Settling into Swindon

Since it's not possible to continue travelling forever, we had to end our trip somewhere, move into a fixed abode and start working again (well, Lindsay at least).

We arrived in Swindon after our summer holiday in New Zealand and it was quite a shock at first - cold, drizzly, and dark just after 4pm. But we didn't have time to get depressed. We started looking for a place to live immediately and after only a week, we moved into a four bedroom house with a little backyard in a new residential area in the North of Swindon. We were lucky and we were able to negotiate for all whiteware to be included and the rent to be reduced.


We moved in before the fridge, so we had to create a fridge in our backyard, which wasn't hard considering the low temperatures. We took everything of use out of the campervan, including kitchenware, fold-up table and chairs, matress and cushions. Unfortunately these items have been our only pieces of furniture since then and because of our container from Germany being delayed, they will remain so until after christmas. The only thing we have bought is a bed and after we made the order, we realised how silly our bedroom is designed. It is too narrow for the kingsize bed with bedside tables next to it and it only has one short wall with no window or door on it. Oh well, we still managed to fit the bed in. The bedroom (aside form the kitchen) is now the most homely place in our house. Our lounge is a bit dull with cushions on the floor, no TV and just Yana's toys as entertainment.



Lindsay started work on December 1st. He is back at Allied Telesis working in a pre-Sales-Support role now. He enjoys being able to speak to colleagues and customers in English again and he has been getting fit on his 6km bike-rides to and from work every day.

Kerstin has been trying to organise the house and find mother-toddler groups in the area to get to know other people. There is a German mother-toddler group in Swindon, which Kerstin and Yana have been to twice now. The mothers are mostly Germans, some come from other countries and have lived in Germany for a while. The children range in age from about 3 weeks to about 2 1/2 and Yana fits in really well.

Yana is almost 17 months now and turning into a cute little girl. She can walk all the way to the playground and back (with lots of little detours ;-)), she can say "Mama", "da" and "dog" and she can understand a lot. She does lots of cute (and weird) little things like: makes bromm bromm noises when she sees a car, walks around with her doll in her jersey top(!?), sit in pots, climbs into cupboards (yesterday she even got completely onto the top shelf somehow), stand in or on pots (depending on which way they are turned), sit down with a blanket on her knees and read a book, etc. Eating is also fun, but not so much for her Mama, who has to have a lot of patience and do a lot of cleaning afterwards.





Since our house is so unhomely, we are not really in a christmas mood this year. However, we had a nice pre-Christmas lunch last Sunday and we are going to spend christmas with friends in Bath, which should be great. After christmas we will have our first visitors - Kerstin's family. Hopefully they won't have to sit on the floor for too long...

Holiday in New Zealand

To bring our Europe trip to a glorious end, we decided to go back to New Zealand for a five-week holiday before settling down into the English winter.

The flight from Europe to New Zealand is tedious at the best of times, but having a 15 month old baby and being 10 hours delayed makes it even worse. To be fair, Yana was surprisingly good on the flight. We didn't have any of the moments where we wanted to disappear into our seats that we had feared.

Most of our time in New Zealand we spent with my sister Nina, her husband Phil and their 11 month old son Oscar. Yana really liked Oscar. She got excited when she saw him, followed him around, and stroked his head. Towards the end she was getting a little rougher, probably because she didn't like him taking toys away from her.



We had a really nice time in New Zealand. The weather was a bit unpredictable for the first couple of weeks, but then it got really nice and summery. We caught up with lots of friends, spent a week with Lindsay's mum in Timaru, went for a nice walk on the bridle path with Lindsay's dad, and had fun and hot day at the races. Lindsay went to Nelson for a boys weekend and Kerstin did nice trips with Nina to Sumner and Lyttleton.


The highlight of our holiday was a weekend in a holiday house in Wainui, Banks Peninsula, with a group of friends. The holiday house we were staying at was very nice, with a really well designed garden with lots of flowers, a deck and an amazing view - all really well shelted from any wind. We did lots of chatting, eating, chilling out, and kite flying. We had a great time and to round the weekend up we went to French Farm for a nice lunch.

Update on Yana...

I just had a look on my parents' blog and realised that there have been hardly any photos of me recently. That needs to be remedied...

This photo shows me climbing up a slide. I love climbing up things and sliding is heaps of fun too. For a while climbing was all that I was interested in, but recently I have started doing a few steps on my own. It's not too bad, but I still need to be encouraged by my parents and prefer crawling.








This is dad and me in a playground in Llanca. By the way, I decided to be nicer to Mama and Daddy now. I go up to them and give them hugs and kisses, and I stroke or pat them (although that can sometimes still be a little rough).















This is me eating. I love eating. I eat pretty much everything and lots of it.
















This is me playing in my mirror-room (well, bathroom). I love playing in there, because there are three other me's that laugh back at the real me.

North of Spain

After a day of duty-free shopping in Andorra, we headed back to Spain. We had a very scenic drive through the pyrenees and stayed in some really nice spots. The best spot was right by a lake. Lindsay went for a bike ride and a swim, while Kerstin did some painting.

The lake we stayed at.

We never got around to doing a proper hike, but we did a walk to an old castle ruin in the small town of Bonabarre. On the castle grounds it was the first time that Yana stood up by herself and did a few steps. Previously she had just done a few steps out of the standing position when we called her to us.

The castle in Bonabarre.

We visited Pamplona, where the Encierro (running with the bulls) is held. Unfortunately it was raining for most of the time and we managed to get there during the siesta time (between 2pm and 5pm) when all the shops are closed and the streets are completely isolated. You could see the potential of the town, but couldn't be bothered waiting around to experience it.

The landscape in the pyrenees.

Our last stop in Spain was Bilbao. On the first day we managed to park right outside a shopping mall and get internet. Lindsay was surfing the web, while Kerstin did some clothes shopping. The next day Kerstin got to spend most of the day in the Guggenheim Museum, while Lindsay walked the streets of Bilbao with Yana. The Guggenheim Museum consists of an amazing building out of steel and glass that looks like a huge sculpture and is integrated really well into the surrounding area. Inside there are really interesting exhibitions, including a large one by Juan Munoz, and you can find out all the details via an audio guide.

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

After a 30 hour ferry-ride from Bilbao to Portsmouth, we have now arrived in England and our trip around Europe is coming to an end. The ferry-ride went very smoothly, we just felt a little queezy at the beginning when we were sitting in our tiny room with no window and the boat was rocking back and forth. Later on it got less bumpy and we had a good nights' sleep. The boat was very luxurious with lots of restaurants, bars and pubs. Kerstin saw the film 'Mamma Mia' in the boat's cinema and Lindsay watched a boring, badly done video presentation on the whales and dolphins that had been spotted on the way over (he saw a whale in real life shortly after leaving Bilbao).

Bilbao.

Now we are looking around our future home - Swindon - and we are getting prepared for our next big trip to New Zealand in a week's time.

Spain

Since we have now reached our fifth country - Andorra - it's time to write about Spain...

We left a grey and windy France and it felt like the weather improved as soon as we crossed the border to Spain. We spent about three days in a place called Llanca, which had a nice beach/yacht-harbour, two great playgrounds for Yana and a cheap, but completely acceptable, camping ground. The weather was great during our stay. We got to do a bit of sun-bathing, Lindsay went for a 4 hour run/tramp while Kerstin went to the beach with Yana and Kerstin went for a shorter run the next day.

The coast by Llanca

The beach/yacht-harbour of Llanca

Our next stop was Girona, a city with a nice colourful row of houses along the river, an impressive cathedral, cute narrow streets, but a slightly dodgy looking carpark that we were glad to leave behind.

Girona's colourful houses

The next few days we spent in a camping ground just north of Barcelona, near a town called Mataro. From there we took the train into Barcelona for two days. In Barcelona we bought a two-day tourist bus pass, which was a great way to see the city and learn about all the sights. We were able to hop on and off the bus as many times as we wanted. On the first day, a slightly rainy day unfortunately, we did the Southern route that took us to the Olympic stadium and the harbour. And on the second day, a nice and sunny day, we did the Northern route that took us to a couple of creative houses, the impressive Sagrada Familia and the colourful Park Güell - all designed by Gaudi.

The Sagrada Familia from the outside...

...and from the inside

Inside Park Güell - it was hard to get this photo without anyone posing in it.

More from Park Güell - again very hard to not get anyone in the ph

A very very unique looking building... anyone else get cravings for gherkins???

The first part of our drive to Andorra was not very exciting. Last night, however, we stayed in a really cool spot by a gorge here in the pyrenees and the drive today was really spectacular as well. After we've done some duty-free shopping tomorrow, we will try to experience the pyrenees from a hiker's perspective.

Provence etc

Well this update is a little slow as usual. We have travelled around a fair bit since the last entry. 

After reluctantly leaving Annecy, we went to a camping ground in Jonquieres near Orange. While there, we thought Yana was going to make the jump and finally start walking because she took a few shuffling steps, but since then she has seemed rather disinclined to try it again. However she still loves pushing the pram around, and is getting more skilled at getting unstuck

 when she bumps into something. We are a little worried that she might just skip walking and just start driving everywhere. Fortunately she can't reach both the pedals and the steering wheel yet.

One interesting thing we have seen a lot in Provence, is vineyards where the vines are not tied to wires, but left to grow like little trees. We can assure you that they taste the same though (its not stealing when you're doing scientific experiments (e.g. do they taste good)).

Next we went to Carpentras to go to a farmers market (very friendly little town), and managed to take a wrong turn which took us down a maze of tiny little streets that we were seriously worried about needing to back out of with our campervan... fortunately we managed to find our way back out without knocking any bits off the campervan!

Next we went to Avignon, which while ok, was quite shady (lots of strange homeless people) and also a little boring - apart from the Pont d'Avignon (Avignon Bridge, which cost €4.50 just to walk onto! - we didn't bother...) and the Palais des Papes (old Papal palace), there wasn't much else to see - just living from its past.

€4.50 just to walk on half a bridge - the cheek of the french aye...

After Avignon we went to see Pont du Gard, an amazing old Aquaduct built by the romans in about 19BC and still in very good nick. The scale of it is pretty amazing and to think that the bridge was only one small part of the total Aquaduct going through hilly countryside (50 something kms)... We found a nice place to park only a couple of kms from the bridge and therefore managed to get there at about 8am before anybody else, and got some nice piccies.

Pont du Gard - those Romans sure knew how to build!

Big Yana against one of the 'little' arches on the top tier to get an idea of the size.

After Pont du Gard we went to Arles, where van Gogh spent quite a bit of time (including several hundred paintings and chopping off his ear).
Missing ear and all...

There happened to be a festival on with bull fighting (and running) etc and with its old roman amphitheatre etc it was a really nice place. We also got to experience the famous Mistral wind wistling down the Rhone valley - rocked us to sleep in the campervan ;-)

We are now on the Mediterranean coast with nice summery conditions. On Sunday we stopped off near Montpellier on a nice beach where I (and Yana) got to swim in the Mediterranean sea for the first time (I only dipped my toes in when we were in Rome a few years ago). We are planning on staying on various beaches along the coast as long as the weather holds out (is due to rain on Thursday) and then heading towards Spain/Pyrenees mountains.

As this was written on Monday and it is now Friday, it is a little out of date - we have now reached Spain - a little earlier than expected due to the weather packing it in on Wednesday instead... but that will all have to wait until the next post ;)

Lac d'Annecy

We have moved on to France now and we have spent four very nice days in the area around Lac d'Annecy (Lake Annecy). Annecy itself is a beautiful little town with canals, narrow alleyways, bridges with flowers on them, lots of playgrounds and a park right by the lake. An amazing two-way cycle 'road' runs along the entire western shore of the lake (and carries on south for another 10kms or so) and there are mountains with sheer rock faces towering over the eastern shore. There are also giant meringues to be sampled. It's a very nice area.

The first night we spent on a carpark together with lots of other campervans, despite a sign saying no camping. We couldn't quite understand the text of the sign, but were pretty sure camping wasn't allowed given the campervan picture with a cross through it. However, we thought that the town must tolerate campervans, otherwise there wouldn't be 15 or so campervans parked there. The carpark was right by the lake. In the morning I went for a run along the lake. For the rest of the day Lindsay went for a bike ride, while Yana and I explored the centre of the town. We did some sightseeing and went to two different playgounds. Afterwards we relaxed in the park.

The next couple of nights we spent in a legitimate parking spot, which wasn't as close to the lake though. Because the second day was rainy, we went out for lunch and then spent the rest of the day in an indoor swimming pool. Yana loved playing around in the water and Lindsay and I took turns swimming lengths. Lindsay had to buy some speedos from a vending machine, because shorts weren't allowed.

On the Sunday we went for a walk on the eastern side of the lake. We followed the markers to a mountain, but even though we were climbing up at a continuous rate, we were struggling to get a view. We knew there was an amazing view, but it was covered by all the trees. Finally we found a spot, from which we could see down to the lake. we didn't make it to the top of the mountain though, as we had no idea how long it would have taken us.

Because we liked Annecy so much, we decided to spend another day there, exploring the town centre and relaxing by the lake. We biked into town along the lake from where we were staying and then spent the day in town. It was beautiful and sunny, and we were almost tempted to stay on for another day.

Now we are on our way to the Provence, eager to find out what kinds of places we will discover here.

Beautiful Switzerland

So after a long pause, I check our blog again to see that Yana has cheekily hacked my
password and added herself as an admin on the blog... That earned her a month computer ban.

In other news, we are now (and have been for the last 4 days) by Lake Geneva in Switzerland where we have found a rather pleasant campingground with a beach nearby and the neccesities of modern living - power and internet access ;-)Kerstin has been using this to make some serious progress on her Information Design assignment while Lindsay and Yana have been making sure nobody causes any problems on the beach.














Before coming here, we spent our time in the following way:

We visited our friends Julian and Jana in Freiburg and organised a survey that was testing the correlation between price and taste of 10 different pinot noir wines. Julian invited some work mates of his and we all sampled the wines (without knowing which was being tasted)that ranged from €1,50 to €16. There was a slightly positive correlation between taste and price, but some people had pretty random results. Most of us realised that the wines started tasting better, the more we had.

We did several walks in the Berner Oberland (or Jungfrau) region of Switzerland, making use of the incredibly nice, sunny weather. We stayed a couple of nights in Interlaken and a couple of nights in a small place in the Lauterbrunnen valley, called Stechelberg. Our walks took us from Stechelberg to Lauterbrunnen, from Stechelberg to Gimmelwald and Mürren, and from Grindelwald up the hill to no particular destination. Yana was such a great companion, either sleeping or being a quiet little angel in the backpack. We did make her do her share too though: she had to crawl parts of the way, especially up steps, which she loves to do (crawl, because she still can't be bothered walking).



































On our way to lake Geneva we found two less touristy, but still really nice places: Saanen and Leysin. In Saanen we stopped off for a day to do a bike-ride to the neighbouring town of Gstaad and in Leysin we spent two nights on the carpark of an sports complex. From Leysin we did a walk up to a mountain called Berneuse and took the cable car down. It was quite a long way, rather steep and hot, but we had amazing views and Yana behaved really well again.