Cointha’s Blog

After a long, long flight of 25 hours from Melbourne, we finally arrived at the Heathrow airport, London which was pretty exciting. It was only about six o’clock at night but we were extremely tired because of jet lag. We stayed the night in a hotel but woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep which wasnt too surprising considering the new time frame.

Next morning, we hopped into our new hire car and drove through lots of cute little English villages that all had tiny skinny roads. Even on the main streets you had to pull over just to let another car pass you. That’s because most of the buildings are hundreds and hundreds of years old and the roads weren’t designed for cars. We soon came to Windsor Castle and had breakfast right next to it. It was a magnificent castle owned by the queen and she stays there a lot. We also saw lots of squirrels, which were interesting to us because we dont have them running wild in Australia.

Later on, after getting through the floods in Henley on Thames, we came into Bradford on Avon, a beautiful village set on the Avon river with lots of history. This is where we stayed for two weeks with our English friends Anthony and Moira. To get to there house, you had to find a narrow alleyway in the middle of town, then climb up a million steps, (well not really but it seemed like it) and then you had to go along a path that went to a gate and door opposite each other. You then went through the creaky gate and found yourself in a lovely garden with a tall three story house. Anthony has a grand piano and it seems amazing how the removalists ever got it up there. Because not only are there the steps and skinny passageways, they have spiral staircases to get to each floor. Apparently, this is the way people live in the small towns in England which I think would be really nice, but only if I didnt have to move the furniture.

Our time at Bradford was nearly over after we did pottery on the wheel with Anthony which was great fun, though most of my bowls were really wonky which we had to demolish and keep the only straight one and also after going to Lacock and its abbey, Lacock Abbey where some parts of the Harry Potter movies were set, we bought a motorhome and we drove to Dover, sighting the marvellous white cliffs, where we would board the ferry to go to Calais and then drive all the way to Holland. Our time in England was great and were looking forward to going back there in the summer.

By Cointha

Although it is summer here it is still very cold and when we were here at Paris in winter it was very warm so it is funny how the weather can be so different to what its supposed to be in that particular season.

Well, we stayed in the Dordogne Valley a while ago and there were so many chateaus there, spread among the cliffs and hills that you sort of got to the stage where you didn’t even blink an eye at them. Everywhere you looked, and I’m not joking, you would see a chateau on the hill or amongst the vineyards.

We stayed in a lovely villa/house in the Dordogne called Le Roque Combe. There were four families staying there including us and one family was English and the others all Australian which was a surprise! It was strange for the owners to have so many Australians aswell.

I was looking at some photos the other day and there was one of the main street of our town. It was a shock to see how modern it looked and the road was so wide and straight with big signs and advertisements all over the shops. Because here, the little towns are all crooked with tiny, windy roads and LOTS of flower pots hanging out all the windows and there are hardly any signs around the streets. The shops are just tucked away into a little corner where they are hard to find.

We have been to Spain and it was really cool. We went to this Spanish medieval village and you had to get to it by an old wooden suspension bridge dangling over a pretty creek below. Some people were too scared to go over it and missed out on seeing the town. The village itself was as like everywhere else, like a fairytale.  We drove above the clouds in the Pyrenees Mountains and they were the prettiest alps. We also went to Avignon and saw the dancing bridge and the Popes Palace.

A few days ago we went to the Lourve and I saw Le Venus de Milo and THE real Mona Lisa. There were heaps of people taking photos of it. There were lots of old sculptures and paintings at the Lourve including some statues and tombs from the Egyptian Pyramids and other famous things. We also saw the place where they do the Moulin Rouge in Paris and then in the Metro on the way home, there were sooooo many people jam-packed into the train that we couldn’t move at all. Everyone was squashed up against other people and their heads pushed into the door so it wasn’t very comfortable. But we stopped at Gare de Lyon Station and went into the restaurant where Mr.Bean ate in Mr.Beans holiday which was really good. But we didn’t actually eat there.

We went to Lyon again to visit our friends and went to a French restaurant. At the restaurant I ordered frogs legs for lunch and chocolate mousse for dessert. So it was really yum! And I tasted snails aswell. They sort of tasted a bit like calamari in a garlic sauce. And frogs taste like a cross between chicken and fish.

Yesterday I went to Disneyland and that was awesome! I saw the Once Upon a Dream Parade and went on lots of rides and saw some shows. I also went on the Spinning Teacups. The best ride was Big Thunder Mountain which was a roller coaster that went around an island and through heaps of tunnels and things.

Anyway, I’ll go now!

Bye!

Cointha

While staying at Perpignan in France, we made a day trip into Spain.  Lots of people in Spain wore Spanish dresses and skirts with floral designs on them and bandanas, bare feet and peace necklaces.

 First we went to an old little fishing village on the sea called Cadaques. There was a ruined castle on the water and the town had some nice features but there weren’t many people because of the low season. We looked around the village and had lunch, then moved on.

 This is a photo of me, my mum and my brother in front of some cliffs near Cadaques.

Next we went to a medieval town called Rupit. It was so cute! You could only get to it by walking over a swinging suspension bridge dangling over a large flowing stream with a beautiful rocky waterfall next to it.

 Here my brother, Mum and I are standing with the view of the cliffs behind us.

This is us walking across part of the bridge.

Rupit was set in the cliffs so some of the houses, like this one, have cliffs hanging right over the top of them! I wouldn’t like to live there for too long.

When we were driving back to France we took a different route and went through the Pyrenees Mountains. We got to over 1800 metres high and we could see the clouds down below us, raining on the villages down in the valleys, but not on us because we weren’t under the clouds. So that was a bit weird, but cool!

I have finally managed to find some time to update the blog.
We are sitting in a villa in the Dordogne Valley at the moment and some local flooding due to some extraordinary spring rain has given me a moment to catch up.
Fortunately the weather does not stop the experience here as we can still drive around absorbing a remarkable spectacle with over 1400 chateaus and castles to view dotted along the river.

The picture is of my mum in the window of a chateau.

I am back in France now. So I will probably make a few mistakes by saying Italian things to the French as I am so used to everyone talking Italian now because we were in Italy for such a long time.
Anyway,  Alberabello was a small medieval villiage that looked sort of like a place out of a fairytale because all the houses were round with a pointy stone roof and a lot had paintings of symbols on their rooves. A long time ago the King of Naples sent his tax collectors to Alberabello to take house tax money from anyone who owned a house in Alberabello. But the king’s tax collectors usually came back with no money. This was because all the people of the village built their conical houses with stones and put no mortar in between them. Then, everytime the tax collectors came, they would pull a rope and their house would collapse into a pile of rocks. So, because they had no house, the tax collectors couldnt charge them any money and went back to the king without a cent. When they left, everyone would build their houses again and  would live in them untill the tax collectors came again. Nowadays, the walls of the houses have been concreted and only the rooves are made of stone! They are called Trulli Houses. 

I am still in Italy as I have been for a very long time. Though my Italian skills havent gone up too much because everyone here speaks a little bit of English. Most talk at least two or three languages. The main ones people speak in Italy are Italian, German and English. The other day I rowed to Lazise from where we are staying on Lake Garda in a canoe. It was about 6 kilometres there and back. Lazise is the nearest town to us.

They are having public holidays in Holland now so the Dutch are all on holidays so most people here are from Holland and when we were doing something on stage at this place everyone was shocked that we were from Australia. They always make us do something to do with a kangaroo.

A little town we went to in Italy was Alberabello. All the houses were little conical ones painted white with a stone roof.

Click to see Cointha’s slideshow of Holland.

Cointha’s slideshow of England

We had a lovely day in Venice today. I fed the pigeons in St.Marks Square and had a gondola ride. We went under the bridge of sighs while a man in another gondola played the piano accordian and another one sang. Where we are staying massive ships sail right past us and it is quite cool. (But very loud.)