Ten Days On...

I'm still shaking my head in realisation that Lyndon and I are very lucky, to have two beautiful, healthy daughters.  

We are 'getting there' in terms of being organised in the morning, with getting both girls up, dressed and fed before we get in the car and take Monet to school.  For a baby who is 10 days old, Lily is coping with this routine much better than I had of thought.

This may change next week when Ramadan finishes (yee-har!) but it means that school begins at 8am (rather than 8:30am) and ends for KG2 at 1pm (rather than 12:45).  We will have to adjust our body clocks and be super organised for us to leave and arrive at school on time.  Lucky for me, two other families in our little street also have children attending the same school.  We are going to organise ourselves a car-pooling roster which will be great.  I may only have to do a couple of these early morning runs! 

Lily is sleeping  and feeding well.  I took her for a check up on Monday morning, where the Pediatrician announced that he thought I should have more children (umm, let me think about that one.....NO! He said this because he thought Lily was lovely and big and healthy) and that her birth weight was up by 700 grams.  I swear now, she would be a kilo heavier than when she was born 10 days ago.  

Myself, on the other hand, can happily announce that I have lost 12 kilos of the 15 I put on when pregnant.  I'm still in maternity dacks and my old tops are a little tight in the boob region (*grin*) but I am feeling really good.  My only complaint is a bit of a sore back and arm and that is put down to holding a 4.6 (or maybe 4.9 now) kilo baby in my arms.  

Lyndon and my dad have been a great helping hand.  Lyndon returned to work on Sunday and my dad has been getting Monet's breakfast in the morning, stacking the dishwasher and cleaning the kitchen at night, besides other things, (like keeping Monet occupied).  Lyndon has been cooking dinner - I have once myself but Lily thinks it is her tea time when we decide it is ours, so preparing and cooking dinner isn't on the cards yet... I need to get into the routine of preparing dinner way in advance...  All in due time of course...

A couple of you have picked up on the Monet and the Lily connection.  I do like to think of Lily as one of Claude Monet's Water Lillies.  *smirk*  (Thanks to Google Images)

And of course Lily's middle name, Venice, is after the awesome city that is Venice Italy, which I remember stating after visiting last year, that the city does steal a piece of your heart.  

My Venice does the same thing.

We'll Be Back...One Day...*fingers crossed*

On our final full day in Venice we headed over to the Island of Murano.  It is very much like the Island of Venice, though smaller in size, not 'quite' so busy, but every shop sold glass.  Glass and more glass.  It is famous because of it I suppose, so we shouldn't have been surprised to see every shop window looking a bit like this...

  

There seemed to be 'lots' of locals living there too, which was good to see.  There were people going about their own business, shopping in their local Co-op supermarket and buying fresh produce off boats in the main canal...

If you ask Monet, she had 'the' best chocolate ice-cream here...

We caught a ferry back to Venice which we really enjoyed.  It took us right around the outskirts of the city so we got to see some great sights we otherwise might not have seen.  And we got to have a bit of fun taking self portraits. *heehee*

In Venice we found ourselves wandering again.  And getting lost.  And taking loads of photos.  And eating some delicious pizza.  And waving goodbye to the Gondolas (& getting waves back which was nice!)

I think by now you would have gathered that we loved Venice.  It stole a piece of my heart so I must go back to find it.

The next morning we made our way, bright and early, to Marco Polo Airport and flew back to London...

Stay tuned...

The Venetian Wanderers

We spent 3 (freezing) nights in Venice, in our Hotel room.  The room had no heating.  

Lyndon went to the front desk and complained about how cold he was overnight in bed.  

"This is Venice.  It is cold at night.  This hotel doesn't have heating - it is too expensive to run" was what he was told.  With the price we paid, we expected heating.  When we retuned that afternoon from wandering, we found an extra six blankets in our room.  

But we know we weren't the only ones who were cold during the night.  The breakfast room was full of people who looked like us.  Like they had a night freezing their butts off!  

But that is our only complaint about Venice - our cold (sterile) Hotel room.  And too many tourists.  But I guess we were only adding to the tourist problem.  Venice has something like 20 million visitors a year (!!)

We spent our first full day in Venice wandering.  Because that is what you do in Venice - wander.  We wanted to get lost in the maze of lanes and discover little hidden parts of the Island City...

We crossed so many bridges (there are something like over 400 here) we made a mental note to ourselves to leave the stroller back at the hotel when we set out next!

We ate some of the best Pizza we had eaten in our life and had some refreshing fruit from a market stall that were selling chopped up fruit like it was going out of fashion... At 1 euro and 50 cents, it was one of the cheapest things to eat! (Monet was reminiscing about the Strawberries she ate from this stall when she spied me posting this photo!)

We seemed to constantly find ourselves back at the Piazza San Marco because that's where the packs of tourists seemed to flock to.  Along with the pigeons.  Why people want to feed them and have the dirty birds land on you is so beyond me...

We also found ourselves during part of the day, at the lovely quieter section of Dorsoduro, alongside the Canal della Giudecca.  We were staying in the San Marco section which is a tourist mecca, so we decided that next time (I wish) we'll stay in this quieter section...

Wandering is exhausting and it is hard to know how far you have walked in Venice but we weren't complaining.  It is a great little city to pound the pavement (you have no choice, except if you want to go on a gondola, which we didn't.)

Can someone shout me a trip back to Venice?  All this Venetian talk is making me sick, especially looking at these photos!!  I think my heart belongs in Venice *sigh*

More to come on Venice...

Stay tuned...

Amazing Venice...

When people talk about touring Europe, 9 times out of 10, people quote Venice as being their favourite place on their travels.  They sigh and say "Oh Venice...I love Venice". I now know why.

Oh Venice...

Venice grabs hold onto a little bit of your heart and it lives on within you.  

It is a magically beautiful city.

  

It is a place you have to see for yourself to believe.  

If there is a place I could afford to live, Venice Italy would be it.  

Minus all the tourists of course...

We arrived after our train journey across the Austrian Alps (amazing train trip!) from Munich, which took roughly 7-8 hours.  We had changed trains at Verona and our train took us out onto the Island of Venice.  

Our first glimpse of Venice was at 5pm exiting the train station...

We stood amazed by what we saw, the number of people, the Canal, the boats, the gondolas.  It simply took our breath away.  But our first duty was to find our hotel, which we knew was not far from The Rialto Bridge (only 3 bridges cross the Grand Canal)...

I had read in the Lonely Planet that everyone gets lost in Venice, so I was really (really, really) surprised that we found our hotel without a problem.  (The directions we were given when we booked the hotel were very easy to follow.)

We were a tad disappointed with our Hotel (especially for the cost), even though the website looked inviting and the entrance was gorgeous, our hotel room left little to be desired.  Think of an old school room.  But we had 3 comfortable beds and our own bathroom in which Monet thought the 'other toilet' was very interesting...  

(Try explaining this to a 3 year old without giggling!)

Stay tuned for more Venice...

I Thank You...

Can you believe we're back?

We had the most brilliant, fabulous, life-time memories, fun-filled holiday that seemed to go soooo slow, which made it even better.  We saw and experienced some wonderful things and places so there are many posts to come!! 

I figure I have some people to thank, during our holiday so here I go...(sorry if I miss anyone!)

The friendly staff on the Cathay Pacific flights (five flights all up) for making our daughter's day with the bags with things-to-do goodies.  This was made even more special for Monet for the fact that Cathay Pacific must have associations with Disney because she ended up with Dumbo the Elephant bags, a Winnie-The-Pooh backpack and a Mickey Mouse over the shoulder number.  Lucky her.

For the friendly (I'm not lying here!) people on London's Tube trains, who smiled at Monet and I (apparently a rarity on London transport for people to crack a smile) and the ones who offered to give up their seats for us when it was busy, I thank you.

For the woman who sat and stared at a standing,crying Monet on London's Tube train on Wednesday evening, at peak hour, who did not offer us your seat.  Thanks for that.  Not.

For the staff at Kensington's Premier Inn where we stayed, I thank you.  The hotel was brilliant, clean, in a great position and (we thought) reasonably priced for inner London.  We'll happily stay there again down the track.

To Bob-Kat, my blogger friend, now an even closer blogger friend, for meeting me, I thank you. 

To Minnie Mouse at Disneyland, I thank you.  Minnie certainly 'made' some little girl's holiday.

To the lady in line at Cityrama in Paris, who came from the Hunter Valley (in NSW), I thank you.  You were a lovely lady who seemed rather thrilled to meet a Monet on a visit to Claude Monet's garden.

  

To the funny waiter at the pub in Stuttgart who greeted and served us, I thank you.  Even though we spoke no German, (bar a "Danke" here and there), you understood our Aussie drawl.

To David, even though we didn't end up meeting, I thank you.  (I still feel a little bad!)

To the very kind German Train Manager on the ICE train from Stuttgart to Munich, I (really, really, really) do thank you.  (I'm leaving this for an upcoming post, so more will be revealed on that!)

To the lovely lady who was the hotel Manager of the Merrabel Hotel in Munich, I sincerely thank you.  She got us out of a (very) sticky situation but she reflected the way all the German people treated us on this leg of our tour.  (Again, this will be part of a post related to the one above!)

To the friendly woman at the information booth at the Munich Train Station, I thank you.  Even though she spoke no english, she managed to understand what I was asking and really put our minds at ease at changing trains at Verona to get to Venice.  

To the guy in the pizza booth near our hotel (via a million lanes) who sold delicious pizza and el-cheapo priced beer, we thank you.

To our friend Jason, thank you.  We were lucky enough for him to take Lyndon and I to a fancy nancy French Restaurant in London.  So fancy it has a Michelin Star.  And when the bill arrived, Jason had to pick Lyndon and I off the floor.  But it was soooo worth it, it deserves a post of its own too!

To my sister Kimbofo and her partner T, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.  We thank you for everything, I don't need to list the reasons why - you know.  Monet is still talking about your shoebox in the sky.  And playing with the snow globe from Uncle T.  

To my friend Leesa who turned the hot water back on for us, thank you.  The hot shower yesterday morning was brilliant.

To our family and friends for the text messages and those of you who left me messages here and on my Facebook page, thank you.

And finally I really do have to thank Lyndon.  Thank you.  Thank you for every morning in London going and buying and making breakfast for us.  And for being the one who would order the food and beers at every place we went to.  You did brilliantly.

We can't believe we're back.  (And spare a thought to Lyndon, who today has flown down to Brissy on business for three days!)