We're home!!!

It's very good to be back in our own house and see our little cat again. Thank you so much to mawaridi  for looking after both while we were away.

We're in Dubai airport, with three hours to wait until our flight leaves for Melbourne, but at least they have free wifi, and also laptop charging stations, which is very civilised of them ( Read more... )

Not quite such a busy day today ( Read more... )

A full day of sightseeing today ( Read more... )

We’re on the train from Firenze to Roma, travelling through the Tuscan countryside. I’ve been taking photos through the window of the train, but they only show the facts: the geographiccal arrangement of trees and houses and fields, which is deeply unsatisfying. They give no sense of the truth of this place, the effect of the creamy white and ( Read more... )

A lovely day today. We began with breakfast in the hotel restaurant, which was a combination of English/American ( cereal, bacon and eggs) and continental (croissants, cheese, chocolate and other cakes). I had my first Italian cappucino in years and enjoyed it very much ( Read more... )

We left France on Friday evening and caught the night train to Florence, which was interesting. We were sharing a four-berth sleeper with two French women, but niether of them spoke any English or Italian, and neither of us spoke any German or much French, so communication was a bit limited ( Read more... )

I seem to be finally over my jet lag, which is kind of nice, but also means I no longer have three hours each morning to write updates and upload photos before everyone else wakes up, hence the lack of updates ( Read more... )

We're just back from a dinner cruise on the Seine, which was lovely, but I'm too full and too sleepy to write a proper post. More later.

Yesterday was another busy day. We said goodbye to our hosts in the morning,  and caught the train into the city. The Victoria line was closedfor improvement works (I gather this is normal for London on the weekends, especially long weekends), so we caught the aboveground train to Liverpool, then changed for the District Line. I find the London ( Read more... )