Friday, July 25, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
France
Pics from our first pass through france in the Van. For everyone wondering what our van looks like, there are quite a few pics of her posing in here.
We caught the ferry from dover to Calais then drove down the west coast of france into spain. The pics at the start are from the ferry trip and the white cliffs of dover. Most of the northern part of france was quite boring even though we took the small farm roads (also to avoid paid highways). South of france was nicer, but still not the impressive. The best part is where we are now (the South east part of france, near Costa Brava and the French Riviera.
Next post in a few days will be spain including San Fermin and the Pyrenees.
P.S. hope everyones heaters are working well in Melbourne - we are suffering through mainly 28 degree days here ;)
We caught the ferry from dover to Calais then drove down the west coast of france into spain. The pics at the start are from the ferry trip and the white cliffs of dover. Most of the northern part of france was quite boring even though we took the small farm roads (also to avoid paid highways). South of france was nicer, but still not the impressive. The best part is where we are now (the South east part of france, near Costa Brava and the French Riviera.
Next post in a few days will be spain including San Fermin and the Pyrenees.
P.S. hope everyones heaters are working well in Melbourne - we are suffering through mainly 28 degree days here ;)
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Tour De France
We saw the opening of Tour De France in Brest which was awesome. Pics below. This will be a short post since the notebook is annoying me and the pub we are in seems to have just turned into a gay bar.
*update after gay bar* we wrote this 2 weeks ago:
As soon as we realised that tour de france was starting the same time we would be in France Alex made an executive decision and completely changed the travelling plans. Today we arrived in Brest where the celebrations are very much under way for the first stage of the Tour De France 2008!
Brest is a fairly large town and our van is parked in the middle of a small square of local shops – first time we have parked in such a busy area which should be intereting for sleeping.
We arrived here just in time to watch the end of the opening ceremony which was far bigger than either of us imagined. Luckily team Silence were one of the last teams to be welcomed on stage so we got to see Cadel and Robbie three times, twice they even smiled at us when we yelled GO AUSSIES!! Look out for us on SBS as we plan to make a big sign to hang on our van and park along the course somewhere if possible.
*update after gay bar* we wrote this 2 weeks ago:
As soon as we realised that tour de france was starting the same time we would be in France Alex made an executive decision and completely changed the travelling plans. Today we arrived in Brest where the celebrations are very much under way for the first stage of the Tour De France 2008!
Brest is a fairly large town and our van is parked in the middle of a small square of local shops – first time we have parked in such a busy area which should be intereting for sleeping.
We arrived here just in time to watch the end of the opening ceremony which was far bigger than either of us imagined. Luckily team Silence were one of the last teams to be welcomed on stage so we got to see Cadel and Robbie three times, twice they even smiled at us when we yelled GO AUSSIES!! Look out for us on SBS as we plan to make a big sign to hang on our van and park along the course somewhere if possible.
Monday, July 7, 2008
*update/pics* Farm two - Tuscan toys
Our second farm was also in the Tuscany region, but in Livorno province - very close to the sea. The host family is Scottish and they make amazing wooden toys for a living. After we got to Castagneto Carduci Station about 7pm, Alan took us with him to the night market to sell toys. We didn't get home until about 1am.
It was only to our surprise, when we realized that we'll be attending night markets 6 times a week. But the Euro Cup was on at that time so we spent most of the time in the pub watching the games:)
Days were filled with workshop small or bigger jobs like toy sanding, making and balancing flying birds, gluing wooden fish, painting, drilling and lots more.
Jo loved every second of it, Alex complained a bit about lack of free time for himself (none).
Don't get the impression that we only worked – we managed to spend a weekend in Elba where we rented a scooter and had a great time. Alex also went spear fishing with Steven – their son for a couple of days. Great swimming and snorkeling conditions, sleeping under the stars...
At the end of our stay Jo got given the Heron – her favorite toy, it will be fun to bring it back to Australia.
It was only to our surprise, when we realized that we'll be attending night markets 6 times a week. But the Euro Cup was on at that time so we spent most of the time in the pub watching the games:)
Days were filled with workshop small or bigger jobs like toy sanding, making and balancing flying birds, gluing wooden fish, painting, drilling and lots more.
Jo loved every second of it, Alex complained a bit about lack of free time for himself (none).
Don't get the impression that we only worked – we managed to spend a weekend in Elba where we rented a scooter and had a great time. Alex also went spear fishing with Steven – their son for a couple of days. Great swimming and snorkeling conditions, sleeping under the stars...
At the end of our stay Jo got given the Heron – her favorite toy, it will be fun to bring it back to Australia.
Farm 1 update finally
After being picked up in a tiny little Fiat Punto by Stefan, his wife and two daughters (meaning we had to sit four across the back seat holding our packs with no seat belts) we were slightly worried. But after a 45 minute drive up into the mountains high above Arezzo (in Tuscany) our luck definitely changed – they had a complete tuscan bed and breakfast house set up for us! Basically we had an awesome little four room tuscan mud house to relax in after about four hours of work each day.
After meeting the whole family (7 in total) we started work. Work involved lots of different things including making vegetable gardens, building fences for vines, picking cherries, killing roosters (and taking the feathers out, another story!).. It was only in the second week that we really got into the bee keeping, and then it was jumping right into the deep end! Alex would go out to all the different bee hives with Stefan and steal the precious honey from the angry bees, while Jo would do everything else needed to get the honey sold at the market (draining, filtering, spinning, jarring, labelling, selling!)
In all we had an awesome time at this farm and it left us with a good impression of wwoofing. (If you are interested in having a go, just google wwoof and the name of any country in the world!)
Oh, and we only got bitten twice (both to Alex within 3 seconds of each other, one on each hand!)
After meeting the whole family (7 in total) we started work. Work involved lots of different things including making vegetable gardens, building fences for vines, picking cherries, killing roosters (and taking the feathers out, another story!).. It was only in the second week that we really got into the bee keeping, and then it was jumping right into the deep end! Alex would go out to all the different bee hives with Stefan and steal the precious honey from the angry bees, while Jo would do everything else needed to get the honey sold at the market (draining, filtering, spinning, jarring, labelling, selling!)
In all we had an awesome time at this farm and it left us with a good impression of wwoofing. (If you are interested in having a go, just google wwoof and the name of any country in the world!)
Oh, and we only got bitten twice (both to Alex within 3 seconds of each other, one on each hand!)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
