera to record the final month of our travels.

The children were asleep when we got back to Victor and Asia's place and we were disappointed that we had missed seeing them.

Shaharah, Yemen

2009-05-09T01:08:00.001-07:00

We headed into the old city to meet our tour guide for a trip to Shaharah. We travelled in a 4x4 vehicle and were joined by Vic from Austria. The tour did not start well as the young driver / guide forgot to copy the travel permits so were turned back by the police at the first checkpoint and had to hang around for an hour or so. None of us were impressed by his loud wailing music either as we couldn't talk to each other.

Some time out of San'a we were joined by another tour group of Russians and a police escort. The police pick-up had 2 officers inside and about 8 on the back of the pick-up. They had a mounting in the back of the vehicle for a machine gun that one of the guys toted around proudly on his shoulder. The rest of the men were armed with Kalishnikovs and their cheeks were bulging with wads of qat. We had one policeman in our vehicle and there was one with the Russian group.

Since 2003 North Yemen has a group of fighters who are anti-government. They feel the government is too pro-western. These two groups battle from time to time so the police escort was necessary for us. There have been several incidents of kidnapping of foreigners.

This part of the country is under the control of tribal leaders or sheiks. Victor tells us that the people who are kidnapped are treated like kings as the tribes want to draw international attention to their issues.

We stopped at a village restaurant for lunch and got to meet the Russian group and their guide from Uzbekistan. At lunch we learned we had to pay for the escort group as well as their qat and their lunch. For lunch we had mutton broth soup, cabbage salad, salta- a meat stew with lentils, spices and fenugreek. We had no cutlery and had to use the flat bread to scoop everything up in order to eat it. This was followed by very very sweet black mint tea.

We arrived at a small village in a Bedouin area and had to pick up a Bedouin guide as well. The Bedouin would not allow our 4x4 vehicle to continue up the steep mountain road to Shaharah so we had to have another driver and a wreck of a 4x4 vehicle to continue our journey.

The steep road to the village above the valley was dusty, rocky and bumpy. John and the guide sat on the back while Vic and I were inside. About one kilometre from the top of the mountain and the village of Shaharah the road was blocked with workmen repairing it so we had to turn back and travel back into the valley. We took a badly maintained road and it was worse than the first one.

The village was a fortified place 2,600 metres high. At the village we stayed in one of the three tourist hotels. There were mattresses on the carpeted floor, a hot water heater and shower, squat toilet, and a large common room where we ate dinner. The electricity went off for a short time but there was a back up generator.

We sat on the floor and ate a dinner of bread, beans, rice and egg omelette. The Uzbekistan guide played the urd and sang some traditional songs. After dinner we had a warm lemon-flavoured non-alcoholic beer, a warm shower and an early night.

The next morning we had bread, boiled egg and a spreadable cheese breakfast followed by sweet black tea and headed of to look around the village. There were two open water cisterns where veiled women were filling buckets of algae-green water and taking them on their heads back to their houses.

Some of the local children joined us and pointed out the mosques, local school, and prison. Sometimes we were crowded by children begging for pens, to have their photo taken, and money , of course. 46% of Yemen's population is under 15 years of age and women have an average of 6.5 children. 73% of the population live in rural areas. According to UN stats, 45% of the people live below the poverty line of $2US per day and only 50% are literate. So, there are children everywhere eager to follow you and try their luck.

Outside the village is a stone bridge that is 340 years old. It has helped link the villages on each side of the gorge after centuries of being apart.
The walk downhill was meant to take 2 hours but the photo-snapping Russians and their unfit guide meant we took 3 and a half hours. Unfortunately for us our camera decided to pack up during the trip so we used our memory card in Vic's camera.

The walk down went through the qat terraces. The valley and the numerous ranges around it were pretty dramatic.

We dropped our Bedouin guide off at his village and headed with the police escort from there out of the area. We passed lots of young men with knives and guns and we saw a couple of burnt out armoured cars rusting away in the valley. Some young men threw stones and sticks at our vehicle but none made contact.

Once out of the valley we were back on the sealed road and headed for Amran where the police said their goodbyes.

Manakhan, Yemen

2009-05-08T21:53:00.000-07:00

We had an early morning with Victor and the children and his friend Hussein drove us to the Haraz Mountains.

Along the highways are asphalt speed bumps covering water pipes that cross the road or just heaps of earth piled up to slow traffic. This is where veiled women in black sit begging, children try to peddle tiny apricot or peaches, and boys shake their plastic bags of bundled up qat for sale at the vehicle drivers.

We passed several police checkpoints, and had to hand over our travel permits. We got the permits from the tourist police in San'a for no charge and had to have several copies made to hand out at each checkpoint. The permits listed the days we would travel and our destinations.

At the first checkpoint, the police asked where we were from and where we were staying, they next asked for a pen. Victor told them we were staying with him. When he told them his name was Victor they didn't believe he was Yemeni as Victor is not a Yemeni nor a Muslim name. We had to pull over at every checkpoint as they phoned the station and checked his ID. They were not interested in us at all. Victor's dad studied in Germany and named Victor after a good German friend. Victor is the only Yemeni called Victor and get hassled often about his name.

Some of the villages we passed through were called souqs and they were a few steel buildings selling all the same things. There were small pick-ups parked in the narrow streets from the back of which men sold their bags of qat. They outnumbered the shops. The dusty streets were ankle deep in plastic bags and rubbish. There doesn't seem to be any system in place to get rid of waste, so it blows every where sticking to trees and clogging the irrigation channels.

Manakhan is a area for trekking where guides take walkers from village to village through the mountains. We didn't have time for that.

We drove to an area where there is a tomb, Al Khutayb, it is a place for pilgrims of a particular Muslim sect.

We met many pilgrims from Saudi, France, Madagascar and Pakistan.

An old man showed us the way to the mosque at the top of the hill and then posed for a photo with his prayer beads and Koran, he also wanted a tip.

Victor has no head for heights so he stayed below but the pilgrims invited us into their tiny mosque. As Victor and Hussein are not of the same sect they were not allowed into the mosque. The area is well looked after with well watered lawns of green grass and gardens of oleander flowers. The houses nearby are well made of cement and the roads are newly sealed. The money from the pilgrims goes to keep the area in good condition.

After our trip we went to a neighbourhood restaurant for lunch and then Victor went off to meet his friends for some qat chewing and gossip.

Kawkaban, Yemen

2009-05-06T09:13:00.000-07:00

We set off with Victor and the children in a friend's car to Kawkaban about an hour from San'a.

The road was pretty windy and zig zagged up to 2,800 metres above sea level. There were lots of terraced qat farms on the way along with their towers.

Jebel Kawkaban is a fortress and village and was built with gigantic grain silos and water storage cisterns to provide protection in times of conflict.

No sooner had we arrived when the local kids volunteered to tell us the history of the place and show us around, for a small fee, of course. They could only speak Arabic so we couldn't understand everything.

There were very few people in the streets but young boys came from nowhere with their wheelbarrows full of souvenirs to sell. They followed us where ever we went, ever hopeful that we would buy key rings, candle holders etc.

We looked at the local tourist hotel and it had large rooms with mattresses on the floor and squat toilets.

There were several open cisterns that fill up with the monsoon rains in the summer. The cistern holds the water for the whole year and was looking pretty empty.

Tourists like to do treks in this area and need a guide to go from village to village.

Victor and Ahmed buying a snack at the local shop.

Wadi Dhahr, Yemen

2009-05-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

We went with the family and Asia's brother in his taxi to see the Rock Palace: Dar-al Hajar. It is about 30 minutes outside San'a. The palace as built as a summer residence for Imam Yahya in the 1920s. It is a huge structure made of red and white stone and sits perched on a rock.

We visited on a Thursday which is the first day of the Yemeni weekend. There were several groups of school children from a private school visiting as well so they were happy to practise their English each time they passed us on the stairs!

The palace is a favourite area for weddings and the weekend is the best time for them. We saw the men from a wedding party who wanted us to take photos of the groom and his entourage. We never saw the bride. Weddings are usually celebrated with lots of gun fire.

At a lookout point near the palace we were besieged by beggars, jewelery sellers, scarf sellers, falcon owners, as well as a 15 year old boy with small glasses who called himself Harry Potter and spoke 6 or 7 languages so he could sell souvenirs.

John and the falcons

On the way home we passed several plaster factories. John was keen to look at the cornices and coloured window frames that the workers cut by hand. The workers were happy to show him their products and Victor could translate for him.

Later we met a travel agent and planned a tour to Shaharah and bought a flight ticket to Sayun.

At dinner time we watched Asia making bread and cooking it in her gas oven. It was delicious. Yemen has over 40 types of bread.

San'a, Yemen

2009-05-06T07:40:00.000-07:00

We had a good short flight with Royal Jordanian from Cairo to San'a but a long 4 hour wait at Amman airport in Jordan.

Arrived at San'a airport at 1.30 am and had to get a visa and then took a taxi we had prebooked to our hotel in the old city.

San'a is so different from any other place we have been. It the oldest city in the world, according to books we have read. Noah's son was the founder of San'a. Today it is the fastest growing capital city in the world.

The buildings are probably the first skyscrapers. They are towers. The ground floors are built of stone and the rest of the floors of mud brick. Traditionally the stables and storerooms were on the ground floor. The first floor was for entertaining. The second floor was for the women and children and the third and fourth floors were the bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchen. The top floor was the room with a view. Most towers are 6 or 8 stories.

Our hotel was a traditional building and the dining room was on the top floor. The windows are decorated with coloured glass and set in plaster and we could look over the old city. The white lime wash on the building help reflect the heat and keep the rooms cool. There are still 14, 000 original tower houses in the old city.

We contacted Victor, a Yemeni, from the Hospitality Club, an online group that offers accommodation or friendship to others in the club. He works for a Canadian oil company and has one month on and one month off. Our request to stay with him and his family arrived on his month off so after recovering from our flight at the hotel we were picked up by Victor and Asia and their two children, Ahmed (7) and Noor(5).

We had a great time with the family, with Asia cooking some delicious Yemeni food and Victor introducing John to the ways of life for Yemeni men.

Yemenis are traditional Muslims and Asia has to wear black covering her head, arms and legs with a veil across her face. She kept her head covered the whole time John was in the house but was uncovered if I was there with her. We went shopping one afternoon with the children and the men went to chew qat. The shopping centre had only women shoppers.

Qat or Khat, are the leaves of the Catha edulis shrub. It has the ability to slow down time. The WHO classes it as a drug of abuse that can produce mild to moderate psychic dependence, and is banned in most Arab and Western countries. About 80% of the Yemeni male population chew qat regularly. The towers beside each plantation are to house the guards that keep watch over the trees.

John and Victor went to a stylish Yemeni house where they sat in a room furnished with squabs on the floor and upholstered cushions against the walls. There were bolstered arm rests between each person and the men sat around the sides of the room. There was a large TV screen and the men drank water, soft drinks, smoked and chatted. About 50 people came and went between the 4pm to 8pm session. There were several professional people and John talked to men from insurance, an IT analyst for the military, engineers, and other government workers. It is a time to talk politics and right the wrongs of the world.

Victor told us later that some of the men at the qat house were from a tribe that recently kidnapped a couple of Dutch tourists. These guys asked Victor if he had any grievances with the government that he would like put right. If so, then they would kidnap John in order to get the government to do do something about the grievances. Lucky for John, Victor had none.

Environmentally, qat is bad news for Yemen. 55% of all the water in Yemen goes to irrigate the crops. In 1970, 8,000 hectares was used for qat but has now grown to 103,000 hectares and there are still new areas being developed. The profit is 5 times better for qat growers than for crop farmers. When you walk through the old city after lunch you see all the stall holders with huge bulges in their cheeks as they stuff the qat in. Young boys also get into qat chewing at an early age. Some women chew qat as well but not as much nor as often as the men. 17% of the average family's income goes on qat with over 14,622,000 working hours lost each day in Yemen, as men set aside chewing time.

Ahmet and Noor were very quick to pick up new words in English and try them out. We made origami boxes, played string games and 'paper, scissors and rock'. I helped Asia with her English lessons. She goes to a language school two hours every day and was shy at first to speak but is doing really well. We met Victor's mum and a couple of brother as well as Asia's brother who drove us in his taxi.

The Al Saleh Mosque is a new mosque built by the current president at a cost of millions of dollars. It is the most beautiful mosque we have seen in the Middle East to date. Victor and his friends tell us that Yemen needs hospitals and schools and would have preferred the money was spent on that but the president wants a legacy. Mosques cannot have their names changed unlike hospitals and schools.

Near the gate of the old city we saw a blind-folded camel going round and round. It was attached to an arm like a pestle and it was grinding sesame seeds for oil. It had been walking about two hours when we saw it and it stopped for awhile and then continued. Apparently it wouldn't walk if it could see it was going in circles.

There is a river bed that is cobbled and sealed and the traffic use this everyday. When it rains once or twice a year the road becomes a river.

The men in this area wear knives attached to their belts and they pull them out at weddings and use them for dancing. Even young boys have them. Victor doesn't wear a jambiya as it is not the tradition where he comes from.

Cairo, Egypt

2009-04-22T11:43:00.001-07:00

The night train to Cairo was pretty good. Kerri and I didn't sleep that well though as the beds squeaked. There was a handbasin in the room and only two beds so John had to share with a guy next door who was a tour guide. We had an early morning wake up and a basic breakfast.

Buying the ticket for the train was hard work. The tourist information officer at the station right beside the ticket office had no idea what times the trains went and insisted that we could only buy a ticket at 8pm for the 8.30pm train! We went to her as there were big queues at the ticket office. The ticket office clerk sold us a ticket for the next day 5 minutes later. I guess the tip is, keep asking until you get the right answers to your questions!

We took the metro from the station, which wasn't there 32 years ago, to Talaat Harb where our hostel was and were able to check in straight away and have a catch up sleep. We managed to sleep through the traffic noise from the second most popular downtown street in Cairo. At times it felt like the traffic was outside the window even though we were 5 flights up.

Kerri checked the temperatures for the upcoming days and with the hottest day being the next day we decided it was best to go to the National Museum and leave the pyramids for a cooler 21 degree day.

The museum used to be dark, dusty and absolutely crammed full of exhibits and rocks so I was surprised to see that we could move easily around the rooms. However it was still dark and had the same dirty typewritten labels that were there when I last visited. A new museum is due to open in 2010 out near the pyramids but it looks like there is not enough money for that yet.

The Tutankhamen treasures used to be in a room called the gold room but now they are in an open space for all to see at no extra charge so that was great.

The hostel offered us a tour to the pyramids but we took a local bus from the bus station to the entrance to the site. The touts rushed out to get us to hire horses and camels but we knew it was possible to walk around without too much trouble. I still had my blisters from camel riding in Jordan so the last thing I wanted was more of them.
Postcard and plastic pyramid seller
32 years ago, I and a bunch of friends from the YMCA where I stayed then, climbed the top of Cheops and watched the sunset and slept overnight and woke to watch the sun rise. Now it is not possible to climb any of the pyramids. Of course we paid a baksheesh back then to be able to do it.

The poor Sphinx is looking worse for wear and our guide book tells us that it has the equivalent of cancer. It is disintegrating from the inside out due to the high water table and breakdown of the sandstone. There is now a huge wall around it.

Kerri wanted to buy some scarves and a new bag so we spent some time at the Khan Al Khalili (bazaar). She seemed to enjoy her attempts at bargaining for her purchases but we found that they were not so keen on dropping prices, even when we waved the money around or walked off. Maybe this is because of the recession.
The scarf seller and his boys learning the trade
Crossing Cairo streets is a chore. The drivers do not like to stop for anyone and they are pretty intimidating. After half a day's practice, we were experts and Kerri got better at it too. The traffic in Vietnam is a lot more considerate than in Cairo, they moved around behind you as soon as they saw you begin to cross. The place to meet the Cairo hustlers is at Tahrir Square. they will find you as you gingerly cross the road. they usually begin their spiel with' Walk like an Egyptian, just close your eyes' or something like that. They then move quickly onto 'What's your name? Where are you from? There's a shopping centre there.'
Before you know it they are trying to hustle something as they will get a sales commission.
This scene hasn't changed!
Some Egyptian scams we encountered:
the bus driver sells you a ticket and at the end of the trip he asks for it back so he can resell it,
tourist police at the pyramids take baksheesh off the boys selling postcards at the pyramids,
taxi touts charge double for the taxi that they don't own or drive,
tourists at the mosque have to hand in their shoes, wear a galebeya, and then pay a baksheesh to get the shoes back, while locals carry theirs inside and are dressed as you are,

two people have to share one seat on the tour bus and everyone pays different prices for the same thing,
the bus driver is having lunch so you must take a taxi,
there is a big demonstration at the Arab League building near the museum so don't go there, come with me, I don't own a shop I don't sell tours ... I know the guys who have horses and camels at the pyramids as we grew up together etc,
Oh lady you look hot and tired here sit on my seat in the shade...baksheesh please, from the tourist police or security,
I found this hotel for you so you so you owe me 30% commission.

Phew, you have to have your wits about you all the time. People who speak to you and help you usually want something other than altruism for it.

We wanted to walk beside the Nile but found that all the nice parks charge a fee and if you wanted to be on the lower part close to the Nile you had to pay more, which was probably to keep the riffraff out.

We found a couple of nice places to eat Egyptian food near our hotel. One place did only one dish called koushari and you could get it in small, medium or large. It was great for carbo-loading: macaroni, spaghetti, rice, lentils and a tomato sauce. There was also creamed rice if you needed more carbos.

The other place had its kitchen in the front on the street level, so you could see the pizzas, pancakes, shwarma, and kebabs being made. The upstairs had long tables that seated 10 or 12 people and had a good selection of sandwiches, soups, salads, grills, fish, and pasta dishes. The menu was in English and Arabic and it was a popular place for families and young couples.

The street we stayed on had hundreds of clothing shops. We found a department store that had 7 or 8 floors and thought we might find something for Kerri only to discover that every floor had mens' clothes and we only saw one store with womens' clothes. There are dozens of children"s shops with doll-like mannequins dressed in sequined, frilled and over decorated co-ordinated outfits. Some even had Madonna type sequined bra tops for under 5 year olds.

The lingerie shops are amazing. The couples stand outside discussing, and pointing at the see-through negligees and skimpy underwear and we would only have such clothes in an adult shop.

We took Kerri to the airport on her last day and spent another couple of days catching up with the blog, sending emails, doing some research on Yemen and getting ready to go to more Middle Eastern places. It was sad to see her go but we will be home before too long.

Luxor, Egypt

2009-04-22T11:37:00.003-07:00

We had a pretty good flight from Aqaba to Luxor via Cairo. Kerri had been told many stories about the state of Egypt Air's planes but the express was quite new and everything went like clockwork.

At Luxor airport the rates for the taxis to the downtown area are written on a large board but the taxi touts that approached us as we arrived still wanted to quote higher prices and say the rate was per person and not per taxi. All that detail was unfortunately written in Arabic on the sign so we had to stand our ground for the 25 Egyptian pound it cost. John slipped the money under the wipers and we continued into our hotel and the driver gave up hassling us. That was our welcome to Luxor.

The hotel was in a dirty dusty unlit street but near the main part of town and a few streets from the train station. It was painted in pictures of Bob Marley with Marley flags hanging in the hallways. Nevertheless it was OK for the price and everything worked well. On the rooftop was the breakfast area and a bar with a happy hour and half price beer but it was extremely hot in the early evening.

The first day we strolled around town and visited the Karnak temple a few minutes walk from the hotel. It was pretty crowded and pretty hot. In the evening we watched the sunset over the Nile and tried to ignore the dozens of touts wanting us to take a felucca (sailboat). The Nile River cruise boats were lined up 5 deep by the river. They look like 3 storey buildings with ranch slider windows on a barge and are not at all attractive but have romantic names. 32 years ago they were smaller wooden boats with lots of character; like something out of an Agatha Christie mystery. The felucca of old were unpainted and didn't have motors or neon flashing light and loud music either.

We joined a tour run by the hotel and headed off to see the Valley of the Kings. When I last visited here you had to cross the river by a small ferry and ride around the site with an early morning start. Now there are electric carts to take you to the entrance and no photos are allowed inside the tombs. It was about 40 something degrees and pretty crowded. There are a few more tombs now than before and there are still more to be excavated in the area. Having a Japanese fan, a gift from our ex-student, and a light-coloured umbrella to provide all over shade, was helpful in keeping Kerri and I cool.

There are extra charges to see more than three of the tombs these days so you have to decide before you go in what tombs you want to see.

There are no objects in the tombs, just hieroglyphics and carved reliefs, some painted and some not. The air is hot, humid, still and stale inside and the heat from the queuing bodies adds to the claustrophobic atmosphere.

From here we were off to Hatshetsup's temple.

When we arrived here two Korean girls complained that they had to share one seat in the van as the tour manager had overbooked the tour. The Egyptian guide told them that it was their fault as they had accepted the situation when they first got in the van so she was not going to do anything about it or take any responsibility for it so the two girls left and we never saw them again. That left a sour note with the group as no one agreed with the guide. When we entered the van the manager told us not to discuss the price we had paid with any of the others because they had paid more. This is so typically Egyptian.

As we strolled around the temple looking at the columns and sculptures a local guy called to us to look at something in the corner. This is a typical ploy to get a 'baksheesh' (tip) from you, he thinks because he has shown you something you should pay him for it. Of course you would see it anyway as you walked about.

We read that the locals have to have loads of small coins and notes as they will be asked to give baksheesh to policemen who signal them through the traffic, touts who dust their mirrors, touts who find them a park space and keep the traffic away as they reverse into it, waiters find them a table, bus drivers who lift their bags into the bus etc.
'Tss, come and look' the baksheesh man

The last stop was the Habu temple which was a military temple. This relief showed what they did to the foreigners when they caught them.

Luxor still has lots of horse drawn carts as I remembered. They cruise the streets selling fruit and all sorts of goods. The gas bottle guys cruised the street in front of our hotel and signalled their arrival by bashing on the empty bottles with a crescent spanner, it was deafening. There are still lots of cats everywhere but Arabs consider dogs dirty so it is rare to see any.

We had planned to have an extra night in Luxor and take a day train to Cairo but discovered that tourists could not use the day train from April 1st so we had to take a night train at 8.30 pm.

Nuweiba, Egypt

2009-04-22T11:37:00.001-07:00

From the desert we returned to Wadi Rum village where we were met by the taxi driver we had hired from Wadi Musa, of course he was a friend of the Sunset camp owner too.

We drove through the outskirts of Aqaba where we could see the rows and rows of holiday and dive resorts catering to the Red Sea visitors. It could be anywhere in the world with its Irish bars, English pubs and multinational fast food chains.

We arrived at the port of Aqaba where we had to catch a fast ferry to Nuweiba in Egypt. It was pretty disorganised with people sending us up and down stairs to get booked onto the ferry.

We sat on the ferry from 11 o'clock until 1:15, when we finally sailed. We had to hand over our passports to a small office in the front of the ferry so they could stamp us out of Jordan while at sea. The crossing was smooth and the DVD kept people entertained during the one and a half hour journey.

We picked up our packs from the car deck where they were stacked up on the sides and headed out for a full on Egyptian welcome.

The porters rushed us to carry our packs, the touts jostled to be first to tell us where to get our visas expecting us to tip them for this information and others touted for their taxi driver friends waiting outside the immigration office. It was full on.

We finally found the bank, that had a queue of non-Egyptian Arabs and backpacking tourists, where we had to pay for our visa. There was one small doorway into the bank for those entering and exiting and the galebeya dressed men did whatever they could to push in the queue. John put himself in charge of managing the queue and we all got sorted in an orderly fashion. Had to go from there to another building where we could get an official stamp and then we were all sorted for entry into the outside world.

There were huge metal furniture trailers on the ferry and these contained all the household affects of Egyptians returning from Jordan. The mattresses were piled high and we were able get our packs through a different set of metal detectors and move on before they did, else we would have been hours in the queue.

Outside the port gates were rows and rows of taxis who wanted too much to take us 6 kms to our beach bungalow so after some half hearted bargaining on our part we walked a short distance into the town and found a taxi for a more reasonable rate.

The bungalow turned out to be a tiny six-sided room amongst a whole lot of other bungalows. The local Bedouins' goats, sheep and camels wandered through the place morning and night.

There were only two other people in the place who were also Kiwis so we met up and had dinner together in the town. It turned out that Stanley had just come from Yemen and Oman so we were able to get some information on places to see there.

Nuweiba was a nice gentle introduction to Egypt. I had been here in 1976 so I knew what to expect. After a rest we flew to Luxor via Cairo.

Wadi Rum, Jordan

2009-04-22T11:36:00.002-07:00

We sadly said goodbye to Dan who was headed for some motorbike riding in Turkey and we took a taxi to Wadi Rum arriving in the afternoon. We sat around the Bedouin Desert camp's owner's house drinking tea and swatting flies while he organized some camels for us to ride from Wadi Rum town to the desert camp 12 kilometres away in time to see the sunset.

Kerri had the oldest lead camel (18 years old), and had a lot of trouble keeping it on track. She ended up with a rope burn on her fingers as it yanked the rope out of her hands to grab at some bushes to eat. We were tied to her camel and sat back to enjoy the view.

The Wadi Rum desert is a protected area and we had to pay a small fee, at the visitors' centre on the outside of the town. It was difficult to work out what was being protected as there were dozens of 4 wheel drive vehicles and tour companies lined up on both sides of the entrance looking to take visitors into the park.

As we rode to the camp we saw convoys of vehicles criss crossing the desert and loads of Bedouin camps set up amongst the rocks. There didn't seem to be any protecting of the desert from what we could see. Rubbish blew everywhere and there were loads of people.

The camel I had was not well padded and I could feel the wooden slats of the saddle so I got two blisters on my bum, one about 6cms long! I'm glad we didn't do a full day ride like some people signed up to.

We never got to see a good sunset as it was dusty and quite misty. When we arrived at Sunset Camp we were shown our tent that looked no better than the Palestinian refugee tents we had seen in Lebanon and Jordan! What a disappointment. We at least expected black goat-hair tents in the traditional materials but got bits of raggy old carpets tied together with bits of string. The roof had filled with sand and was in danger of falling onto us in the night so John had to empty it. There were no sheets on the mattresses, the pillows were rock hard stuffed with old rags and the duvets were dirty and everything was covered in sand. Luckily we have sleeping sheets we can use in situations like this.

It made us think of our ger experience in the Gobi Desert and for such a poor country they were able to prepare a clean, comfortable and authentic experience for us.

We were told by Muhammad, the owner, to buy some food for lunch from his shop and this along with our bags was taken to the camp ahead of us. When we unpacked we found that our food was missing and then discovered it being cut up by the cook for the evening meal! We were able to replace it from his supplies later.

The wind was blowing off the snowy mountains in Syria and Turkey but originating in Scandinavia, so it was freezing. We sat around an oval tent that had a fire pit and drank lots of small glasses of sweet tea and chatted to some of the other 30 camp guests. There were people from Israel, France, Holland and Italy.

Dinner was a rice and chicken dish with lots of salad vegetables (some of them ours) and gritty sand in the sauce. The Sudanese chef they employed stood in front of the tip box and asked each person to read the sign about putting money in it for him. This was the same guy who pinched our food.

In the morning we met our guide and with an Israeli couple we got into our 4 wheel drive jeep. The guide had to hot-wire (put two wires together) to get it started. It had no brakes and filled the inside with diesel fumes. The fuel tank had a plastic bag stuffed in it, two doors opened from the outside only and there were no window winders to open or close the windows so some stayed permanently open while others remained shut. We had to push a few times to get going and had to enlist help from some other groups so a 6 hour tour turned into 9 hours! The bonnet was wired on so it didn't fall off and the wheel nuts were all loose! There were no traffic police in the desert.

We climbed rocks and ran up and down sand-hills and drove round in a circle all the time not too far from the camp.

At lunchtime the guide lit a fire in the protected area, made tea, heated some bread, made a salad and opened a can of sardines. We didn't need the food we had bought at Mohammed's shop after all. Our guide played the urd, a traditional guitar, and sang to us. He made the whole experience fun as he had a great smile and took my teasing in good humour.

In the afternoon we saw the spring where Lawrence of Arabia fame drank water and also saw some rocks which were once a house where he stayed.

The first night we arrived there was no hot water although we were told there would be some so we were ready for a shower after our 9 hour tour. We arrived at camp to find there was not even any water let alone hot stuff. We are used to carrying packets of 'baby wipes' for such emergencies. The toilet facilities were pretty squalid really, sewerage flooding the floor, waste water leaking from broken pipes and all this in a protected area. The Mongolians could teach them how to do it better in the desert!

Petra, Jordan

2009-04-22T11:36:00.001-07:00

The hostel we stayed in was pretty basic. There were 3 beds crammed into the small room and a teeny tiny bathroom. We had to sit sideways on the toilet as there was not enough space for our legs in front of the toilet. Next we had to clamber over the toilet in order to use the shower at the end of the room.

The best news was that Kerri's suitcase turned up so we didn't have to share my 3 tops and 2 pairs of trousers any more!

Dan got a better place further up the hill from us. On the way to pick up Kerri from the airport, we chatted to a Polish guy who had just returned from Petra and he told us about Dan's hotel, called Valentine Inn. They had a buffet evening meal with about 50 different dishes, mostly salads; tomatoes in 4 different sauces, eggplants in the same sauces, cucumbers in the same sauces and so on but it was all freshly prepared and a welcome change from chicken and rice, although they had that as well. The thing Dan liked most about the hotel other than the view, the food, and the terrace was the beer!
Buffet dinner at the Valentine Inn

We got up early and bought a two-day ticket to Petra. Our hostel manager dropped us off just before 7 so we could beat the heat and the crowds. It was a cool and peaceful morning and we were able to take photos without hordes of people in the way.

The Siq was caused by tectonic plates separating. After the long walk through the Siq it is quite a dramatic moment when you see the famous treasury for the first time all lit up by the sun above the sandstone hills.

It must have the best photographed camels in the world as well.

The Nabutaeans built the rose-coloured city of Petra in the 3rd century BC with palaces, temples, sacrifice areas, tombs and store rooms. From here they commanded the trading routes from Damascus to Arabia and spice, silk, and slave caravans passed through having to pay taxes and protection money. The Nabutaeans mastered hydraulic engineering, iron production, copper refining, as well as sculpture and stone carving.

The Romans took over in the second century AD building palaces and temples, remains of which can still be seen. A massive earthquake in 555 AD forced the city to be abandoned.

While it was cool we climbed the numerous steps to the High Place of Sacrifice

and could see many of the sandstone temples around the site.
The locals still live in the valley amongst the ruins

It was about 30 Celcius at lunchtime and we managed to find a tree with some shade near the Roman ruins and enjoy our packed lunch while watching the long lines of red-faced, sweaty tour groups trudge in.
Roman theatre
Dan and John explored a few more tombs which had cavernous rooms while Kerri and I looked at the outsides and headed home early on the first day. We walked all the way back to the hostel taking a short cut through a valley where we drenched our heads and hats in cool irrigation water and arrived back the same time as the guys who had taken a taxi!

The next day we were up early again and saw things along the Siq that we hadn't noticed the first day. The light highlights different things at different times of the day. We took the steep route with its 800+ steps to the Monastery and expected a long hard slog to the top so we were pleasantly surprised when we made it in a short time before the jewelery sellers had even unpacked their wares in the shops lining the steps.

We were able to look over the Arabian Desert Valley towards Israel. A souvenir store holder gave us a cup of cardamon tea and we chatted with him before heading down the steps again.

The worst thing about Petra is the number of horses, donkeys, camels and horse and carts going up and down the Siq and the stairs carrying goods and ferrying overweight passengers. In the Siq you have to get out of the way quickly or they could crush you as they thunder past you in the narrow walkway.

Overall we had a great time and were glad we were up and at it early to enjoy everything before the crowds arrived. The city of Wadi Musa ( Valley of Moses ), the name of the city outside Petra, is a hilly place with not much going for it and nothing to hold you there any longer than you need. As soon as we were done we farewelled Dan and caught a taxi to Wadi Rum and the desert.

Amman Revisited and The Dead Sea, Jordan

2009-04-22T11:34:00.001-07:00

We caught a bus to the airport to pick Kerri up from her Etihad flight from Dubai. Her baggage got lost between Melbourne and Amman so she arrived with just what she was wearing, a small day bag and a few necessities. This was probably due to a combination of a couple of things; the new check-in clerk at Auckland airport and the two hour delay of the flight taking off. She was being paged as she dashed to the boarding gate for her connecting flight.

After registering her loss at the Amman airport and getting a clerk's contact number we headed back to central Amman. She managed to get a few hours sleep on the Auckland to Melbourne leg and another 8 hours on the way to Dubai so she was pretty relaxed.
Downtown, Amman
The next day we visited the Roman ruins: the Nymphaeum (fountain), and the restored Amphitheatre. Later we climbed up to the citadel and Umayyad Palace ruins overlooking the city.
Kerri and the tourist policewoman at the amphitheatre.

The hotel was a easy place to meet people and share experiences. We met Mark from Capetown, South Africa and went out for a meal with him. Mark was keen to find somewhere to eat and have a beer but we had not found anywhere in downtown that served food and alcohol. When Mark asked a shop keeper if the place next to him sold beer he directed us down an alley to a small bar ( The Jordan Bar ) where we could buy a local beer called Petra and it was sold in half litre cans of either 8 or 10% alcohol.

Our American friend, Dan, arrived at the hotel and was put in the room next to us by the friendly staff at the hotel who knew we were expecting him. We met Dan in 1981 while backpacking in the Andes. His schedule happened to coincide with ours so we were able to meet up and travel a bit together.

There are not many nice places to eat in downtown. One restaurant had 3 floors, the first floor had the food set out in bainmaries including sheeps' heads floating in broth, the second floor was for men only and the top floor was for women and families. You could point to what you wanted and the waiter brought it up the two flights to your table or you could choose something from the menu. The photos of the dishes on the menu did not represent anything in the bainmaries and the translations didn't help describe what was in the dish.

Another restaurant we found had waiters in jackets and only an Arabic menu. The waiter offered the night's special and two other dishes: a lamb dish and a chicken dish. I once ordered the chicken dish and found it was too much to eat: half a roasted chicken, rice, and three piles of boiled vegetables. When I requested it the second time with only one vegetable and half of the half chicken I was told no, I had to have the whole dish. They serve other meals like sheep brains and stuffed intestines but only offer the tourists the most expensive dishes. It also had a pastry shop of sticky sweet baklavas.
Filo pastries with pistachios and sugar syrup

The hotel served breakfast in the lounge which was so handy: a boiled egg, triangles of spreadable cheese, jam and pita bread. After breakfast with Dan we shared a taxi to Petra with stops along the way.

The first stop was to look at a pile of rocks which the driver called 'lozz'. After some research we realized he was pointing out the pillar of salt that Lot's wife had turned into when she looked back at the city of Sodom.

The next stop was the Dead Sea. We had to pay to use the facilities at the Amman beach resort and to float in the sea.

John, Dan and Kerri relaxing.
By the time we left Amman' Kerri's bags had still not arrived so she had to swim in my pyjamas but enjoyed the float nevertheless. The salt dried out our skin in no time.

The next stop was at the Crusader fortress of Karak

and then at Shobak which had a secret escape tunnel.

The buildings are well camouflaged being made of the same materials as the surrounding area.

We had a good ride in the taxi and arrived at our hotel in Wadi Musa (Petra) in time to wash up and find somewhere for dinner with a beer.

Madaba, Jordan

2009-04-22T11:33:00.001-07:00

We decided to leave the sights of Amman until Kerri arrived from NZ for 2 weeks with us, so we took a bus to Madaba, about an hour from Amman.

Nearly all the streets in the city centre hve been ripped up and new seal and paving is being laid. It will look spectacular when it is finished, but right now the sand blows everywhere and the grinders cutting the stone pavers are both dusty and noisy. The positive thing is that there are no cars any where!

Madaba is pretty laid back. The shop keepers give up hassling you after one attempt of 'Come and look'. There are several nice restaurants in the centre and we enjoyed the hotel where we stayed.

Madaba is nearer the airport than Amman so it is a good option for easing yourself into Jordan.

We visited the Roman ruins where there are several mosaic floors and an old road. They were discovered when a resident wanted to build on the site and it is now a museum and mosaic studio where you can have lessons if you want.

In the Greek Orthodox Church was a mosaic of map of the Holy Land. It was so full of tourists doing a bus tour we missed the ticket office and ticket collector.

We had to do some repairs to our portable water boiler that we had purchased in Syria and the local TV repairman was most obliging. He offered us mint tea while we waited and wouldn't take any payment for soldering the wires back on.

The people of Madaba were very friendly and everyone wishes you a 'Welcome to Jordan' as you pass them in the street.

These lads were sitting at the bus station when we left to go back to Amman. they had pigeons in their boxes and were trying to sell them to the bus passengers.

Jerash, Jordan

2009-04-08T05:57:00.001-07:00

The hotels sell tours to many places around Amman but we decided to catch local transport for a fraction of the price and check out the Roman ruins at Jerash. It was built on a Neolithic settlement dating back 6,500 years.

Excavations have been going on here for 85 years and it is estimated that 90% is still not excavated. Around the 4th century, at the time of Alexander the Great, it possibly had a population of 20,000. The Persians invaded in 614 AD followed by the Muslim conquest in 636 AD. A series of earthquakes in 749 caused the settlement's decline. When the Crusaders came through they described it as uninhabited. The ruins were covered with sand over time and this helped preserve them until they were found in 1806 in quite good condition.
The oval forum
Some of the gates still exist as well as the colonnaded street with the original pavers where you can see the ruts caused by the Roman chariots. In the hippodrome they have revived the chariot races after 1500 years.

The amphitheatres have been restored and are used for annual festivals. Council meetings were held in the theatre and some of the seats still have the name of the tribes written in Greek characters on them. We were sung to by an Irish guy who was encouraged by his guide and the acoustics were great.

There are several temples and remains of a synagogue and several churches.
Mosaics
It was a 24 degree day and every girls' high school in the area decided to have a school trip on the day we chose to visit. Many of them sought us out to practise their few words of English and then giggle after being so brave. It became quite tiresome by the end of the day but great that they felt happy to talk to strangers.

We met this handsome couple at the theatre. He had previously worked for the tourist police at the complex and was showing his wife of one week around. He told us she was his cousin and that he had 5000 cousins, maybe he meant 500 but either way he has a lot of cousins!

Amman, Jordan

2009-04-08T04:56:00.001-07:00

We took a taxi to the outskirts of Damascus and from the bus station there we took a servees (shared taxi). It was a new Korean car and we shared with a Jordanian Muslim lady who never spoke at all and a businessman from Iran who spoke some English. The driver was a young man who loved smoking and speeding; he wound the speedo up to 200kph while texting on his cellphone!

After the exit formalities at the border, the men visited the duty-free shop to buy packets of cigarettes. Once back in the car we were given cartons to carry for them through the Jordanian border controls. At customs, the car was driven over a pit and checked underneath. We had to open our backpacks and everything was taken out of the car. Every bus and its passengers were treated the same way so it was quite a long wait here.

After leaving the fertile fields of Syria we travelled through desert and rocky terrain. There were many rock crushing companies with lots of makeshift tent towns for the workers.

We were dropped at the servees station and were immediately taken over by locals touts who flagged a taxi down and got a 'buksheesh' from the driver, who in turn took it from us even though we had said we didn't want him to tip the guys. The driver didn't believe we had booked a hotel so followed us in to the reception hoping to get his own tip for introducing us to the hotel. It was not the best welcome to Jordan.

We had booked the hotel online and it was the highest rated place that had 3-bedrooms for the time we wanted. Once inside the 4 bedroom they gave us I saw that it was dusty and hadn't been swept for a long time. It was late and we decided that it would be Ok after a sweep. I hunted out the place and got a broom, moved all the beds and swept the walls, shelves and floor. In no time at all I had all the staff apologizing and trying to take over the cleaning. I decided that they had had their chance and had done a lousy job so I would continue while John went off to find another hotel for the next night. After 2 hours of cleaning, dusting the dirty windows and moping the floor, I turned on the fan to get rid of the dust in the air. By this time the manager was apologizing to John and offering us a discount. We had pre-booked 6 days in total to stay here.
The filth that embarrassed them!
After one night in the hotel, and an uncomfortable one at that because of the hard lumpy mattress we moved on to another place across the street. The manager wouldn't charge us for the night as he was still embarrassed. We did notice on leaving that the stairs and hallways had been swept and mopped so hopefully they were embarrassed enough to change their habits.

We explored some of the back streets of the city but didn't visit any sites as our daughter Kerri is arriving in a few days and we will do it with her then.

We sussed out some eating places and were surprised at how few nice places there were nearby.

We met a South African from Capetown, called Mark, and he managed to find a bar where they served local beer called Petra and at 8% alcohol, one was enough. Most places we have eaten do not serve alcohol so it was a rare find.

Downtown Amman is a busy place but not very pretty. The traffic is hectic and the drivers toot incessantly. The people greet you all the time with 'Welcome in Jordan' or 'What's your name?'. That makes a change from the usual 'Wherrre you frrrom?', with the 'r' trilled.

Amman was originally built on seven hill but now covers nineteen. The site of Amman has been continuously occupied since 3500BC. 'Rabbath Ammon' was the capital of the powerful Ammonites in biblical times. In 1900, there were only 2000 people living here and in 1921 King Abdullah made it the capital of Transjordan and today there are 1.8 million.

We have also met some very nice taxi drivers who have given us tips on places to catch buses and have been honest with using the meters.

It is 'high season' for tourists in Jordan and we see lots of tourists, with a lot of them being French.

Zahle, Lebanon

2009-04-03T00:59:00.000-07:00

The city statue.

We caught a minivan (shared taxi) to Chtaura where we had planned to stay and explore more Roman ruins but found that there was no accommodation , other than a four star hotel out of town, so decided to go to the next city of Zahle instead.

What a contrast to anywhere else in Lebanon we have been. The city is built along the banks of a river with houses up the sides of the rocky mountains. The streets were sealed and the paths paved and everything was so clean and organised.

We learnt later that the city had 30 churches and no mosque. We saw very few veiled women and lots of young people driving up and down in their expensive cars talking on their cellphones at the same time. There were advertisements for cola and burbon lining the highways and lots of pubs and nightclubs. Most of these were closed as they open next month when the weather is warmer.

The main street was lined with clothing shops with names like 'Snob', "Flirt', and 'Coquette'. There were so many signs in English and even 'real' supermarkets.

There were the usual Catholic statues of Mary and small shrines on street corners or in parks. The city was the birth place for about 50 poets, writers and thinkers in the past.

We stayed in a hotel that was built in the 1800s and across the street were other buildings of the same age with the same French style of architecture. They had shutters and balconies overlooking the street. Many of the old buildings are being renovated and will give the town a French colonial feel when they are all completed.

We walked to the top of the town and found the open air restaurants that Zahle is famous for. They are jammed into a small space on either side of the river in a small valley and each one is trying to get noticed more than the other. They have playgounds to attract families and canopy-covered areas. None was open but the carpenters and painters were busy painting the canopy frames in bright colours and renovating the kitchens.

The area is also famous for its syrah wines that come from grapes used by the Romans. They also have a strong liquor called arak. We bought a bottle of wine and found a modern bakery selling ciabatta bread and French cheese to get into the European mood of the place.

Baalbek, Lebanon

2009-04-01T04:45:00.000-07:00

We caught a minivan from under the motorway bridge in Beirut and headed back towards the border with Syria. We climbed up over the mountains that still had quite a bit of snow on them. At the summit the road was foggy and there were still piles of snow lining the road where the grader had been.

We came down from the hills into the Bekaa Valley and dropped people off at the towns in the valley. The slopes were covered with many small grape vines and fruit trees. An ancient grape grows well in this area and apparently makes good wine. We have not seen any shops that sell wine or, any alcohol for that matter.

We arrived late afternoon in Baalbek and found the first hotel we visited too cold and lacking any kind of heating. The wind was blowing off the snow on the hills above the city so it was important to find a warm place. Eventually we settled on a pension overlooking a narrow main street. It was spotless and had a heater in the middle of the room that had a flue which crossed from one side of the room to the other, over the top of the hanging lights, and out a hole in the wall where it bellowed the black diesel soot outside. The manager told us that he only had generator electricity from 6pm to 12am but the rest of the rest of the day he had mains electricity to heat the hot water. There was a huge lounge with a well decorated diesel heater too and a balcony that got the sun so we could wash and dry our clothes.

Baalbek is famous for its ruins and is another World Heritage site. It is also the home to Hezbollah (Party of God). The Phoenicians named the city Baal after the sun god. The Greeks called it Heliopolis, City of the Sun, and the Romans made it a worship place for their god Jupiter.
The ruins are quite grand. There are temples to Venus and Bacchus as well as a huge court, altars and baths. The entrance fee is expensive and although there are information boards on the site many of them have been damaged and are useless.

The museum, with a few relics, is underground and was freezing cold at this time of the year. Parts of the complex had been turned into a mosque as well. It was interesting to learn that many Roman structures took centuries to build so many were never completed and there are some pillars where the outline has been chiselled and the detail work was never finished.

Just out of the town is a huge spring where the Romans got water. It is now surrounded by vans decked out to sell coffee and hire out hubbly bubbly pipes. The spring is littered with plastic coffee cups and other rubbish that the goldfish swim around. Ducks have made nests on the Roman ruins in the centre of the pond too.

There is a beautifully tiled mosque at the entrance to the city. The handmade tiles have patterns as well as Arabic script on them.

We read that the town used to export ice to Egypt!

There is not a lot to do here but we have enjoyed being out of the bustling large cities and walk about looking at the locals as they carry on with their daily life. We have a backgammon set that our friend Gerti gave us for Christmas and John keeps beating me at that. We exchanged books at a hotel in Damascus and have been sitting in the sun doing some reading and genrally relaxing as the next month will be quite hectic when our daughter will join us.

We have just had news that John's mum, aged 95, has had a small stroke so we are keeping in touch with family who are taking care of her and letting us know how she is doing.

Saida, Lebanon

2009-03-31T06:53:00.000-07:00

We headed back to the bus stop under the motorway and caught a small bus to Saida, a short journey from Beirut. Saida precedes Beirut with habitation as it was a prominent and wealthy Phoenician city 6000 years ago.

Just before we arrived in the town centre we passed many families sitting in the long grass, beside the road, having picnics. The men had their hubbly bubbly pipes out and the women were organising the food and children.

Near the city centre is a small island housing a 13th century sea castle founded by the Crusaders. The sea was polluted with styrafoam, old tyres, and thousands of black plastic bags. A strong wind was blowing and the rubbish bobbed on the surface near the sea wall. Coffee vendors tied huge canvas umbrellas to the handrails on the footpath to provide shelter and to entice customers but it was too cold and uncomfortable for that.

The caravanserai was deserted although it was well renovated and in good condition. Maybe it is full of stall holders in the peak season. The bazaar was well presented having been recently renovated. It was the cleanest and best organised one we have seen so far. We could see the furniture makers at work and no one pestered us to look or buy.

We found the Soap Museum that dated back to the 17th century. It has been financed by a foundation and they have a short film showing the processes and have kept the original workshop as it was. The soap is made with olive oil and a bar can take a year or longer to dry.

As we left Saida along the coast road we saw dozens and dozens of young people lining the street. They had their cars parked with music blaring and were watching boys on motorbikes racing up and down the public 4 lane highway around the commuter traffic. The police were nearby but didn't seem to do anything about the racing. The bikes had numbers so it was some kind of organised race. It reminded us of the 'boy racers' in our area, but they come out at night.

Beirut, Lebanon

2009-03-31T05:55:00.001-07:00

The bus station for buses to Beirut, was a long way out of Damascus, so we took a taxi and were able to bargain the driver down to the price the hotel manager gave us. We left on a Friday morning and the streets were deserted as it was the first day of the Muslim weekend. What a different place, no noise, no shops open and not many taxis tooting at anyone walking on the footpath.

There were no signs in English script at the bus station and we met up with 4 French girls and one was able to speak Arabic so she helped us find the right bus and let us know what time it was leaving.

The bus was completely full and we had no problems getting through the Syrian border exit. At the Lebanese border we had to fill in documents and change money with the money changers outside on the street as we had to pay for our 15 day tourist visa inLebanese pounds. Had we known we could have used an ATM at the arrivals office and not had to exchange our Syrian currency for such a poor rate. Our guide book has a lot of useful information and already it is out of date about the ATM that are available now. Later we used a machine and found that it also dispensed American dollars too.

There is no bus station in Beirut. The bus stopped under a motorway bridge and dropped us at the roundabout there. There was an army tank with soldiers in it stationed under the bridge and several others pacing up and down the intersection with their rifles. Of course we were tooted at by every taxi that came around. Luckily the French girls found a local who told us to wait for a bus and it would be a fraction of the cost of a taxi and drop us a short walk from our hotel.

The hotel turned out to be not far from the beach and the main shopping street in Beirut. There is a brand new corniche all along the waterfront and as soon as the sun came out it was full of people watching people. The waves were very high and crashed onto the rocks and up onto the footpath in places. The newly planted palm trees had their branches tied together as the wind had shredded many of them.

One day there was a marathon on the street beside the beach and we watched as hundreds of kids got into groups ready to race. The Muslim girls looked very hot in their scarves, long sleeved tops and long pants. We saw one end her race and pass out from the heat and had to be put in an ambulance. It was the hottest day that we have had for a long time too.

The Civil Wars and wars with Israel ended in 2000 and there are still a lot of buildings full of bullet holes and deserted but there are lots of new modern glass sky scrappers going up everywhere. In the shopping street there were the usual Starbucks, Mc Donald's and clothing chains that you would see in any other large city around the world. We were able to stock up on some supplies from a huge French supermarket in the city.

There is a large American University in the city and we saw lots of American students in the internet cafes and heard them on the streets. At night the streets near the university are crowded with cars 3 deep as the passengers buy coffee and snacks from the fast food shops that are crammed along the streets in front of the university. There are guys running up and down the street with trays of coffee to go and snacks for the lazy drivers who do not want to get out of their cars. There are lots of expensive cars in this city and many are huge 4 wheel drive ones.

They love their cars here. You take your life in your hands crossing the streets. They like to use their horns to tell you to hurry up, move over or ask if you want a taxi or minivan. Some of the horns sound like ambulances or police sirens. The women drivers are as wild as the male ones. Police direct the traffic at the traffic lights. I am not sure why that is, but it may be because the drivers don't take any notice of the traffic lights, signs etc. When they can the drivers like to make their wheels squeal and the noise goes on all night.The weekend here is Saturday and Sunday, but it feels like any other day of the week and is hectic all the time.

Before the war with Israel the population was 50% Muslim and 50% Christian. Due to the Christian exodus and the higher Muslim birthrate the population is now 70% Muslim, made up of Shiites, Druzes, and Sunni. Palestinian refugees make up 9%.

From our hotel window we looked onto an empty piece of land that had been cleared of its buildings and left to grow grass and collect rubbish. Three young lads turned up one day and shucked sweetcorn, boiled fava beans in a huge saucepan on an open fire in the yard and titivated up their trolley and headed off to sell to the strollers on the corniche.

Damascus, Syria

2009-03-26T06:42:00.000-07:00

Syria has 20 million people and 90% of them are Arabs. Damascus has 5 million!

From the bus to the capital we saw snow on the hills just outside Damascus and knew we needed to keep our warm clothes handy!

There seem to be more yellow taxis than private cars in the city and they all seem to have more than one horn. They don't like stopping at lights or crossings either. We felt like we were back in Vietnam where you have to step out into the traffic and let it weave around you. It is always easier if you tag behind a local though. It is preparing us for Cairo.

We had to negotiate a price for a ride in a shared taxi (called servees) to the city centre where we were dropped not far from the hotel we read about in our guide book. We had no reservations and had to negotiate a 4 day stay with the manager in a small but popular place for backpackers. The hotel is clean and conveniently located near the old city and bazaars. In the centre of the hotel is a covered courtyard and at night they put on the heating and turned on the fans to blow the hot air down from the high ceiling so it was quite pleasant.

There are many tourists in the hotel from France and Air France inflight magazines lying about the place. Unfortunately, they keep to themselves and seem only to be interested in others who speak French.

We have walked through all the bazaars (souqs) in the old city and followed the signs for the handicraft markets and historical sites. We wondered if there was a map to go with the signs but when we asked at the tourist office they only had the one map we have found every where else in the country and nothing else.

The president features a lot on posters, in hotel foyers, on taxi windows (wearing sunglasses), in shops, on mosque walls and flags. When you ask about him the locals say they love him and he does a good job.

Internet access has been very poor here in Syria. We still cannot load photos and the service is erratic.

We had a few hours at the National Museum but it was quite frustrating as there are cases with labels and no exhibits and exhibits with no labels. There are signs in Arabic and French and hardly any in English. The numbers on the exhibits don't match the explanations or the numbers on the explanation are not on the exhibits! Some of the areas say no photos and in others the guards are pressing you to take photos. A lot of the areas are not well lit so they are a strain to view and there is no floor plan to tell you where things are or what there is to see. Nevertheless we found some interesting things.

The most well known mosque here is the Umayyad Mosque. We had to go to the 'clothes changing place' and I had to put on a hooded grey gown and we had to pay to enter. It was quite busy and there were religious leaders talking to groups of worshipers in small clusters around the mosque.

The sign at the entrance told us not to leave our shoes unattended so we had to carry them with us.

The black basalt and white limestone building was enormous and there were several small shrines with tombs of revered religious leaders.

In the streets are men selling green almonds, they look like a skinny hairy long baby peaches, and this guy had a particularly well presented trolley. It had plastic flowers and a glass jar with live goldfish in it.

There are very few women working in public places; I think we saw one loading a bucket at a building site and a couple in a bus office. Only one place we have stayed had women cleaners. This well decorated shop sells perfume and we have only ever seen men purchasing it.

We found the Azem Palace at the end of a lot of narrow winding lanes. It was built in 1779 by the governor of Damascus. It was built so he would have a refuge from the busy city and have a place to relax after all the difficult decisions he needed to make. It had fountains and an internal courtyard just for the women and children. Another area was built just for the men, from which they were unable to see the women or governor's family members.

Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and has been occupied by Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Umayyads, Mongols, Turks and French and they have all left something behind for the city.

Frequently throughout the day the electricity failed and the shop keepers in the bazaar had their generators roaring. This stall holder was selling brocade

and this man in traditional dress, some kind of drink.

LATER
After visiting Lebanon we returned to Syria in order to go on to Jordan. During our one night stay we met Frederick, Joachim and Annette who come from Konigswinter, Germany.

They were very surprised that we knew where they lived and that we had visited their small town when we had Christmas with our friend Gerti. We look forward to when they visit us in New Zealand one day.

Palmyra, Syria

2009-03-26T06:15:00.000-07:00

Palmyra is a dirty, dusty desert town, and used to be an Assyrian caravan town for over 1000 years. The Greeks took it over for another 2 centuries and Rome annexed it in AD 217.

Zenobia was a half -Greek, half-Arab queen who became the ruler of Palmyra in 267 and the ruins of the palace are here. The city was torched and the rest fell to an earthquake in 1089. Most of the ruins are free to visit and we were able to avoid the entrances with the vendors so as not to be pestered to buy scarves and such. There were a few signs to tell you about the temples so we didn't need a guide.
We were not sure if these tents were for Gypsies or Bedouins.

There is a huge area of ruins in to visit here and tourism is what keeps the town going. There has been a drop in the number of tourists so the local vendors are pretty desperate to make money and when ever you are out and about they are urging you to buy, have a look, taste their dates, or ride the camel and horses, buy jewellery, and buy carpets.

There are nicely decorated tourist offices in Syria but they don't have any helpful information. They have one map of the country routes and nothing else. The staff are usually chatting or drinking tea with their mates and don't work like other offices around the world.

We liked the Towers of Yemliko. The towers were used to store the dead and then they were sealed with a plaster slab on which was a relief of the deceased. They sat outside the city walls on the hills surrounding the site.

At night the Roman arches and pillars were lit and quite a sight. It was pretty windy and freezing cold in Palmyra and it felt like the wind was coming off the snow. We expected nice hot desert weather but had to drag the long-johns and thermals from the bottom of our packs once again.

The locals love to ride up and down on their motorbikes. The only people walking are the tourists. The motorbikes are covered in frilled upholstery cloth and they decorate them with signs and stickers.

This camel head was hanging on a hook outside a butcher shop, the rest of it was inside. It was for sale for 300 Syrian Pounds ($40 NZ).

We had planned on a few days' stay here but decided to head for the 'big smoke' after two nights. We caught a bus out and John had to sit in the front with the men and I had to cram in the back with the vomiting children, and women for the hot 2 and a half hour trip to Damascus.

Hama, Syria

2009-03-26T03:06:00.000-07:00

Hama and Homs are two cities that the guide book recommends you stay at and then take excursions from them to sites you want to visit. We chose to bus to Hama and were glad we did. When we arrived at the bus station, we decided to walk into the city centre and find a hotel. We headed off and found many people staring at us and greeting us with 'Welcome, where are you from?' It was a strange feeling , like they had never seen Westerners before. We continued walking and found ourselves in a residential area where a fruit seller greeted us and gestured ' Where are you going?'. When we told him, he hailed a taxi and negotiated a price with the driver and sent us off in the right direction. He never spoke a word of English and we could only say 'thank you' in Arabic. We then realized why everyone was staring at us.

That was a great introduction to the city. It was a calm, peaceful place where we were left alone to get on with what we wanted to do.

Hama is famous for its wooden waterwheels, some of them are 20 metres in diameter, but none were operating and didn't look like they had for a long time. They used to take the water from the river and direct it onto the stone aquaducts and off to the fields. The river had very little water and most of it was stagnant and smelly with loads of rubbish lying exposed.

Our guide book says that Syrian food is 'simply superb', but we have got tired of eating kebabs and swarma (like a kebab on an upright rotisserie), so we were happy to find a hotel that allowed us to use the kitchen to cook some food. We went to the market and found some fresh vegetables and cooked a large vegie stew. The hotel had many Asian travellers, from China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan who loved to be able to cook noodles and rice so there was a long queue for the stove. It is not common to be able to cook in a hotel in this part of the world.

There is a huge hill in Hama where the remains of the citadel are and when we trudged our way up there we found large groups of school children and family groups picnicing. The children followed us about practising the only phrases of English they know, "Hello, where are you from?" and "What's your name?". There are many people with fair skin, blue or green eyes, as well as ginger hair. The girls like John's blue eyes and crowd around around him to chat.

We took a local minivan to see the Crusader castle of Crac Des Chevaliers. The Crusader knights developed the original fortress built on the site in 1031 to the present day castle in the 12th century. It is pretty well preserved and buses pull in all the time with tourists.

There seem to be a lot of elderly people doing tours and many needed help to get up and down the steep stone steps around the castle. Luckily for them there were always some locals who were willing to push and pull them up and down in exchange for a small tip! Unfortunately for the camel and horse owners there were not enough fit and able people to mount their animals so they could make money too.

The castle was built to house a garrison of 2000 but when the numbers fell to below 200 the Crusaders gave it up. They were surrounded by armies of Islam and probably decided it was not worth it even though they had enough supplies to last five years.

We had a few problems returning to Hama by minivan as there were not enough people to fill a van for the return journey. We waited and hour or so and then were joined by a couple of ladies and two workers and had to pay a little more for our return journey than it had cost us to arrive. That's the way it works here if you don't want to take tours to get to sites.

It was rather difficult to find reasonable places to eat in Hama and we ended up in a 4 star place one night. It was well decked out with white linen and suited waiters. the upstairs area was a cafe where there were mainly Muslim women drinking coffee and smoking the sheesha pipes (nagile). The roof was glass and no sooner had we sat down when they drew the roof curtains with an electric motor. The restaurant where we ate was practically empty so I wonder if it will still be running next year.

Our hotel was pretty good but so many people in Syria smoke, and the ceilings have a black ring around the top of them, where the smoke settles. There is always the smell of stale smoke in the linen as well. The beds here have only a bottom sheet and we have never encountered this any where else we have been to date. I was able to drag out my silk sleeping sheet again for a more comfortable sleep. There was a TV in our room with 500+ channels so we were able to see the film clips of the new island that has exploded out of the ocean off Samoa and keep up to date with what is happening in the world.

Dead Cities, Syria

2009-03-20T06:22:00.000-07:00

We took a tour with two other women from our hotel in Aleppo to the Dead Cities. Our driver spoke enough English to chat about his life and we headed off in his battered yellow taxi.

First we visited the ruins of the Basilica of Saint Simeon (Qala'at Samaan). St Simeon was an eccentric Christian who spent from 423 AD living on a pillar for 36 years.

The Basilica was built after he died to commemorate him. It is now in ruins but was once quite a sight atop a rocky hill.

Next we visited the dead city of Al- Bara. The ruins of a couple of tombs are in the middle of olive and fruit plantations.

Alexander the Great over ran the city and then an earthquake in the 12th century finished off the remains.

The dead city of Serjilla was more extensive and has been deserted for about 15 centuries. The buildings were very large and made from huge blocks of rock with archways inside some of the rooms.

None of the sites have signs or information about them as you are supposed to hire a guide to learn more and they pop up where ever you are willing to offer their services. The locals graze their sheep and goats in and around the ruins and the local kids leave their rubbish inside them so they are not well looked after.

The last place we saw was Ebla, which is still being excavated. It had the foundations of several royal palaces and an area that was used to keep lions for sacrifices. It had signs forbidding people on the excavations and large information boards describing the preservation methods being used to keep the mud brick buildings from deteriorating. 15,000 cuneiform tablets were unearthed from the library here in 1980. The oldest alphabet was also discovered here along with the oldest musical score. When it is completed it will be a popular place.

We had a fast drive back and the taxi managed over 220 kph taking on more powerful buses. The driver managed to avoid cars coming at him on the wrong side of the road and the shepherds kept their sheep from straying in front of us while grazing in the grass strip in the middle of the motorway.

Aleppo, Syria

2009-03-20T05:26:00.000-07:00

As the beehive houses were closed in Harran, Turkey we had to flag down a minibus on the side of the dusty road to catch a ride to the Turkey-Syria border. There were many mud brick houses and obviously poor people at work in the fields and around the houses.

The border crossing was a dusty wind-blown place. There were queues of trucks on both sides of the border and a brand new covered building stood unused on the Syrian side. We had to stand in the wind outside a small shed, filling in forms that wanted to know our mothers' and fathers' name, then we had to go to another shed that was the bank where we had to pay $60US for a Syrian visa.

The customs guy told us the bus station was 1 and a half kilometres away so we started to walk. A man in a mini van picked us up and dropped us at the station, which was a long way away. There was no bus so we had to take a mini van to Raqqaq, to join the main bus route.
Once inside the Raqqa bus station, we were besieged by about 10 different men yelling at us to take a bus from their company. It is such a crazy system. You have to find out from each, what time they are going, how much, work out who will leave next, and then find one that is the price you want to pay or with a company that has reasonable buses. They grab at you and shake their heads and wave their arms around and we have to decipher what they mean by all these gestures, yes, no, maybe, never! We were the only people at the station and no sooner had we got into the bus when small groups of people arrived to join us. They come a few minutes before the bus is ready to leave and before too long the bus was full and on its way.

We finally got on a comfortable bus to Aleppo and drove through a dust storm. All around was sand and rubbish blew every where. The fruit trees had them stuck on their branches and they were tangled in the vegetables. Rubbish is dumped any where, especially black plastic bags.
We drove past irrigated fields of wheat and there were people camped in the fields under tents made from plastic bags and scraps of material. They were grazing their sheep and goats on the edges of the fields and the sides of the road.

On the edge of Aleppo's old town we found a lovely spotless hotel. It used to be run by a 97 year old lady who had died 4 months before. We met Akhmet who ran the desk at night. He came from a Kurdish family in the north and at 28 wanted to marry. He has been studying archaeology for 5 years as well as working in the hotel. He sends money home to his dad who invests it in animals for his dowry. He currently has 7 sheep, 5 hens and a donkey but is still having difficulty finding a wife.
Akhmet

It was raining and very cold on our first day so we spent it at the local museum. The most interesting display was the almost complete skeleton of a two year old found in a cave and estimated to be from between 40,000 and 200,000 years BC.

Citadel
Aleppo is a dirty, noisy, crowded city. The old city has many narrow lanes that have renovated houses in them that are now cafes, restaurants or hotels but they are all very expensive and noticeably cleaner than the local streets.

Buildings are half finished, as are the footpaths and streets, but there is an enormous nearly completed sports hall and international football stadium not far from the city centre. It has been a long time since we have seen such a poor place.

There are lots of children working, selling chewing gum, cleaning shoes, as well as begging to get money for their families.

Aleppo is quite conservative so there are many women wearing headscarves and long coats. There are a few with their faces covered and only their eyes showing but not many. A group of girls passed me and felt my hair- I have never had that happen before but I do hear from blonde women and ginger headed women that it happens to them. Some men 'shsh shsh' at me as they go by and one even said he loved me!

There are an amazing number of people here with ginger hair and blue eyes as well as some with dark hair, fair skin and green-grey eyes. Our guide book says they may be of Berber origins.

We had a lucky find in a shop full of plastic toys and flick knives: a portable element for heating water. We bought one in Japan and it blew up after a few uses, we bought another in the Philippines but it leaves a cloud of black copper bits in the cup, so we were happy to be able to replace it for a few NZ dollars and bought all the guy was selling.
We have been having a lot of problems loading our photos to our blog in Syria.

Sanliurfa, Turkey

2009-03-20T04:25:00.000-07:00

We caught a comfortable bus to Sanliurfa in eastern Turkey, a dry rocky area, where many Kurdish people live. We were touted by a young man who took us to his uncle's guesthouse. The uncle, Assiz and his wife Farada, were Kurdish and used to live life as Bedouins between two rivers. They had 14 children, of whom 6 are married, and only the youngest aged 19 is living at home.

It was interesting to hear Assiz talk about his life. He was 18 when he married Farada who was 14 at the time. At a gathering he rode his horse through a group of girls and grabbed Farada. He took her back to his black goat-hair tent and shut her in, so began their life together.

Assiz is the same age as John and Farada the same age as me. She had a tattoo on her forehead of the sun, a symbol of a Bedouin, and a tattoo on her chin of the v-shaped tent peg used to anchor the tents.

We stayed one night with Assiz and Farada but found the house extremely cold and the facilities uncomfortable so we left the next day. Unfortunately we did not get a photo of the couple as they became quite angry when we said we were not staying as long as we had originally intended to. They used to rent a property as a guesthouse and the guests who have signed his visitors book from those days wrote some good reviews but now they have bought the present place and it needs a lot of work to make it more comfortable but they were charging as much as it cost to stay in a 2-star hotel.

We headed off and stayed in a 2-star place in town and enjoyed the delights of cable TV, comfy beds, hot showers and free Wifi.

Sanilurfa is a sacred city as prophet Abraham (Ibrahaim) was born in a cave in the city. There is a well kept public park around the main mosque and cave area where families picnic and feed the sacred but already over-fed fish in the ponds.

Above the city are the remains of the fortress built on the remains of a settlement dating to 9500BC. We were able to look down on the activities in the mosque

where the men formed small groups to pray together and others arrived at the covered bathing area to wash their face,

hands and feet, before finding a place either inside or outside to pray.

Assiz had showed us around the covered bazaar, some of it from Roman times, and we tried to find our way ourselves but after getting lost about 3 times managed to work out where everything was.

We joined the men in an old caravanserai courtyard for a cup of tea. The men were playing cards, backgammon, chatting, playing with their worry beads, and some were even playing rummicub.

In the new city there were rows of jewellers selling gold jewellery. It is used as an investment or dowry for marriage. It is time to vote for a new mayor and the streets were full of photos of the candidates and there was a street march of supporters in their candidate's party colours. Mini vans and buses were decorated with the candidates smiling face and loud speakers bellowed out his promises accompanied by loud wailing music. This din went on late into the night.

Not far from Sanilurfa is a small town called Harran. It is famous for its ancient 'beehive' houses. They are built of mud bricks and then covered with mud and the rooves are mounded up like an old fashioned beehive. Unfortunately they were closed when we arrived and if we paid an English speaking guide about $200US we could have done a tour and they would have opened them for us.
Harran village
There are many young men, including Assiz's son, who have gone to university to study tourism and work at the seaside resorts on the western coast of Turkey. At this time of the year, being low season. they return to their families and make money by being guides.

Overall, we have found the small part of Turkey that we visited this time around, to have very friendly people. We have heard that the more touristy areas are different, but eastern Turkey gets a lot of bad publicity as people think there are Kurds there who will attack them.

Gaziantep, Turkey

2009-03-13T11:34:00.000-07:00

After a day's delay, due to a stormy sea, we were finally able to take a bumpy fast-ferry from Kyrenia, Cyprus to Tasucu, Turkey. We were whisked into a taxi with a young Japanese couple and dropped at the bus station in Silifke and instantly bundled into a bus by the station touts. You only have to say the place you are going to and there is a rush to get you there.

The bus had a steward and he served hot tea or coffee from a little trolley as well as coke or fruit juice. He frequently changed the TV channel so we could listen to a Turkish music channel or the news, in Turkish, or some soap opera. He also made sure we smelt nice by squirting a lemon scented cologne into our hands. It was a smooth bus ride on a smooth road and a real treat.

We headed for Mersin, a port city with not much of interest for tourists. We arrived just before sunset, which is about 5.30, and had enough time to find a hotel across the road from the station (there are no hotels listed in our hostelworld or hostelbookers site) and dump our packs before heading off to find somewhere to eat.

Stepping out in the noisy, dusty, busy street made us feel we had turned the clock back to 1977 when we were last in Turkey. What a familiar feeling!

We stopped to look into a bakery window at the trays of baklava and other sugar-soaked sweets when the window was slid open and two pieces of baklava were thrust into our hands. What a friendly place!

We had no map but managed to find a busy street with restaurants and spotted a stuffed eggplant dish that we wanted to try. The dish came with bread, a salad of giant radishes, flat-leafed parsley, fresh lemons and green chillies.

Dried eggplants and red capsicums

The people working in the shops were very friendly calling hello and smiling at us. When we returned to the hotel the receptionist brought us some tea and sat down to talk to us about his city. He explained how the city was an important processing area for dried seeds and grains. A lot of almonds, pistachios, and walnuts are grown in the area and he was a qualified food technician involved in the industry but obviously not full time.

With nothing to keep us in Mersin we took a cramped minivan (dolmush) to Adana. It stopped every few hundred meters to pick up and drop passengers off even if there was no set for them. The bus terminal was 6 kms outside of the city and there was little of interest there for us so we caught another comfortable bus onto Gaziantep.

In the minibus, from the bus terminal into the city, we were asked by two university students if we needed any help. We told them where we wanted to go and they took us to our hotel. The people are so friendly in Turkey.

While in Mersin we contacted a man on the couchsurfing website to see if he would be free to have a drink with us at lunchtime in Gaziantep. He replied and we went to see Cahit at his law office and had lunch with him. His office has a cook and we ate a delicious local dish of eggplants, garlic, mince and yoghurt, which we shared with Cahit and his colleagues. It was the first couchsurfing contact that we have been able to make from the CS project site and we learnt a lot about Cahit and his life. It's a great way to meet people who want to meet new people.

Gaziantep is quite high up so we found the 9 Celcius temperatures rather cool after the 19 degrees on the coast. We found more friendly people as we looked around the city, the pistachio seller who offered us a tasting and wanted to chat

the carob drink seller who pushed a free sample in our hands,

the nargileh (water-pipe) smoker who called us in for a chat and was happy to have a photo taken.

These two ladies enjoying a quiet sunny spot thought John was taking a photo of me by the fountain!

The old fortress above the city was being renovated but we were able to read about the history of Gaziantep. We had not known that the French and the Kurds had fought against the Turks in 1918-1921.

Below the fortress is an old bath house that is still used today.

In the same area, a cluster of artisans shops has been renovated and we were able to watch the blacksmiths making hoes and the copper makers plating jugs. In between these two was a shop selling yoghurt. It didn't seem an appropriate place for an open food stall.

We ate in a restaurant that has been preparing food since 1887 and all round had a superb time here in Gaziantep.

Famagusta, Northern Cyprus

2009-03-07T05:04:00.000-08:00

With some daylight hours left after driving down the Karpas Peninsula we headed for the ruins of Salamis about 9 kms from Famagusta / Magusta or Gazimagusta (T). Ancient Salamis was one of the city kingdoms of Cyprus. It was dated on an ancient Assyrian stele in 709 BC. In the 6th century BC it minted its own money and became a philosophical and literary centre with many Greek poets visiting the royal court.

It was destroyed by the Persians in 306 BC and under the Romans from 294 BC to 58 BC it flourished. In the 6th and 7th centuries it was raided by the Arabs and left in ruins.

We followed the site maintenance crew as they put in new information boards around the area, which was wonderful, as we would not have been able to work out what the jumble of rocks were otherwise.

From the ruins we could see it would have been an impressive city. There was a huge gymnasium with hot pools, steam rooms and cold water pools. The baths under floor heating system was still distinguishable from the ruins. I sat on one of the 44 flush toilets off the exercise yard.

In the portico were statues that had been beheaded by Christian zealots who saw them as symbols of pagan idolatry.

Only the foundations for the 4th century Kambanopetra Basilica were visible along with the sun mosaic.

The amphitheatre was destroyed in an earthquake but has now been restored and looks like it is back in use.

There were several water cisterns, the remains of a two-storey Roman villa, and a walkway where produce was sold.

As the sunset we headed into Famagusta city to check out the Venetian walls with its moat around the old city centre.

In the main square is Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque, an example of Lusignan Gothic architecture built in the early 1300s. It was originally a cathedral but the Ottomans destroyed some of it and added a minaret to the left side and it is still used as a mosque today.

In the southern part of the city is Maras (T) / Varosia (G). In 1974, the Greek residents fled the city when the Turkish army moved into the north. Maras was Famagusta's Riviera and the Greeks ran the hotels overlooking the beach resorts. They left quickly, thinking they would return in a few days, and continue with their businesses and lives. The area is surrounded by barbed wire fences and concrete filled drums. The UN guard the area and journalists who have been inside say that breakfast dishes are still sitting unwashed and light bulbs still burning after 35 years. There are stories that a car dealership still has 1974 models sitting in the showroom.

Karpas Peninsula, Northern Cyprus

2009-03-07T04:57:00.001-08:00

In our hired car with Guen and Mark from Canada on board, we headed north to explore the north east coast and the panhandle spit of the Karpas/Karpasia (G)/ Kirpasha (T) Peninsula. All we read, said it was an isolated part of the country and would be a glimpse of how the country used to be. So of course that is what we expected. However, there was a lot of development and the road was even sealed all the way even though it had been suggested that we take a 4x4 vehicle. The coast had clusters of apartment buildings in various stages of construction waiting for owners.

A lot of the beaches are sandy and are where the endangered green turtles, and the 'vulnerable' loggerhead turtles come ashore to lay eggs

The electricity lines, we were told, stopped at the village of Dipkarpaz, but we followed power lines all the way to the Monastery of Apostolos Andreas. The monastery is being renovated and the elderly nun at the monastery cleared away litter and fed her meowing family of about 30 cats. The wind was very cold and the sea was rough. There was a small bus of tourists but only one souvenir seller had his stall open, the other 20 remained covered with plastic sheeting.

Twice a year Greek Cypriot pilgrims come to the monastery as many miracles have happened to the monastery visitors.

Nearby the monastery is an area that is now a nature reserve and we saw several wild donkeys. When people fled Cyprus in 1974 many donkeys were abandoned. We didn't continue to the top of the peninsula as we had many things to see on out return trip.

Kyrenia, Northern Cyprus

2009-03-07T04:51:00.001-08:00

We based ourselves at Kyrenia (G) / Girne (T), where we stayed in a holiday villa. It was a nice place, like a NZ motel, and just down the road was a 24 hour supermarket. Unfortunately, it was a long way from the city centre, but at least we could flag down a mini-van- dolmush at the gate.

Northern Cyprus is so different from the Republic and is instantly noticeable: there are less tourists, less brand label shops, more older buildings, no large groups of foreign students and the people are really friendly.

We met a young Canadian couple at the villa and together we hired a car to visit some of the sights as there was no public transport and we would have to depend on taxis. St Hilarion is an impressive castle complex on the rocky peaks of the Kyrenia mountain range above Kyrenia city. It is one of the three castles that were used to defend the area. Warning fires were lit from the castles to warn of attackers.

In some places it was difficult to distinguish the mountain from the castle as they melded together. The complex stretched along the ridge line and the cold wind was pretty strong at the top. Luckily they had pipe rails to hold onto. On a clear day you should be able to see the Taurus Mountains in Turkey but it was hazy for us.

There were lots of wild flowers in sheltered spots of the castle and many were endangered. This plant had leaves flat to the ground and only the flowers sticking up.

Below the castle was a huge Turkish Military Camp and we could see and hear them practicing at the rifle range. In 1974, the Turkish army used the castle as a base.

Kyrenia is the only decent port in the north and the small harbour near the original Kyrenia fort is now too small so a new harbour has been built to take the car ferry, catamaran ferry and ships bringing goods from Turkey.

Northern Cyprus is a lot more expensive than the Republic as so many goods are imported from Turkey. Kyrenia was a popular place for British civil servants to retire to after they had finished their time in various parts of the British Empire. When the troubles of 1974 started many Greeks and Brits fled. Today there are about 4000 Britons living in the north but there are warnings for the new settlers to beware as unscrupulous land agents will sell land that is still owned by those who fled.
This can be seen as you drive along the motorway from Nicosia towards Kyrenia and at night the crescent and star is lit up.

North Nicosia, Northern Cyprus

2009-03-07T04:44:00.000-08:00

From our base in Kyrenia (G) / Girne (T), we took a dolmush (mini-van) to the North Cyprus' capital, North Nicosia (E & T) / Lefkosa (G). The old city is surrounded by a circular 16th century Venetian stone wall with 12 arrow-shaped bastions making the outline look like a circular saw blade.

Nicosia has aways been Cyprus' capital. The wall couldn't keep the Ottomans - they stayed until the British took control in 1878.The EOKA, a group who wanted Cyprus returned to Greece, saw violence in the 1950s. The 17% Turkish Cypriots didn't want that and so there was more carnage in the 1960s. Britain, Turkey and Greece became 'guarantor powers' to the independent Republic of Cyprus.

Violence continued and the Turkish Cypriots withdrew from parliament. In 1974, the country was divided and a British officer drew a line through Nicosia with a green pen and today this is called The Green Line and still separates the Turkish north part of Nicosia from the Greek south part of the city. We were able to easily go from one side to the other with stamps on a paper visa form but it took 29 years for the locals to be able to cross the Green Line to reunite with families and friends on the other side. The Green Line is manned by the UN today.

I wanted a photo of the sign on the dividing barb-wired wall although photos are forbidden. Just as John had finished taking it a soldier arrived to tell him not to take any photos. You can see his head over the top of the fence. These signs are every where in Cyprus where there are UN troops, British bases and on the dozens of Turkish military bases in the North.

The old city is delightful here. The UN Development Programme has spent a lot of money in Nicosia on upgrading the old city and restoring its bath houses, churches, mosques, bazaars and inns.
Local archtecture
This 16th century caravanserai from the Ottoman time of the Middle Ages was used to accommodate travellers, stable their animals, trade their goods and catch up on the all important gossip.

Limassol, Republic of Cyprus

2009-03-07T04:41:00.001-08:00

A short shared-taxi ride from Pafos is Limassol (E), Lemesos (G), Limasol(T).

Public transport is limited in Cyprus. We were told that the taxi companies pay the bus companies not to run buses. This means there are very few buses but lots of mini vans running as shared-taxis. You call the taxi company and they pick you and lots of others up from where ever you are and drop you all off in order at the places you want to go at the end of the run. This means you have to have access to a phone and the company number, or you need to know where the office is so you can wait there, or you have to be lucky that a shared taxi is passing where you are waiting and has space for you and your bags.

We stayed in an old, cold, uninsulated hostel run by two old men, Older than us, that is. The hostel overlooked the small pedestrian street so it was quiet. We met people who had come from the Middle East so we were able to get some information on Jordan and places to go and we were able to give them some information too. This is such a nice thing about hostelling.

It was a two day holiday in Lemesos and the waterfront sculpture park was full of picnickers. It looked like every migrant worker had been given a day off and they were eating their traditional food and catching up with other workers from their country. Many of the middle class and wealthy Cypriots want to have nannies, gardeners and housekeepers so they register them as students at any of the numerous universities. This means that they can get a visa to be in the country. Of course they don't attend the institution and instead they work for low rates illegally.

We saw a Russian supermarket, a Polish, and a Philippino one. We also saw groups of Chinese, and Africans. We overheard some one saying it felt like they had landed in the Middle East already.

There was a carnival parade as part of the holiday so we watched it for an hour or so and then left. There were about 100 floats/dance groups and lots more spectators than in Pafos and one day of parade watching was enough for us. We did see a few groups promoting the 'Save water, Save life' campaign as Cyprus is in a drought. Some of the Brit groups promoted their goods and services; gyms, drama clubs, vehicles for sale, judo groups.

After the parade there was a DJ in the old city area. This area has been renovated and now has expensive restaurants and shops selling local produce. They produce a wine from an ancient grape, and sell pistachio, walnuts, and almonds. We tasted some 'Cyprus delight' , as opposed to Turkish Delight, with all kinds of flavours. Many of the old buildings were warehouses for carob which used to be grown in large amounts here but I think that has been replaced by tourism.

John was very interested in the ovens where they cook food and would like to try to replicate one when we return. 'Thieves lamb' or kleftikos is a traditional dish cooked slowly in the oven. Old court records tell of villagers stealing lambs from shepherds. The villagers would leave the lamb cooking slowly in a cave. The shepherds would call the police. When the police found the cooking lamb, attracted by the smell, they would wait by the food to catch the culprits.

Pafos, Cyprus

2009-03-07T04:33:00.001-08:00

Mike and Inga were kind enough to let us leave some of our excess gear with them while we headed for Pafos by bus.

It is interesting to read a map of Cyprus because there are several ways to spell the names of the towns and cities. There is the English (E), the Greek (G) and the Turkish (T) version in some cases. Pafos (E) is also called Baf (T).

In 1974 a large number of Turks left Pafos and the west to go to the North (Northern Cyprus), leaving the Greeks in the area.

Pafos is another package holiday destination. Thomson, and Top Choice travel agencies rate it as their number one wedding destination and for about 165 Sterling you can have a quickie wedding here in 48 hours. However, after 30 odd years of marriage it didn't interest us.

We enjoyed visiting the archaeological sight of the Tomb of the Kings. Our run- down but comfortable hotel was a short walk from the World Heritage site. The tombs were used by residents from 3rd century BC to 3rd century AD, during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Apparently a lot of the treasures were taken away by the 19th-century American consul of Lanarka.

While in Pafos we had a lot of thunder, lightning, and rain and one night we had about 20 cms of hail and had to get more blankets at night as there was an extra charge for heating.

There were lots of wild cyclamen growing around the tombs and between the rocks. The wild flowers were beautiful.

As we walked along a street towards the harbour, we passed a tree covered with hankies, rags, and bras. It was another tomb complex and Christian Catacomb.

Pafos is well-known for its carnival celebrations with 50 odd floats and entries. These two sisters were totally absorbed in all the goings on and were even interviewed by the local television channel or the news- aren't they gorgeous with their synthetic wigs!

There were marching girls (as we are familiar with in NZ), cheerleaders (as in USA), and lots of dancers promoting their dance schools (as in Brazil).

Pafos is also famous for its mosaics and depicting Greek myths. This one, of Dionysus, the god of wine, is at the Tomb of the Kings but there are several at some of the old churches as well.

From our hotel towards the beach are hundreds of apartments and a lot of them are owned by Brits. It was difficult to find a restaurant that sold local food as most of the restaurants sell sausage and mash, full English breakfasts, or fish and chips and mushy peas!

Agia Napa, Republic of Cyprus

2009-03-07T04:30:00.001-08:00

We based ourselves with Mike and Inga in Larnaka and caught a local bus to Agia Napa. It is known as Cyprus' top sun-and-fun destination. In June and July it is full of package holiday makers but when we arrived it was deserted. It was difficult to find a restaurant open while others had signs saying they were on holiday. Others had closed for the season while lots more were being renovated and the rest were looking for leasees or buyers. All were surrounded by more shops, restaurants, and apartments in various stages of construction.

There is a huge bar and night club area surrounding the Monastery of Agia Napa. There are 20 bars and 15 nights clubs to choose from. The bars go till 2am and then the nightclubs are full. The monastery was built in 1570 by the Venetians and has a 600 year old sycamore tree . It was being renovated while we were there.

There are all sorts of things to keep the package tourists entertained like the Napa Bungee, fast boat safaris, a marine life museum, water world fun park, and lots of boat cruises, and diving.

There was not much to keep us there other than the wait for the next bus out!

Larnaka. Republic of Cyprus

2009-03-07T04:25:00.001-08:00

We flew from Rome to Athens and then onto Larnaka, Republic of Cyprus. We were met at the airport by our first hosts from www.hospitalityclub.com
Mike and Inga. We signed up to the club while in the UK but never got approved until 6 or 7 weeks later as the club is managed by volunteers. We were able to recognise Mike as he had an All Black rugby jersey on and he could recognise John in his Bay of Plenty shirt.

The hospitality club is a online group. People offer you accommodation, conversation, coffee or advise or what ever they want to. In return you offer whatever you can.

Mike is a Brit and Inga is German. They were wonderful hosts and we were able to chat about all sorts of things. Mike and Inga love motorbikes, rugby and beer. They had been visiting Cyprus for many years and about 6 years ago they bought a house and now live here permanently.

Larnaka is home to Cyprus' largest community of foreigners. The city has a long promenade lined with palm trees and lots of new hotel and apartment buildings. It also has all the top brand shops for those who want to be up with the fashions.

Behind the modern shops are narrow streets and we saw a small workshop where church candles were being made.

We visited the Church of Lazarus. Lazarus was raised from the dead by Jesus and came to Larnaka where he was a bishop for 30 years. He died here for the second time but although his tomb is under the church his remains are in Marseille.

Rome, Italy

2009-02-23T06:43:00.000-08:00

Caught a bus to the Tiburtina bus station in Rome. From the bus we could see the snow capped mountains on the outside of the city and the wind was really chilly. From the bus terminal we were able to cross the street and catch the metro to our hostel. The Termini metro stop is well-known for its pickpockets but maybe it was too cold for them the day we arrived.

No sooner had we settled in then we were off to visit the local hospital. John has been unable to shake off a congested nose and his hearing in his left ear has completely gone. The hostel owner , Maxi, took us to the hospital and John was seen by an ear, nose and throat specialist. The specialist had an old-fashioned head light to look inside John's ears and then he pulled out some dried up wax. I have only ever seen those headlights in childrens' picture books. We had to wait quite a long time and the professionals only spoke a little English but we managed to be understood. John's family has a history of ear problems so he will have to have further tests when we arrive home and for now he has to walk on my right so he can hear me nagging!

We booked a week long stay in Rome as we had new credit cards sent to the New Zealand Embassy for us. One of the hassles of travelling longer than 2 years is that the cards expire while you are away and the banks need somewhere secure to send the new ones. While we were waiting for the new cards we had to stockpile some cash in case our old cards were cancelled and then we would not have been able to get any cash out of the ATMs. While we are carrying some travellers' cheques, we aren't carrying enough to cover several weeks' travel expenses. When we picked up the new cards we noticed that one type expired 6 days later. The replacement of them was treated as though they were lost cards and so, had a short validity. Fortunately the second type of card can be used for all the transactions we need.

We spent a lot of time looking around the city and walked to the Pincio Hill for a good view of the city. It was noticeable how few visitors were in the city.

We really enjoyed visiting the Pantheon which is so well-preserved having been built in 27BC. The ceiling is open to the weather and 22 drain holes in the marble floor allow the water to drain away.

There were several groups of students trying to warm up in the sun on the Spanish Steps. The restaurants around the Piazzas had their gas heaters blazing to encourage customers to sit outside and eat but they were not very successful as it was obviously snowing outside the city and the overnight temperatures fell to -4 Celcius.

One day was spent looking at the Vatican Museums. Of course the most popular place to visit was the Sistine chapel. We took our time, but all the tourist groups are timetabled to go through. They whizz past to look at just a few of the treasures in the time they have allocated to them. They charge through the middle of the corridors and there was space on the sides to look at the tapestries, sculptures, maps, and frescoes. We were even able to sit down in the Sistine and savor Michaelangelo's fabulous art work. The Egyptian Collection was popular too and there were not so many people there. There were a handful of people in the lower floors of the Etruscan Museum and we were the only ones on the higher floors. It was interesting to see the ceramic houses they made to store their cremated remains.

On another day we visited St Peter's Basilica and Square. The queue stretched half way around the square but moved very quickly. As we got to the front of the line I saw x-ray machines and signs saying no knives or scissors. I had a wine bottle opener with a small blade, and a vegetable knife to cut fruit for lunch with. Fortunately, the person on the x-ray never saw them and may have been on his cellphone at the time!

We visited several of the piazzas at different times and in several there were children in fancy dress being entertained by singers, magicians and entertainers. The most popular boys' costume was Zoro. This is all part of the carnival or pre-Easter festivities. This street performer has been following us all over Western Europe!

Travelling around the city was so easy. We bought a 6 day ticket and it gave us unlimited use of the trams, buses, and metro and all had their routes posted at the stops.

We spent another whole day at the Roman Forum and Palatine Hills, and the Colosseum across the street. There is a combined ticket for both areas but the Roman Forum ticket area was a shambles with only 3 cashiers, explaining the ticket system, and audio hire to each customer in about 4 different languages. Under our occupational health and safety rules they would be able to get compensation for work stress! It was incredible to see how badly organised it was when this site has been operating for ever, they could get lessons from the Vatican organisers.

We spent our final day visiting the catacombs outside the city at Appia Antica (Appian Way). We walked a few kilometres along the old Roman Road that was once lined with 6000 crucified slaves, after the revolt led by Spartacus.

We really enjoyed our time in Rome.

Siena, Italy

2009-02-22T09:48:00.001-08:00

We could not find any hostels in Siena so stayed at a guest house just outside one of the city gates. It was a huge house with large rooms filled with antique furniture, spotlessly clean but freezing cold as the old radiator heaters were too small to heat such big rooms.

Siena was originally an Etruscan town and according to a book in our guest house, Etruscans had slanted eyes and long thin noses, and if we looked closely we would be able to spot their descendants. It was surprising how many slanted eyes and long thin noses I could spot.

The book also said Siena is famous for two things, the Palio (horse race) and the contrade. The horse race is run on July 2nd and August 16th each year in the Piazza del Campo. The Campo is the shell-shaped main square. Seventeen city neighbourhoods vie for the trophy which is a painted flag, or Palio which bears an image of the Virgin Mary. The Campo was very quiet when we were there. Only one restaurant had tables out for diners and no one was lingering in the cold wind for very long. A sign posted near the fountain laid out the laws of the use of the Campo:
There was to be no sitting on anything that was not a seat.
There was to be no lying down and no eating.
Every photo we have seen of the Campo shows people doing all those things in the summer.

The Campo

The contrade, or neighbourhoods originally had administrative and military functions but are now areas of localised patriotism. Each contrada has its own museum, fountain and baptismal font, and motto. Baptisms, deaths, marriages, church holidays, victories at the Palio, even wine or food festivals are celebrated only within one's own contrada.

Everywhere there are statues of a she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, the town's emblem. According to legend, Siena was founded by Remus's son Senius.

The Siena Cathedral was covered in scaffolding but it was interesting to see the details of some of the carved pillars.

San Gimignano, Italy

2009-02-22T09:46:00.001-08:00

A short bus ride from Siena and we were in San Gimignano, a village founded by the Etruscans in the 3rd century BC. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance period it became a stopping place for Catholic pilgrims on their way to Rome and the Vatican. It established a hospice to help the sick and provide shelter for them.

Today it is famous for white wine and it towers. A rule was introduced stating the size of the front of the houses, so creatively, the wealthy built up and up to get more use and value from their land. There are currently 14 towers left.

The town still has its medieval walls, and many churches and piazzas for a small place. It overlooks the fertile valleys where olives, grapes,and artichokes can be seen thriving, it must be really beautiful in the spring and summer.

In the distance can be seen many hilltop villages that would be wonderful to explore with a lot of time and a vehicle.

Florence, Italy

2009-02-22T08:56:00.000-08:00

What a crowded place! It must be unbearable in the peak summer season. We were constantly elbowed, and knocked off the narrow footpaths by women with their suitcase-sized,well-ladened YSL or Louis Vuiton handbags. It took a lot of effort to keep out of the way of the pedestrians and the vehicles. It is not a place to daydream in.

We walked from the train station to our hostel near the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge). The bridge used to be lined with butcher shops but the Medici family couldn't stand the smell so replaced them with goldsmiths. Some of the descendants of the original goldsmiths still work in the jewelery stores today.

The hostel was in a street a few paces from the bridge and was run by an interesting man who originally came from Skopje in Macedonia.

We did what everyone does who comes to Florence, climbed the hill to Piazzale Michelangelo to get an overview of the city. A bronze statue of 'David' kept us company along with dozens of secondary school kids. We enjoyed the warm 16 degree day and feel like we are leaving the cold zone behind at last.

We had a 30 minute wait in the queue to buy tickets for the Uffizi Gallery and then discovered that about 10 of the rooms were closed for restoration. After about 10 marble busts the other thousand became tedious. 250 years ago the Medici family bequeathed their art collection to the city and so there is a lot of religious art and sculptures.

Just as we thought we were out of the cold zone we got winds off the Siberian snow and a 7 degree day. On Sunday we visited several piazzas where the locals had 'bio-gro' produce for sale; olives, pickled peppers, honey, cheese and herbs. In another part of town we saw a puppet show, artists and musicians. Italy is the home of Pinocchio so he was included in the show too.
Recognize the pianist?
The children were dressed as story book or movie characters for carnival. They carried huge bags of confetti and streamers which they sprinkled on the ground or over any other dressed-up-character they saw.

Meanwhile the old ladies were airing their furs.

John has been having problems with his ears so has started a course of antibiotics to see if that will clear them. Her damaged ribs are much improved but Lil still cannot lie on her back and extending her left arm is still painful.

Lucca, Tuscany, Italy

2009-02-22T07:32:00.000-08:00

On the recommendation of our guest house owner in Pisa, we took a train to Lucca for a day's excursion. It was a beautiful day and the tourist office was very helpful with information about places to visit and a great map. They promote a bicycle tour where you can get a GPS and they set a tour for you or you can set your own and explore the city centre and the surrounding nearby farms. We chose to walk the city instead but enjoyed reading about the cycling tour.

The old centre of Lucca is surrounded by a 4 kilometre medieval wall that is still intact. It was busy with joggers, cyclists, and people arm in arm enjoying the sunny weather. Each side of the rectangular wall has a different variety of tree. From the wall which stands about 12 metres high, we could look down over the old city and see the surrounding hills in the distance covered with snow.

Lucca was originally settled by Ligurians then Etruscans and became a Roman city in 180 BC. The streets were set out in typical Roman style with lots of piazzas or squares with narrow streets radiating from them. It was so peaceful after Pisa as there were no vehicles in the central area. There were no tourists and not many locals in the squares.

There was once an old Roman amphitheatre but it has been filled in and its shape could be seen from the buildings still surrounding the area in the Amphitheatre Piazza.

We climbed to the top of the oldest clock tower, Torre delle ore, and it had several olive trees growing on the roof. We had a great view of the layout of the city and at one time there were 200 towers in the city but now only a couple remain.

Giacomo Puccini, famous for Madame Butterfly and La Boheme operas, was born in Lucca and his house is still here. Every summer there is a Puccini festival in Lucca.

We saw several basilica and they were all having some kind of restoration work done on them.

Pisa, Tuscany, Italy

2009-02-14T06:58:00.000-08:00

I suppose no trip to Italy is complete without a trip to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, so off we went.

We stayed in a guest house/bed and breakfast place in a residential area a short walk from the tower. The guest house was an old two-storied place and Serena ran it from her house next door. It felt more like an old folks' home or a boarding house as there was an 86 year old lady and her few decades younger daughter living permanently at the house. The old lady would follow us around showing us light switches and the heaters, and pointing to something outside whilst yabbering to us in Italian. Her daughter would come in and usher her off to her room. When I got up to the toilet at 5am she was there ready to show me more light switches and heaters!

Pisa is a pretty small city and in half a day we had been to every sight listed in the tourist pamphlets. There were no queues at the tower but we still didn't bother to go up it.

In every town in Italy that we have been to there are hordes of dark-skinned men selling fake watches, umbrellas, sunglasses and handbags. They are from Senegal a former colony of France and living in the European Union are able to work in Italy.

They work right under these signs. It would seem logical to me to fine the guys rather than the tourists if they are serious about stopping the sale of fraudulent goods!

There were a few nice squares like this one in Piazza Cavalieri.

Cinque Terre, Liguria, Italy

2009-02-14T06:10:00.000-08:00

We caught a train to La Spezia and checked into a room near the train station. The Italian trains have been easy to master after the first one. The ticket machines have several languages so that makes it easy to buy tickets at the station. In most places it is cheaper to buy at a machine and you pay an extra fee if you use the cashier but here in Italy it is the same price at either. If we know where we are going and when, we can find this information on line, we don't have to queue for tickets.

From La Spezia it was a short train trip to start the Unesco listed walk through Cinque Terre or Five Villages National Park. During the previous week there had been lots of rain so only the 'Lovers' Lane' section of the coastal walk was open and for this there was a 3 euro charge!

We headed off into the olive and grapevine terraces to walk some of the higher less walked trails. It was a beautiful day with lots of sun and blue fluffy-clouded skies. The terraced hills were built centuries ago.

Riomaggiore with its colourful tall houses built into the hill.

Manarola with its silver nativity scene on the hill.

Corniglia with its 300 plus steps to the train station.

Vernazza with its old stone fort and brand new harbour.

Monterrosso with its arched walkways and little plazas.

Lil managed the walk even with her ribs still healing and so after such hard work we enjoyed a chilled limoncello!

Venice, Italy

2009-02-07T06:30:00.000-08:00

Venice is like no other place we have been. In the 5th and 6th centuries barbarian invaders forced the inhabitants of the mainland to find refuge in the lagoon islands. Venice grew to become an important merchant power dominating the Mediterranean and the Adriatic. Marco Polo left here to go to China and bring back noodles and then call them spaghetti but obviously there are not enough trees in Venice to eat the noodles with chopsticks.

20 million tourists a year come here to visit. We are staying in a hostel near the Grand Canal and a short walk from the train station. It is such a pleasure to wander the lanes without any vehicles but the beeping from the barges that are bringing goods into the stores is rather annoying. We have seen the water ambulance rush to the hospital and the postal boat deliver the mail bags. We watched a family move house and have their furniture loaded onto a barge with everything wrapped in bubble plastic. The workers renovating houses barrow their earth and bricks to waiting open barges to take them away. Cement trucks are anchored onto barges and the mixture is pumped through long pipes. Men push trolleys ladened with boxes up and down the 400 bridges, and along the 150 canals.

Venice is made up of 117 islands and it is an easy place to get lost in but it is also fun doing that. A guy in the hostel went for an hour long walk and ended up back at the hostel without knowing where he was going. The hostel manager keeps bags for guests who catch late trains and sometimes they get lost and miss their trains so have to stay longer, others go to bars and when the bars close at 2am they may not find the place until 8 or 9am. The 'vias' are not very well signposted and when they are, you have to look up high on the house walls to find the signs. They maybe there so that when the place is under water you can still work out where you are.

We were woken by the flood siren at 5am and when we got out of the hostel the path and bottom step was flooded. There had been a lot of rain and when the tides are high it floods. The council has board walks stacked in the middle of the streets and these are laid out over the street and squares so everyone can go about their business.

The lowest point in the old city is San Marcos (Mark) square in front of the cathedral. The police patrol the boardwalk to keep the photo-snapping crowds moving.

The hotels and stores make a lot of sales of umbrellas, rubber boots, and plastic- soled plastic bags that tie under the knees, for those who don't have anything to keep their feet and legs dry. Meanwhile the locals put on their waders and carry on as normal. The city is sinking into the mud and the water levels are rising.

With so much exposure to salt and water the houses are slowly eroding away. The water gets behind the layers of paint and exposes the sandy cement layer which crumbles away to leave the porous red brick exposed. It is pretty expensive and time consuming to be looking after a property in Venice and for those who can't afford to look after the outsides, they will have damp mouldy inside walls as well.

We stayed at a hostel where the manager cooked traditional meals for us in the evening. We drank wine from some small local family wineries. The wine was sold in barrels to wine shops as it was not economical to bottle it. Customers took their plastic bottles along to the shop and had them filled. At just over a euro a litre it was very palatable.

Carnival celebrations begin soon so there are hundreds of stalls and shops selling carnival masks.

Other stalls sell interesting looking pasta shapes and colourful vegetables.

The gondola boatmen make a lot of money. It costs 20 euro per person or 80 euros for the boat and in the summer they can do 3 or 4 trips a day and so make a lot of money- a lot more than average Italian workers.

Saltzburg, Austria

2009-01-31T05:12:00.001-08:00

While in the Philippines we met Gerhard from Austria, and he invited us to visit him and his girlfriend Gabi in Salzburg. He is a chef and she is a pastry chef. A few days before we arrived they had been in the Philippines on a diving holiday and were straight back into work,

The company they work for is responsible for catering for a week for Audi who were unveiling a new car. The event was held at Hangar 7 which is a huge place owned by the creator of Red Bull drinks. Even though they both worked long hours we were still able to spend time together and have a lot of laughs.

Their company rents a house for Gabi and Gerhard and it is surrounded by farmhouses with cows in the barns and we have enjoyed watching the day to day activities of the local farmers. There is a large restaurant at the back of the farm and it sells beer and produce from the farm but is only open a few days of the week.

The farms are surrounded by flat land used for growing vegetables and at night the plastic nurseries are wrapped in bubble paper and glowing from the heat lamps. Everything was covered in about 20cms of snow when we arrived but a few days later the sun came out and the warm winds melted the snow and we had some comfortable 9 degree days.

Gabi had a couple of days off so we visited the city sights and did a tour of the castle fortress. The city still has many 17th century buildings and Mozart's family home was always surrounded by visitors.

The castle fortress, Festung Hohensalzburg was started in 1077 and was paid for by the taxes charged for salt. The salt was a precious commodity as it was used as a food preservative.

One day we took the cable car to the top of Untersberg. It went up at a 52 degree angle for 2.8kms, with a great view over the alps and towards Germany and we could see how much the snow had melted with the warm winds.

Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany

2009-01-31T03:28:00.000-08:00

Another warm, comfortable, train ride and we arrived in Regensburg to visit Chris and Dagmar. Chris met us at the station but Dagmar had the chance to take a trip to Hong Kong so off she went. We first met Chris and Dagmar in China where they were riding their bicycles. They cycled for one and a half years and you can read about their trip at www.worldwheeling.de
Dagmar now works for Amazon books and Chris has started an online secondhand vinyle record selling business at www.homeofrecords.de

Chris and Lil sampling some traditional Bavarian food and wheat beer.

Regensburg is on the banks of the Danube River so it was an important route in Roman times. Some of the squares still retain the names of the produce sold in them during these times, like the fish market, fat street (for making candles from tallow), corn market, and coal market.

Some of the wealthy trading families built 5 or 6 storey towers, each trying to outdo the other, and about 20 of these still remain today. Often the ground floor housed the family chapel where they would pray before heading off for the day. The upper floors housed the family treasures and they could also barricade themselves into the towers if they felt under attack.

St Peter's Dom rises above the city with its two spires and was built of an unusual green sandstone in German Gothic style during the 14th and 15th centuries.

One of the bridges crossing the river was damaged by a Dutch ship captain when he ran into the support structure of the bridge. His ship caught fire and completely destroyed the buildings on the bridge. The locals who live in the old part of the city have a lot of problems getting to and from their dwellings as the second bridge is not strong enough to support heavy vehicles.

On another part of the river is the stone bridge that was built in the middle 1100s and was used by knights on crusade to the Holy Land.

We visited the St Emmeram Basilica which was decorated in the 'over the top' rococo style but smelt of old musty bones. It was quite creepy with its cement statues of skeletons and lots of old tombstones in the walls and floors of the cloister.

We had to try the traditional sausage and sauerkraut at the sausage shop that has been selling them for about 500 years. The old city is a UNESCO Heritage site.

An unusual place was the St James Church which is also known as the Scottish Church. It had an archway with all sorts of grotesgue carvings, for which there are many theories about what these represent. It was actually a part of the Irish Benedictine followers.

One day we took a bus to Walhalla outside the city. This was built by Ludwig 1 to store busts of worthy Germans and was built to look like the Parthenon. From here we walked through the Bavarian forest back to Regensburg. It took us four hours and we never met anyone else walking the trails. About 100 metres before the end of the trail Lil slipped on some ice and damaged her ribs. She now cannot carry a back pack, sneeze, cough or laugh!

Lucerne, Switzerland

2009-01-22T07:50:00.001-08:00

We returned to Peter and his mum Lisa in Lucerne.

As soon as Peter saw a sunny day in the weather forecast, we set it aside to take a walk up Mount Pilatus. Pilatus has the world's steepest cog railway in the world.

We took a cable car part way up the slope and then walked an ankle deep snow trail for a couple of hours. We only saw a couple of women with their children on sledges but no one else. Peter had to give up as he got a sore toe from a previous injury and the uneven path caused him pain.
Top of Mt Pilatus
He will have to recover in a few weeks as he is off to climb in Nepal.

At the top of the hill we took another cable car to the top of Pilatus. The cog wheeled carriage arrived here with lots of Japanese tourists who took wooden sledges and slid down a prepared track.

Hidden under the snow we could see the outline of the summer toboggan ride and some of the high ropes course. It looks like it would be a fun place in summer too.

One night we took a bus into Lucerne to check out the action in the evening and ate at a quaint Italian restaurant. We haven't managed a fondue yet though! That may have to be on another trip.

The railway station was decked out in these papier mache pigs. As Easter approaches many displays will start to appear recounting events that have happened throughout the previous year. The carnival celebrations will climax on Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday).

We learnt a lot about Swiss life as Peter drove us around and explained things to us and would never have learnt as much as a backpacker.

Heerbrugg, Sant Gallen, Switzerlnd

2009-01-22T07:49:00.001-08:00

While in Thailand we met Philippe and Tania. We also met them another time in Laos and have shared travel information through emails.

We spent a weekend with them at Heerbrugg, on the outskirts of Sant Gallen. Tania works as a draughtswoman for a housing company and Philipppe is responsible for IT at his plastics moulding company. They both work a short bike ride away from their offices.

We were delighted to hear that they will marry in August. We took a drive with them to look at a possible wedding venue in one of the nearby villages.

We later drove onto Appenzell, which is famous for its hard working residents who are rather short and bear the brunt of many jokes. Women were not allowed to vote in the annual
open air parliamentary elections until 1991 and even then a Supreme Court had to order it. In the square where the elctions are held there is a statue with his hand raised in the air. Today the voters still raise their hands and someone has to count them!
Traditional signs for the shops
Both John and Lil are suffering from fever, chills and congestion. Lil was too tired to make the walk around the snow trails in the village but John did.

Zurich, Switzerland.

2009-01-22T07:43:00.000-08:00

After a short train ride we arrived in Zurich and spent a few hours looking around the city. It turned out to be quite a nice day so we were content to spend it sightseeing.

I recently read that after USA, Switzerland has the most number of millionaires in the world and in the main shopping street it is easy to see where they are spending their money. There are wall to wall top brand shops.

The Swiss have referendums on many topics and papers are sent out four times a year for locals to have their say.

At the moment there are many signs like this one all over the country. As Switzerland is not a member of the European Union there is a lot of debate over whether it should allow European Union members to live, and work here without permits.

Lucerne, Switzerland

2009-01-15T10:19:00.000-08:00

Switzerland is famous for cheese, the Matterhorn, and banking. LSD and absinthe were also invented here!

There are about 7.4 million people in an area one seventh that of New Zealand.

We took a train to Lucerne to meet with Peter. We last saw each other in Thailand at the start of our travels and have kept in email contact ever since. He is retired and has been sending us photos from his travels and suggestions of places for us to visit.

As Peter's flat had no guest room, we are staying in the guest room at his 80 year old mother's house. Peter's mother Lisa, is very good trying to work out what we are saying as she doesn't speak English.

Peter lives just outside Lucerne and can see Mount Pilatus from his flat but it was so misty and cloudy when we first arrived that we told him we didn't believe him about the mountain.
Near Peter's mum's house
He took us into Lucerne and although we have both been here over 30 years ago we don't remember much of the details of the city. It was foggy so we were not able to see the city at its best so hope the weather improves enough to get some nice photos.
Kapellbruche (Chapel Bridge) in winter
Even the spiders' webs are frozen
on the 17th century pictorial panels depicting various religious scenes.

The lake paddle steamers.

The masked character 'Fritschi' emerges from a window at the town hall during Lucerne's six day Fasnacht (Lent) celebrations and is followed by bands of musicians and revellers where they congregate near this statue.

John's walking boots have split so we had to buy some new ones here. We still have to do a lot of walking in snow and ice to do yet.

We have enjoyed a typical Swiss raclette with melted cheese and potatoes- perfect for this kind of weather.

Switzerland was neutral in WW1 and not involved although it did organise units of the Red Cross and after peace was won it joined the League of Nations with financial and economic involvement rather than military. There were a few accidental bombings in WW11 but most of Switzerland was unscathed. This has meant that there are a lot of beautiful old religious buildings to see.

St Michaels of Beromunster

All churches in Switzerland are free to enter so we visited the ornate Catholic Church of St Michael on one side of Lucerne, and St Urbus at the other.
St Urbus Carved wooden pews

We visited a snow covered golf course at Sempachersee. This had John dreaming about his new unused Chinese golf clubs gathering dust at home.

Another day we drove to the central area of Schwyz and saw the kloster at Einsiedln. We were unable to take photos inside so took some shots from a book Peter has. The inside of the church was dripping with pink plaster icing and lifesize porcelain angels looked like they were about to step off the ceiling and fly down to greet you. Peter said it is popular for Sri Lankan refugees to come and pray at the black Madonna here even though they are Tamil Hindus. We saw several while we were there. For a cool wintry day there were still a lot of visitors in the city but I would imagine it is jam packed in the peak season.

When the farmers' fields are covered with snow they are marked with walking trails and we joined the walkers, mums with strollers and cross country skiers to enjoy the sunshine.

Luttringen,Arnsberg, Sauerland,Germany

2009-01-15T02:28:00.000-08:00

We visited Luttringen in Sauerland to stay with Karin and Roland. We first met them in Mexico and several other countries further south as we travelled through South America in 1981. We last saw them in 1991 and our daughter Kerri visited the family when she was at school in Aachen 7 years ago.

Luttringen is a small community near Arnsberg. Roland works as an IT programmer for a company that makes copper pipes. Karin manages the household and does volunteer work in the village inluding managing the local tennis club.

One evening we had Roland`s dad visit and we played his favourite game- similar to Yatzhee with 5 dice.

The last time we visited in summer and walked around Mohnesee, a lake with a huge dam. It was featured in the movie Dambusters when it was bombed in World War 11 and the valley flooded killing hundreds of locals. This time we did the walk when it was covered in snow and one part of the lake was frozen.

Another day we drove to nearby Soest and walked around the medieval town. It is famous for having the largest city funfair in Europe when the marketplace is jammed with ferris wheels, stalls and fun rides. The town is now a heritage town and there are still many ancient buildings around the market place and millpond. In medieval times there was a seesaw beside the pond and miscreants were tortured using the seesaw. I wonder if it continued in winter.

The millpond

Some of the restaurants were closed for winter.

All around Luttringen are wind generators and everyday the sky was clear and the sky blue so we were able to walk around and watch the local children enjoying sledging. The snow was dry, fluffy, and squeaky.

On a week day we walked in the Wildewiese which is an area in the forests and a popular place for learner skiers and cross-country skiing. The tows were closed but open on the weekends so we only saw a few other couples walking their dogs and enjoying the trails. A pile of frozen logs that are sprayed with water to preserve them.

At the end of the trail was a huge communications tower that we climbed and it was clear enough to see back towards the Sevenhills near Konigswinter.

We enjoyed seeing Roland and Karin`s slides from South Ameria and John took photos of some that featured us together in Mexico. John has a beard!

We talked about how difficult travel was at that time and how much easier it is with the internet for banking, keeping in contact with families, making reservations for hotels and transport, as well as the convenience of using digital cameras and cellphones.

We used to carry traveller`s cheques and they always took hours to change into cash. We had to buy rolls of films at the start of the trip and keep them in foil lined bags on the concrete floor of the hotels so they didn`t deteriorate in the hot and humid weather. Letters from family and friends were collected at the main post offices in capital cities and could be found stored under your first name, the country they came from, and maybe even M for Mr or Mrs!

We enjoyed an afternoon of bowling with Roland and Karin`s children, Robin (18) on the left and Janina (21) and her boyfriend Lukas. They are keen to visit us in New Zealand and we are keen to have them and help the next generation of backpackers!

Konigswinter, Germany, 2009

2009-01-08T02:33:00.000-08:00

Theo and Katrin are on the right.
On New Year's Eve, called Sylvester here, we were invited to eat with Gerti's friends Theo and Katrin. They live above their shop and studio where they produce handmade pottery using a wheel, and various ceramics. We had a lovely rachlette meal with their friends. At midnight we went up on the balcony overlooking the Rhine to see all the fireworks along both banks. It was a white New Year.

In this kind of weather people spend a lot of time inside so the house was full of interesting traditional art and crafts. The heat from the candles make the propellers above turn. We have seen several kinds of these crafts.

This folding painting with four wings was painted all all sides. Katrin`s family owned it and one of the sides shows a traditional nativity scene and the other shows Katrin and her family as children, gazing at the nativity scene.

Theo made this outdoor nativity scene in the garden. It was made on a wheel so it could stay outside without being damaged by freezing.

We spent the early hours of the New Year walking home in the snow listening to fireworks all around us.

We visited Gerti`s daughter Tania and her husband Detlev and enjoyed a lovely meal with them. Tania works as a flight steward for Lufthansa and her husband is a vet. It has been 25 years since we last saw Tania, and hope we don`t have to wait another 25 for the next time.

Gerti`s son Ralf returned from a skiing holiday in Austria so we were able to catch up with him and Angela and his family too. He works as a detective for the German police. His son Lennart served us coffee and his daughter Lara-Tabea posed in front of a painting that she had painted herself.

Ralli took us walking in the hills near Konigswinter and for a tour of the new Bonn police station where John was processed as a criminal would be.

Koningswinter, North Rhine Westphalia, Germany

2008-12-31T07:48:00.000-08:00

One quarter of Germany's population, and even more of its heavy industry is jammed into the Rhine- Ruhr area. The Rhine River is busy with barges taking goods up and down.
We were very excited to meet our dear friend Gerti, in Konigswinter, on the banks of the Rhine. We first met Gerti, her late husband Willi, and daughter Tanja when they emigrated to Australia. Gerti and Willi joined my English classes at Surfers' Paradise on the Gold Coast in 1982.

While in Australia we had enjoyed a southern hemisphere Christmas meal together and were invited to share a northern hemisphere meal with Gerti, her eldest daughter Martina and their family in Muhlheim.

Muhlheim, we were told has the highest unemployment rates in Germany. It is part of one of the most densely populated conurbations in the world. Martina works for the Education Department as a school inspector.

Martina
The fire was blazing and the Christmas tree was decorated in the lounge. We picked up Martina's mother-in-law and sat in on a service at a church in Duisburg. It was so crowded that we had to sit in an annexe and watch it televised. We were told that for many Germans it is the only time that they go to church during the year.

Christmas is celebrated on the 24th rather than the 25th like we do it. We ate fried duck with orange sauce, and chocolate mousse. We enjoyed sharing our stories of Christmas meals we have had around the world. Martina's children Anna and Eve played the piano and sang for us.

Eve and Anna
The education system is changing in Germany and they are reducing the high school year by one year. This will mean that there will be twice as many students trying to get into universities and training programmes. Many families are thinking of sending their children to high schools overseas to avoid being caught up in the change. Eve is thinking of spending her year in another country and it could well be New Zealand.

Each day is getting colder and colder and it is dark about 4pm. We have to scrape the ice off the car windows in the mornings and any washing left outside freezes! Everyone uses their outdoor area-deck or terrace- to keep bottles of drink, leftover food and cakes chilled when the refrigerators are full.

On the 25th of December, we were invited to have a meal with Gerti's friend Adi, and his family, in Bornheim. Adi and Gerti visited us in New Zealand about 5 years ago. Bornheim is a fertile area where fruit and vegetables are grown in fields and plastic houses. Adi used to grow flowers for the wholesalers but has now retired.
Adi is to the left of Gerti. Adi

Adi did a great job preparing everything himself and we had chicken in a creamy sauce with locally grown vegetables and a chocolate pudding.

Both Gerti and Adi are survivors of the tsunami in Phuket. It was an anxious time for us as we waited to hear from them after the tsunami and we are so glad to be able to enjoy their company again.

Adi had a hip replacement operation 3 months ago and has been walking regularly to strengthen it. He plans to walk Jacob's Way (also known as The Pilgrim's Walk) in mid May and will walk 30 kms a day for 90 days to cover around 2700 kms in total from his home near Bonn in Germany through Limogne in France and ending in Santiago de Compostela in Spain. He will take a tent and buy food along the way. We joined Adi on one of his daily preparatory walks through the icy trails near his home.

We have to get out and walk everyday to burn up all the excess calories from the wonderful meals our hosts have cooked us. The Rhine is a pleasant place to walk and we have looked around Bad Honnef further up the Rhine from Konigswinter and also Dollendorf in the opposite direction.

Bad Honnef old town hall.

Gerti studied psychotherapy and cares for an elderly lady a few times a week so when she is working we take the train and visit some of the local area. We had to go to Cologne to buy onward train tickets and took a quick visit to the Dom- Cathedral. Construction was started in 1248 but it wasn't finished until 1880. It was not bombed during WW11 because its 157m high spires were useful for the pilots to navigate in a time when radar was not so reliable.

Ortenburg, Offenburg, Schwarzwald, Germany

2008-12-29T10:37:00.000-08:00

The rail system in Germany is really really good. We don't have a 'Rail Pass' or 'Europass' as you need to be traveling every day to make it a worthwhile investment. We tend to stay from a few days to a week and we try to purchase an onward ticket as far ahead of time as we can and these can be really good value for our way of traveling. It is outrageously expensive if you buy a ticket for the same day or even the day before you travel.

We arrived on a cold frosty afternoon at Offenburg station and were met by Michael and his daughter Laura. We first met Michael in Bolivia while walking the ancient Inca Takesi Trail in 1981. He is now an anaethetist. Gabi is a nurse and helps run the practice from home. Laura is in her final year of high school and is keen to do a gap year before she does any further study so we will see her one day in New Zealand. Their son Alex is still at high school.

Michael took us to the Ortenburg Christmas market where we warmed up with glühwein (mulled wine) and rum. In the centre of the square was an ice skating rink. These young ones were learning to skate using the penguin to help them get their balance. The cold doesn't stop the families getting out and about and having fun.

We walked with Gabi several times and visited the Ortenburg Castle and kept ourselves warm and fit taking different routes around the village and vineyards nearby. We enjoyed some schnapps-tasting in the village where they make it from the apples and pears they grow. We also spent some time walking beside the Rhine and through the forest where we could see France on the opposite side. When we returned home we warmed up and sweated it out in the sauna.

One evening we had rachlett- an electric plate where you fry vegetables and meat on top and then have a slice of cheese on a dish under the plate. The cheese you fill with meat and vegetables and melt it from the heat under the plate. The dish is named after a Swiss cheese and is a traditional food of the Swiss similar to fondue. A simple, and filling meal that is such fun.

Laura and her friend Tomas cooked us a four course meal one night. Tomas loves to cook and we loved being treated to prawns, fish, pork cutlets and mousse. Laura hopes that Tomas will be able to join her and visit New Zealand too.

Tomas on the left and Laura on the right

One evening we visited Gengenbach which is well known for the world's largest advent calendar. The city was founded in the 13th century and the calendar is displayed in the 18th century town hall's 24 windows. An artist is invited each year to illustrate the windows and they are unveiled in the evenings.

Michael and Gabi took us to a small family restaurant that served traditional Black Forest food called festbar. We had homemade bread with fresh cheese and cold meats - blood sausage, some kind of brawn, and different kinds of smoked ham. Thank goodness we shared a portion as we could never have finished a serving by ourselves. The restaurant was only open some nights of the week and was full of locals.

Michael took us up into a tree farm in the Black Forest to get the family Christmas tree. The higher we drove the more snow there was. The trees were pushed through this barrel and squashed into a net so they could be easily transported in the boot of the car. After such hard work we went indoors for glühwein and flamme kuchen- a kind of unleavened pizza with ham. This lad decided to have his own barbequed sausage on the fire outside.

Goslar, Saxony -Anhalt, Germany

2008-12-16T06:49:00.000-08:00

We caught a train to Goslar to look at this pretty town which is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. The town was founded in 922 and 100 years later became an Imperial City and one of the most important seats of power in the Holy Roman Empire. In the Middle Ages it was a centre of faith with 47 churches, monasteries and chapels.

Legend has it that the Knight Ramm's horse scratched the earth with his hoof to reveal a vein of silver ore. The city treasury in the main square houses the carillon bells and at 12 o'clock figurines emerged to show the legend and history of silver mining in the town.

A short walk from the market place was the Imperial Palace with Heinrich 111's tomb nearby.

Snow!

There was a good tourist office with maps with 3 different city walks so we could see the Sieman family home,

the town hall and its interesting roof, as well as the colourful bell caster's house, and other fine buildings.

Back in Bissendorf.

Ilona teaches two boys English so we helped them and showed them some books on New Zealand while eating cake and drinking tea.

Heinrich and Kiel

Luneburg, Lower Saxony, Germany

2008-12-16T06:22:00.000-08:00

Lower Saxony is well known for its half-timbered houses. It is also the province where you can find the town of Hamelin from the story of the Pied Piper. As we had already visited Hamelin we decided to take a trip to Luneburg.

Luneburg is also known as the Wobbly Town. The church steeple is crocked and many of the buildings lean into each other or bulge out like they are about to burst.

For many centuries until 1980, the town was mining salt. The ground subsidence and shifts has from the mines has left the town looking like a comic book town.

The main square was busy with people visiting the Christmas Market. We stopped to warm up with hot chocolate and childrens' punch.

The streets were busy with shoppers and sightseers as it was a fine day. The choir entertained the passersby as did the street performers.

Once the sun goes down which is quite early it gets very cold but the market comes to life.

Bissendorf, Wedemark, Germany

2008-12-16T05:43:00.000-08:00

From Amersfort in the Netherlands we caught a warm intercity train to Hanover and then north to our friends Ilona and Reinhard and their two girls Eleni and Stella.

We met Ilona and Reinhard while they were traveling in New Zealand in 1995 and our friends, from Arnsberg, Germany, that we met in Mexico in 1981, suggested they look us up while traveling through.

We drove one afternoon to Hanover to look at the city all decorated for the Christmas season. We spent sometime at the Christmas market in the town square and ate schmalzer kuche- a deep fried sweet dough sprinkled with icing sugar.

Stella, John, Eleni and Lil

There were many small wooden cabins decorated with fir trees and Christmas decorations. They sold, mulled wine, ginger cakes, jewelery and all sorts of wooden toys. The little children were riding on the merry-go-round and small train.

Hanover is in Lower Saxony which is the home to Volkswagen.

We visited the Town Hall (Rathaus) and saw some models of the city of Hanover from its early medieval days, to what it looked like when it was bombed in the second World War and as it looks today.

Ilona and Reinhard live in a small rural village and we have enjoyed getting some exercise walking around the forest nearby. Ilona is busy everyday helping her mother who lives nearby, care for her bedridden father. She also keeps an eye on her mother-in-law who lives a short walk up the street and doesn't drive. Like all mums she is kept busy with the household chores and the children's activities but also teaches English at a local kindergarten and primary school a few times a week. Reinhard works for Philips managing the installation of MRI machines and other medical equipment so he is often away during the week. It is a busy household.

Reinhard sings in a choir so we attended one of their performances in the local church. The choirmaster is an American and all the songs were English Christmas songs. Even though we were at the church early it was almost full with locals keen to hear the choir.

Reinhard is second last on the right

Gouda, The Netherlands

2008-12-14T10:00:00.000-08:00

After a short train ride we arrived in Gouda. We were met by George whom we had met in The Philippines. He loves to travel and works in real estate and keeps busy diving, playing the guitar, and speed skating on ice. He was very kind to let us hang out in place. The first night we arrived was Sinta Klaas day and he had to dress up as Black Pieter and visit his family and it is traditional to exchange presents on December 6th, so he headed off to do that while we looked around the canals where he lives. Usually Sinta Klaas is celebrated for young children.

Gouda is famous for its cheese so we were able to eat a lot of that.

George took us for a drive to Leiden, Rembrandt's birthplace and a centre for medical research. While there we visited the Corpus exhibition. The building has a 35 metre high human structure and you enter his or her kneee and take a tour through the body coming out in the brain. There are lots of interactive displays to while away the time on each floor on your way down.

It gets dark so early here so by the time we got to Scheveningen, the main beach at Den Haag, it was starting to get dark. There were still people walking on the beach and along the pier with their children and dogs even as the sun was setting. The area is wall to wall hotels and the uglymodern apartments overshadow the old beautiful original buildings like this one. 9 million visitors come here each year.

We drove by the International Court of Justice and thought of Radovan Karadzic, who was arrested in Belgrade while we were there, facing the lawyers here. The Hague is the Dutch seat of government while Amsterdam is the capital. Even at night the Parliament buidings were also impressive.

A short drive away and we were in Rotterdam where George wanted to take us to the Euromast tower to see the lights of the city but it was fully booked for a function so we were not able to go up the tower. Maybe the recession has not hit the Netherlands yet. Rotterdam is Europe's largest port and the city was bombed flat in World War 2.

We then went onto have an absolutely delicious meal at the Hotel New York . It was the former headquarters of the Holland-America passenger shipping line.

While George was working we walked about the old city. Gouda is famous for cheese and smoking pipes. The 15th century town hall in the marketplace was well preserved and still in use.

The Waag, or weigh station was where goods were weighed and then taxes charged. It is now an historic building.

The area around Gouda is mostly peat and bog. The land that has been drained has many drainage canals intersecting the pastureland (they are also shown on the maps). The canals also serve as 'fences' for the grazing sheep. George said he hasn't been able to skate on the canals since 1996 (it hasn't been cold enough to freeze the deep water) but when they do freeze over he skates a 300km circuit through 11 villages. Along the route farmers sell hot drinks and soup to all the skaters. It would have been so nice to be able to try this but other than a few snow flurries it did not freeze.

Utrecht, The Netherlands

2008-12-09T09:15:00.000-08:00

From Amsterdam we took a fast train to Utrecht where we were met by Ad. We first met Ad and his son at Halong Bay in Vietnam.

Utrecht is one of the Netherland's oldest cities. We arrived at the railway station and it is a part of the Hoog Catharijine shopping centre and is ginormous!

Ad lives in a family house in a lovely quiet street near to Utrecht and we were able to walk into the city centre easily. He is now retired from the marines but works part time as a counsellor.

The city was decorated with Christmas lights and we saw Black Pieter handing out sweets to the children. If the children are naughty they say he will take them to Spain in his sack.

We walked around the city and saw the 13th century canal wharves which are below street level. Like Amsterdam, the city gets older and older the closer you walk to the centre. Ad also pointed out the house boats that are floating brothels in the canal Red Light District. There are 40,000 students in the city making it the Netherland's largest student community.

There were many places called "food in the wall'' shops where you put money in the slot and get a hamburger or hot sandwich.

We had some wonderful Dutch dishes cooked by Ad; witloof and ham, tongue fish, as well as smoked sausage and pickled cabbage.

We haven't seen as many traditional windmills as we thought we would but this one in Utrecht had been used to mill timber at one time.

We took a trip to Batavia Haven and on the way passed dozens and dozens of wind generators. At the harbour there were several wooden tall ships and a yard where they were making new tall ships and training the next generation in the craft.

Further on from Batvia was a lovely small town called Elburg where we walked about the old city inside the rectangular city walls.

Ad bought some delicious Dutch cakes so we could celebrate John's sixty first birthday.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

2008-12-01T09:07:00.000-08:00

Outside the window at Frankie's place.

While Frankie and Anne-Laure worked we wandered around Amsterdam. It took a bit of getting used to, walking the streets as it is not always easy to see where the bicycles and scooters are supposed to travel and where the pedestrians are supposed to walk!

There are so many varieties of bicycles everywhere. The Dutch are far more creative with their bicycles than the Chinese. They carry children on the front as well as on the back of bikes and also have various bits added at the front or back to seat everyone or to carry things. The younguns like to decorate their parcel carriers with plastic flowers. I'm sure it makes it easier to spot your bike in a park of thousands.

We visited the Van Gogh museum and were given a tip to arrive between 11 and 1 to avoid the tours so we were lucky enough to have a relaxed look at everything.

There is a lot of rebuilding of footpaths going on at present so it was quite an obstacle course to find our way.

We enjoyed drinking the delicious hot chocolate in the cafes when we needed warming up. The shops are full of decorations for Sinta Klaas. This is the Saint who comes on December 5th to the children. He has helpers who are black and they accompany him on his rounds. There are two versions of why they are black. One is that they got covered in soot from climbing down the chimney into the houses and the other was because they represent the Spanish who were enemies of the Dutch and they would take the bad children back to Spain with them. Traditionally a book was kept of good and bad children so he knew who would get a gift and who would get their shoes filled with twigs instead.

We have not heard Christmas music played in the stores like we would at this time of the year in NZ!

The leaves have blown off the trees in the streets and it all looks rather bleak now.

It was interesting to see the houses in the old part of the city with their hooks to help hoist furniture to the floors above and then put them in through the windows rather than carry them up so many narrow stairs. When you hire a furniture removal van you get a pulley and a net to help move the furniture. It sure saves a lot of stair climbing.

Some of the houses with their narrow stairs that go in all directions. I could barely fit my size 10 shoes on the step.

One day we also visited the Rijks museum with its collections of paintings from the old Dutch masters. There was also an exhibition of a human skull that Damien Hirst had covered with diamonds. The skull was from someone in the 1800s and when he told his mother what he was doing to the skull she responded in shock with "For the love of God!" Now the exhibition is titled that.

In the evening we drove by the famous Red Light District. Prostitution was legalised in 1815 while brothels weren't until 2000. The ladies sit in front of the windows to attract customers. About 5% of the ladies are Dutch and there are about 1000 to 1200 working 380 windows each day. They have to pay between 80 to 100 Euro per day for the window. The shops are closed on Mondays so this is the most popular time for the Dutch customers. Of all the international clientele, the British make up 50%.

Pimping is illegal in The Netherlands and all the ladies pay taxes and have their own unions.

In the local paers and on TV we saw reports that the government wants to reduce the number of prostitutes and to reduce the number of coffee shops that sell marijuana. We went by some of the coffee shops and they looked really sleazy. Cafes are like bars where you can have coffee but coffee shops are where you have marijuana and beer.

Gulden Belofte - Golden Promise, Monnickendam, The Netherlands.

2008-12-01T08:46:00.000-08:00

After a few days in France we returned to Alan and Helen Smith's place in Balcombe, Sussex and said our goodbyes. We look forward to them visiting us in NZ and returning the favours they have done for us.

To finish off our time in UK we spent a few days with Lil's sister Annabelle and her partner Mark Thompson. They were busy during the daytime so we were able to help with the household chores and cook some evening meals. We picked up John's new New Zealand passport and so we shouldn't have any more problems at border crossings.

Behind the New Zealand Consulate is a shop that sells all sorts of new Zealand foods, clothes and souvenirs. We bought a few items that we could easily carry and will give them to friends that we are going to visit in Europe. We have realised that we didn't get any photos of the Thompson clan. Sorry about that.

We managed to catch up with Xie whom we first met on the Thailand- Laos border. We saw her again in Shanghai and now she is studying in London so we were able to catch up once more. We wish her well in her business studies.

We both left the UK with sore throats and runny noses to go to our first winter in 20 months!

We caught a train from Liverpool station to the ferry at Harwich. The train was late so we were taken by taxi to the ferry. It was a calm crossing and we were able to get our train to Amsterdam easily. Friday evening in rush hour was not the best time to take a train with full backpacks!

We met our friend Frankie at Amsterdam South Station where he lives across the street from the station. We first met him in the Philippines where he had been diving and we stayed in the same resort together. Frankie has an interesting Dutch/Australian accent when he speaks English as he lived and worked in Australia for some time.

Frankie now works for the Happy Home Company which is a company that organizes holiday homes in several countries. He is also a scuba diving instructor and a qualified panel beater and likes to restore cars.

We were invited out to go on an old (1911) cargo carrying ship that has been restored. The ship used to carry sand and goods along the canals and now takes passengers sailing in the Ijsselmeer. The sea is an area inside a dyke system that helps protect Holland from flooding.

It was a cold miserable day so we put on all the warm clothes that we have and managed to stay warm and dry. The skipper gave us some herbal alcoholic drink to help warm us up. Frankie's flatmate Anne-Laure from France and her friend also joined us.
Frankie, Auraly, Anne-laurer, Lil

We had to help set up the sails and then sailed through the sweet water bay. The water was originally salty but the dyke fills with fresh water from the land. From the ship we could see only the rooves of the houses visible above the dykes.

We were served traditional Dutch food: bean soup with smoked sausage, cheeses, and speculaas (ginger biscuits).

Monnickendam is an interesting place. It has narrow streets and houses that look like they will fall down any day soon as they are built on such boggy land.

On a beautiful day with all its sails, the Golden promise ( Gulden Beloft) would look like this!

Le Mesnil Gilbert, Normandy, France

2008-11-26T06:08:00.000-08:00

With Alan Smith we went on a road trip to France to visit his sister and her husband, Ann and Barry Burrell near the small village of Le Mesnil Gilbert in the Normandy region. This involved a short drive from Alan's house to the port of Newhaven, a four hour ferry crossing to Dieppe and then a three hour drive to Ann and Barry's.

Ann and Barry are retired and have done a wonderful job of restoring an old barn which is now their house. They lived in a small cottage on the same property while they worked on the barn. The barn was derelict when they purchased the property, having been badly burned by the retreating German army in 1944.

We spent a lot of time sitting around eating and drinking but found time for a couple of walks around the neighbourhood. There were not many leaves left on the trees but found lots of mistletoe growing up in the branches of some trees - the seeds having been put there by birds.

Some of the local farm houses had round extensions on the ends of them - these contained cooking ovens.

On the way to Le Mesnil Gilbert we stopped at the village of Yerville to sample some of the local foods and stock up on cheese and specialist meat products. There were quite a few traditional board and plaster farm houses in this region.

Crossing the Normandy Bridge.

Kilkenny, Republic of Ireland

2008-11-16T05:09:00.000-08:00

Kilkenny was our final stop in Ireland so we could catch up with Rita and Sean that we had met in Chengdu, China.

Rita was glad to be out of the real estate industry with the current recession. Her mum had a jewelery shop and Rita has taken it over and is also working as a insurance assessor.

Sean is an archaeologist and is working in Limerick. He drove through to spend the evening with us so it was great to catch up. He had to leave early to drive one and a half hours back for work. He has move to where the digs are so living away from home is a hazard of the job.

Kilkenny Castle in the middle of the town sits beside the River Nore. We did a tour of the castle but quite a lot of it was closed for renovation and restoration. The first structure here was built of wood in 1172 and was burnt down. The stone castle was built in 1192. There is not much original furniture in the castle but a few pieces that were sold at auction have been lent by the present owners for displaying.

The city now owns the castle and they have reproduced some of the original yellow shiny silk 'wallpaper'. It was used in the dark drawing room and the shiny bright colour helped reflect the light from the lamps. They have also managed to get original designs from the Axminster carpet factory to reproduce the carpets that were in use by the Butler family when they owned the castle.

Rita had some time off so we went for a drive to nearby villages of Graignamanagh, Inistioge and Thomastown. All very scenic and a target for movie makers. Nice coffee shops as well.

Inistioge.

Dublin, Republic of Ireland

2008-11-11T03:51:00.001-08:00

While in China we met Deirdre and Derek, affectionately know by us as D and D. We later found we were on the same Trans Siberian train trip. We swapped addresses and they invited us to visit them in Dublin.

We had a great reunion and did some sightseeing together. The most important stop in Dublin was the Guinness Storehouse where the stout is made. It was a great place to visit as there was a storm raging outside.

We awoke to find Sunday a sunny morning so headed for Glendalough, a monastic settlement about an hour's drive from Dublin. The weather held up long enough for us to walk around the forest and visit the monastery.

In AD 498 a young monk called Kevin arrived here to meditate. He set up house in a Bronze Age tomb site and for 7 years slept on stones, wore animal skins, maintained a near starvation diet and made friends with the birds and animals. People then flocked to the place. The Viking raiders sacked the monastery at least four times between 775 and 1071. The English forces in 1389 almost completely destroyed it. The monastery finally died in the late 17th century.

Today the park is a popular place to walk and take the family dogs. It was quite busy for a cold day and is teeming in summer with visitors.

While D and D worked we cooked meals and even had a meal of NZ green-lipped mussels. In the day we caught up with laundry, emails and the blog. We headed into Dublin city and found the places we wanted to visit closed on a Monday but managed to get to Trinity College where hordes of graduands were waiting for their families.

We strolled around Dublin Castle and walked down Sniper Way (O'Connell Street).

Ring of Kerry, Republic of Ireland

2008-11-11T03:46:00.000-08:00

The Ring of Kerry is a coastal route circling the Inveragh Peninsula. The roads are pretty narrow and it would be a nightmare fighting with tourist buses on some of the bends. Being off season we and the locals had the roads to ourselves. It was not as interesting for us as some of the other coastal routes we have visited but in sunny weather it would have looked much better.

At times the coast was very rough and and other times the sun peeped out and the winds calmed down.

Many of the coastal villages like to paint their houses different colours.

This is the building belonging to the Royal Irish Constabulary. Legend has it that, when it was rebuilt after a fire, the plans got mixed up with those intended for barracks in India.

After the Ring of Kerry we continued along the coast from Skibbereen to Clonakilty. Here we took a side trip to the Drombeg Stone Circle site. It has 17 upright standing stones and a cremated teenager's remains were discovered during excavations in 1960. The circle dates from about 5th century AD being an Iron Age update of an earlier Bronze Age monument. Beside the circle are remains of a hut with this Iron Age cooking pit. A stream ran through the cooking pit and a fire was built beside it. Rocks were placed on the fire and when they were hot they were lifted into the water-filled pit and the hot water was used to cook hunks of meat. Some experiments found that the water boiled and kept hot for nearly three hours.

A street scene in Kinsale.

We had a long break at Yougal (pronounced Yawl) where we saw the Clock Gate which was built in 1777 and served as a clock tower and jail: some prisoners taken in the 1798 Rising were hung from the windows.

There were several interesting things on the town's historic walk including St Mary's Collegiate Church from 1220 and Sir Walter Raleigh's former home.

We found the National 1798 Rebellion Centre in Enniscourthy open. We took the opportunity to try to understand more of Ireland's history. There were no other visitors at the centre and the attendant had to turn on the exhibits especially for us, but unfortunately that didn't mean the heating!

We were able to learn more about the influence of the French and American revolutions and how they sparked the uprising against British rule in Wexford and the battle at Vinegar Hill.

Adare, Republic of Ireland

2008-11-11T03:36:00.000-08:00

We drove through the central part of the Republic heading south through Limerick. Adare is a popular stop along the way with lots of medieval buildings and rows of thatched cottages. A river runs through the centre of the village and it was used by the women to wash their clothes. They used to soak the clothes and then bash them on the rocks with a wooden mallet called a beetle.

The Church of the Holy Trinity from the 13th century has been restored and today is a Catholic church.

Beside the church was a restored dove- cote. It was made of stone and had a hole in the top where the pigeons flew in and out. Inside the beehive shaped structure were ledges where the birds nested. Pigeons and their eggs were a common food at that time.

Several villages in this part of the country had flags flying in the local colours. They were showing support for their provincial Gaelic football and hurling teams. These sports are the most popular sports in Ireland. they are fast games with extremely aggressive contact between the players. Two teams of 15 players try to get the ball through a goal that looks like a rugby gaol with a netted soccer gaol under the crossbar. Goals above the bar and between the posts are worth one point while those under are worth three points. We haven't managed to see a hurling game yet but have seen lots of school children walking to and from practices with their wooden bats that look like large flattened hockey sticks known as hurley. A leather ball is used and it must be hit or carried on the hurley while hand passing is not allowed.

Gaelic football looks a lot like Australian Rules football.

Athlone, Republic of Ireland

2008-11-03T06:44:00.001-08:00

We headed inland to Athlone. Simon Rolleston plays rugby for the Buccaneer's Rugby club in Athlone. He used to be an apprentice with John in NZ so we decided to catch up with him. We watched him play a game against a Belfast team and they won so will get paid a bonus for the win.

Simon's grandmother was born in Donegal so he was able to get an Irish passport and has been playing semi-professional rugby here for 3 years now. As it was Halloween weekend the rugby club had a dress up party. It seems it is a festival that started in Ireland so they decorate the houses and the children go from door-to-door to get sweets from their neighbours.

Athlone is on a lake with weirs and locks.

Simon, and Hope dressed as Amy Whitehouse.

There are several players from NZ in Athlone and they all live in the same street as Simon with some from Samoa as well.

Galway, Republic of Ireland

2008-11-03T06:01:00.001-08:00

Traveling at this time of the year is quite difficult. Many tourist venues are closed for the season and so are campgrounds. We have found signs to campgrounds and when we travel the 12 or so kms to them we find that they are closed. We even arrived at one place as it was getting dark. There was no one at reception so we made ourselves at home. In the morning we wanted to shower but there was no one about so we could not get tokens to start the showers. When we were ready to leave there was still no one about so we just left.

It is also difficult trying to find places to park overnight. People build stone walls close to the road and there is no place to park. Some people build a recess for the gateway and may have a small section to park their visitors cars so it is not suitable for us to stop there either. We have found a couple of gravel dumps to camp in and so far haven't been woken by graders or workers.

We had to do some running repairs on our van as the sump cover rattled a couple of bolts loose and a garage worker kindly let us help ourselves to his nuts and bolts. John was able to fix it with the small set of tools we had on board.

Stopped for lunch at the Connemara National Park. The weather cleared and it was quite pleasant. The visitor's centre was closed though.

In the middle of nowhere was the Kylemore Abbey. We read that it was used as a boarding school now. It was originally built by Quakers.

There were many small villages with mussel and salmon farms.

The leaves are falling now and there are many trees with berries. There were some huge holly trees along the roadside.

Many people say that Ireland is a lot like New Zealand. Certainly some parts are like parts of the South Island but we haven't see much that looks like where we live in the Bay of Plenty. This scene of gorse and flax reminded me of NZ though.

We followed the narrow coast roads through the small villages and saw this castle at Slyne Head.

Donegal, Republic of Ireland

2008-11-03T05:31:00.000-08:00

We camped outside Derry where the hedge in the camp marked the border with the Republic of Ireland. When we woke in the morning we saw the hills in Donegal covered with a sprinkling of snow. We had heard on the radio that the overnight temperature was -4 Celsius.

We headed north and all around the coastline of the Inishowen Peninsula. the roads were pretty narrow but the drivers are very considerate.

This dog thought he was in for some treats as he watched us eating our lunch.

Donegal town is much smaller than we thought it would be with a population of 2450.

We managed to find a tourist office open here and asked for a campground. The receptionist told us that there were some unregistered sites but she wasn't allowed to give us any information on them but we were welcome to camp in the car park behind the building for free. She tried to find us a place to have a shower but the hotels did not want us there and the local leisure centre wanted to charge us 30 Euros.

In the evening the main square in Donegal was bustling with teenagers dressed for Halloween.

We moved onto Sligo which was very pretty.

We drove through the Doolough Valley. In 1849, in icy weather 400 people died as they walked along the road from Louisburgh to Delphi and back. They were hoping to get food and help from a landlord but were refused.

Later we passed the Aasleagh Falls.

Londonderry, Northern Ireland

2008-11-03T05:06:00.000-08:00

We continued along the coast and onto Londonderry. Signs in Northern Ireland point to Londonderry but signs in the Republic point to Derry.

Derry/Londonderry is a walled city. The wall was started in 1545 and completed in 1619. There are still some old cannons along the walls and the name Derry comes from the fact that the walls have never been breached by invaders.

On the west of the walls is the Bogside district which was developed in the 19th and early 20th centuries as a working class mostly Catholic residential area. It was the place of the three-day 'Battle of the Bogside' in August 1969. Today it is still residential and the buildings have murals commemorating key events in the Troubles.

We visited Ereti's son Jason at Duncreggan University. He is studying music with an interest in composing. He was thrilled we were able to bring him some things he needed from home.

Portrush, Northern Island

2008-11-03T04:51:00.001-08:00

My sister's partner's parents live in Portrush so we visited them. Portrush is pretty busy in the summer with holiday makers arriving to spend time at the beach. It is popular for surfing as well and there were quite a few brave souls in the high seas trying to catch waves.

The port was a place where many Irish folk left by boats for America during the Potato Famine.
We drove around the coast and saw the ruins of Dunluce Castle. Part of the castle, including the kitchen, fell into the ocean in 1639, along with some of the servants and the dinner. It was owned by the Mac Donnell family too.

There are several international golf courses along the coast line in Portrush. It would have been nice to play a game but it was very wet and windy most of the time.

Gerry and Kathleen made us most welcome. Gerry is a retired plumber but still does odd jobs about the town. Kathleen does volunteer work at a charity shop and had been asked to sell poppies to raise funds for war veterans.

Stranraer, Scotland to Islandmagee, Ireland

2008-11-03T04:09:00.000-08:00

Our friends Alan and Helen put us in touch with friends of theirs, Stephanie and Matthew, near Stranraer. It was really convenient as it was not too far from the ferry crossing to Northern Ireland. Matthew and Stephanie live on a large farm and are pretty self-sufficient. We ate sausage they had made from their animals. Matthew had a duck and some pheasants hanging outside the back door ready to be prepared for eating.

The property that they lived in used to be the local parish school and it was interesting to read an account from one of the teachers who ran the school. She had several children arrive at the school during the war years and they were billeted by local farming families. Unfortunately we didn't get any photos of our stay with Matthew and Stephanie.

We headed off early the next morning and found our catamaran ferry had been cancelled because of damage it had sustained in a storm the day before. We had to wait several hours before the next ferry crossing and they took a long time to load as they had lots of extra passengers. It looked to us like they would never fit everyone on but they did.

Our tourist information pamphlets showed us a campground not far from Belfast so we decided to cross the city and have a brief look at it but it turned out to be the wrong decision as there were several streets being resealed and car crashes and ambulances blocking up the one way streets. When we finally arrived at the campground it was closed so we continued driving along the coast looking for somewhere to camp.

We found a caravan club site at Islandmagee and were the only people in the camp even though it is mid term holidays for many schools. It was very cold so we were grateful to be able to plug into the electricity and have our fan heater running. The camp was pretty basic and had no showers or hot water and we had to walk a long way to get to the toilets.

We drove around the peninsula and spent some time talking to the local fishermen near the bird nesting colony at Port Muck. We were hoping to be able to see some puffins but they had headed for Rathlin Island further off the coast. If the weather had been better we would have liked to have spent some time on the island but it has been stormy lately.

We continued on around the coast road stopping briefly in Glenarm, the home to the Mac Donnell clan.

We arrived at the Giant's Causeway during a break in the weather. The fee to park in the National Trust car park was 7.50 Euros for our van and a man told us to continue driving to the hotel car park where we could park for free if we had a cup of tea there. The tea only cost 2 Euros. There were still several tourists clambering over the rocks even with the high seas running. Parts of the walkway were closed due to land slides.