Entries about air travel

Miles traveled....877.

It was after much gimping and nearly a thousand rest stops and aching hands that we finally arrived back in London. We hopped on the bus to ride back into town from Stansted( about 1 hour north of London).

We arrived in the late afternoon after translating ourselves to the “Wheatsheaf” our favorite local pub. Sara plopped down by the fire, we ordered some pints, and we got on the internet to finish working on blogs and Mike's book. Rob was hard at work with his newly arrived wards in his lab so he wouldn't be home til a little later that evenening.

Back at the pub in London town!

We arranged for a meet up with our buddy Neal the next day. We decided in honor of his stealthiness to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie at a theater on Baker Street down from the Sherlock Holmes museum.

The trip to the theater involved an unfortunately large amount of crutching around. Even my extra padding on the hand supports only gave limited support. WA WA don't you feel sorry for me. The movie was quite enjoyable and we decided to find a new plug for our laptop which had finally given out. We were nearly cut off from the internet! Yikes.

It was only after visiting a half a dozen shops that we finally found a plug for less than $90. Then we found several around the $60 mark before finally finding one for around $35. I wasn't sure if I was going to survive the trip back to Ealing Broadway Station in my advanced state of fatigue.

Luckily my wife and Neal managed to help me along ...I made it to the station, but my energy gave out in front of the “Wheatsheaff” where I nursed my injured pride and we waited for Rob to get home. We all spent a nice evening visiting before hitting the hay to prepare for our 5:00 am trip to Heathrow to return to the good old US of A.

Neal sporting his Cleveland Browns attire

Sara and OON

OOS, OON, OOM at your service

Mike

After minor delays due to plane problems in Newark we arrived in Chicago. After about an hour and a half on public transpo we arrived at the original “Posh Pad” Chicago. It was deserted! Tim was in Australia and Jeness was on call at her hospital in Elgin. We settled in and began to make our plans for the next couple of weeks. We emailed our local friends, worked on the book at the coffee shop, did laundry, and generally rested up for phase two of our travels: Family time.

We decided to make the drive out to the booming metropolis of Freeport to visit with my sister, her husband, and my nephew, CJ at the Hay household. We met Val at the clinic to get a house key and scouted the city to prepare for our first after school pick-up at Aquin elementary, home of the mighty Bulldogs. We waited with baited breath to see if CJ would still recognize us....

Miles travelled 870.
Landing in Rimini proved to be a little of a shock. I told Sara that I expected Italy to be around 55 degrees, but when we landed it was snowing and about 32 degrees. Rimini turned out to be a cute seaside town that was mostly shuttered for the winter season. We had a nice meal and rested up before making the drive through the Appenine mountains to Assisi the next day.

Almost to town after touchdown in Rimini International!

Snowy streets of Italy

the Italians have landed.

Hotel Trieste, Mike found this one for $50! Nice

Rimini Streets of snow!

The drive turned out to be amazing. The roads were clear and easily navigable as we made our way to Perugia to drop off the car and pick up the local train. We saw lovely Italian hill towns and snow clad mountains through the whole trip.

Appenine 7

Gubbio 2

Gubbio, Cute town

Appenine 5

Appenine 2

Appenine snowfall en route to Assisi

I want this house!

Unfortunately there was some confusion on our part about the train “to” Foligno or “from” Foligno, and we had an hour long train detour going the wrong way! On the plus side, we got to see the beautifule Lake Trasimeno, which is to the north west of Perugia. It was a real stunner in the sunset.
Finally, we made it to Assisi after dark and had a really hard time locating our Hotel.

St. Francis Basilica night

Assisi night view

We asked a slew of people and hiked nearly the length of the town with our luggage. Finally, a girl in a nice homey restaurant gave us a map and pointed us to the exact spot. The meal was delicious, black truffle on home made strangozzi. We also had a salad and a liter of wine that cost $3. AWESOME. After that we headed to the hotel and walked right up to the door. Luckily, the hotel turned out to be fantastic. The staff was great and the location was perfect. Hotel Hermitage is the place for anyone who needs one!
So, for those of you who don’t know, St. Francis began the tradition of the Nativity in 1223. Needless to say, there were countless nativities of every variation spread about the town and in every church. We even went to the theater and saw a play about how St. Francis was inspired.

We enjoyed every minute of our time in Assisi. Sara and I each made several hikes. Sara went to Mass in about half the churches in town and visited almost all of them. We went to Christmas mass in the lower Basilica of St. Francis. Sara said she almost felt like she had the gift of “ears” since she understood nearly all of the homily which was in Italian. I told her I was not sure if there was any such thing as the gift of “ears” even though hers are very cute!
Among the new stops we found most enjoyable were the crypt of St. Clare and Mass at St. Stephen’s on his feast day. St. Stephen’s church was simple, small, and adorable. The bishop presided and a heavenly choir serenaded the forty of us gathered there with amazing music.

Nun and el Bambino!

The crypt of St. Clare houses several amazing artifacts: a mass vestment made by St. Clare around 1300, bits of one of the original habits of Clare and St. Francis, and the original rule of the Franciscans. The portion of the crypt that housed the relics of St. Clare was beautifully decorated and very prayerful.

St. Clare's Chapel of San Damiano cross

Cool present from Brother Sun

Other highlights were the Hermitage on Mt. Subasio (where we saw St. Francis’ prayer cave), the Rocca Maggiore,

View from Rocca Minore to Rocca Magiore

Rocca Minore

Rocca Maggiore

and the crypts beneath San Rufino cathedral. The hike up Mt. Subasio took us through beautiful winter woodlands. The hillsides were festooned with green, brown, and orange making a delightful backdrop for our grueling two hour hike all uphill! Sara said the countryside reminded her of one of Bob Ross’ paintings with “happy little trees” placed here and there, and then scolded me for not knowing who Bob Ross even was! We also had the joy of feeding grass and petting some miniature donkeys along the roadside….so cute!

Sara enters the forest!

Subasio view

Sara art shot

Friends on the hike to hermitage...their ancestors might have been preached to by Francis

St. Francis grotto Hermitage

St. francis sculpture meditating on stars and moon

Subasio after the clouds rolled in...mysterious ..yes?

Entering St. Francis Grotto at Hermitage on Subasio

Subasion view of Assisi

One of Sara’s hikes took her down off the hill of Assisi to the Sanctuary of the River Torto. She found amazing joy in hiking across the Italian countryside and finding a cute spot to have coffee in the little town with the old men that were playing cards!! Nearly every place we visited or walked during our first week we were the only tourists. The solitude refreshed us both.

Door to Francis house!

francis mom grave

Francis dad grave

Assisi view

Holy Cross church west of Assisi

Roman dated ruins

Roman Tunnel

Amphitheatre ruins

A local Italian woman who works at the pastry shop befriended us. Christmas evening, we spent hours talking with her in the shop about the adventures of her life. It was a nice way to spend our holiday!

Pastry shop gang esp Concetta our pal on right

Some of the treats

More amazing stuff

It was a hard day when we took the bus to the train station to go to Rome. Our previous experiences in Rome had left us with mixed emotions about the eternal city, but that is where we were headed for our final three days in Italy.

Penang, Malaysia – Unesco Heritage site and slippery side walks
Miles traveled 236.12
We were very excited to pick up my brother Tim at the airport with our friend Spencer on November 28th. We hung out in Putrajaya visiting government landmarks and their enormous mall (and having a sweet drink at Shangri-La before Sara and I blazed the trail to the big island of Penang.

National Mosque

Government building

Tim and Mike at Shangra La

Mike and Sara in Shangra La Hotel

Mike, Sara, Tim

The flight was only one hour long, and when we got off the plane we were greeted by a wave of delicious food smells. This was only fitting because Penang is known as one of the meccas for food in Malaysia. As our taxi driver told us, “I am sure, if you try the restaurant I recommend you will tell me tomorrow, “It was good. For sure you will say good.”
We did not have enough meals to try all of the recommended restaurants, but we hit the lunch time food market as well as the night dinner market, The Red Dragon. The variety of food was incredible and the taste did not disappoint even though for non-seafood fans it took a little more work to find foods to try. On our first night we saw the chef, scooping giant 7in shrimp out of their tank for someone’s meal. They were jetting around at lightning speed which may amaze those who have not seen them with a reason to move quickly.
Our main lodging was at the Oriental Hotel.

View from Oriental hotel

Streets of Penang

We had an amazing view from our room on the 9th floor and the staff was incredibly helpful and friendly. The room was nice and the ac was totally bumpin. We finally met up with Tim and Spencer after they arrived the next morning at the end of the Chinatown walking tour. The sun was brutal, humidity high, and temperatures soaring. Spencer and Tim were red and very sweaty while we had just arrived via pedal taxi fresh as daisies!!

City Hall

Love Lane

Eastern Oriental Hotel

all of us

We walked a portion of the Colonial walking tour together before grabbing a few beers at the Soho public house and spending some time catching up.

Tower o beer

After that, we went our own ways to relax and get freshened up before dinner. We tried to hit some “hawker stalls”, but it turns out the New World Market is only Hawker style for lunch. We walked back to the strip on Penang street and ate at a nice Indian place across the street. YUMMY!
The next day Tim and Spencer were off to see Penang Hill and arranged to meet at lunch at the lunch hawker hot spot. Sara and I did a good stretch of the Chinatown walk with the aid of Tim’s guide information. The clan houses, Mosques, and temples were a testament to the different cultures that have found their home in this part of the world.

dragon1

dragon2

sign

Clan house

College graduates

After that, Sara and I hot footed it over to meet up for lunch at the New World Market.

Penang's world famous food

Empty plates from Lunch at Hawkers

We were not disappointed. Satay, beehan noodle soup, dumpling, seafood assortment, special ABC desert(coconut shaved ice, ice cream, corn, sweet red beans, tapioca ball, and sweet pea noodles), and about seven other dishes. We also had a few tiger beers. We headed over to the sweet “G” Hotel with Tim and Spencer to hit the pool.

Mike floating over edge of pool

Tim and Spencer Jacuzzi

The pool was very nice with sculpture and a nice cliff effect. After that, I went to work on my book while we waited for happy hour to arrive.

Mike working hard

At Happy Hour I got very happy, being overexcited about seeing my bro, and well, let’s just say, got a bit rambunctious. We proceeded after happy hour to the nearby night hawker hot spot for continued sampling of all foods Penang style.

Hawkers 2

Hawkers

Mike munching on squid

At the end of the night, I managed to twist my ankle, which immediately swelled to the size of a golf ball.
The next morning Spencer and Tim headed to Thailand while Sara helped me nurse my sprained ankle with ice and ibuprofen from circle K. Later that day after a heavy rain had passed, Sara slipped down three massive steps incurring bruises of her own while going to purchase a beautiful dress. NOTE TO ALL TRAVELLERS: tile sidewalks are very slippery after rain!
After that Sara and I headed back to KL to wait for the return of my brother for our last round of “hanging with the Bro!” We took the train for about a six hour ride through the jungle.

Train Coming!

View from train

Inside train

mike on train

Miles traveled 406

We arrived at the Tiger terminal in Melbourne at about 10:20PM. Fito had finished his finals and met us a short time after we landed. It took him a little longer to follow the tiger prints and find us than he had expected since he parked in the main terminal. We had a late barbecue on the balcony with Fito and Holgar and drank Pisco and Coke and toasted to Rodolfo, Fito’s father who is a great fan of Pisco in various forms and on every occasion. We did a “Proust”- the German toast- for Holgar and discovered that all we had to do to earn 10 years of good sex was look each other in the eye during this toast. Now we are all set!!

We were very excited for the next day because we would be seeing Fito’s mother who arrived two days earlier from Peru.

Newest Australia Zac and grandma Queta

Newest Australian a little red...

She had arrived early because Monica’s date for delivery of her baby had been moved up two days, so we also would be seeing the one day old, Zac, who was named by his brother. Luckily for Jacob, Zac brought him a bicycle as a gift, which he was proud to tell us “had rockets on it” as decoration. It was a lovely bike.

Mike, Jacob, Rocket Bike, and Sara

The last day and a half we spent mostly visiting with Zac, Monica, Queta (Fito’s mom), Nick, and the family. We also went to the Café in the Botanical Garden for a walk and a snack with Queta to break up the day at the hospital.

Sara and Queta at the Botanical

It was unreal at the Botanical Garden that it seemed 75% of the people there were mothers with babies, another 20% were very young school children. This was confirmed by Monica and Angela that Australia is in a baby boom, plus the government drops $5k on a family as the “Baby Bonus.” Get busy and earn your cash Australians! By my rough math, Australia’s population should double in the next 2years!! Watch out China! Zac was born healthy at 3.9 kilos, for all you westerners that’s around 8 and a half pounds. He is not non-stop excitement yet, though very cute, because he is still sleeping quite a bit between feedings.

Jacob and Monica

Sara and the newest Australian

Jacob, Gran, and Zac

Newest Australian a little red...

Monica- the picture of happiness

Fito, Queta, Mike, Sara, and a bit of Zac

Fito, Queta, and Zac

On our last night with Fito and Holgar we had some nice wood fired pizza, and returned to the apartment to share a bottle of Cavalier Brut. Fito appreciated the tradition, but he warned us that he tended to get rowdy after drinking champagne. We had a nice evening reminiscing and speaking about cultural differences in dating around the world. German boys, according to Holgar, go for kissing on the first date. Fito says you have to work very hard to get introduced to the family and court the “good Peruvian” girls. Sara expounded on the U.S. dating by saying there were two groups. The group that dated one person for a long time and the “players,” who try to date as many people as possible.

Fito and Sara

Mike and Fito toasting

Holgar in his last week at Carrington #10

On our last day, we had one last visit with the family at the hospital before departure. We had another emotional goodbye as we bid farewell to our friends living in Australia. It really is hard to say goodbye-Cheers Australia!

Canberra, ACT, Sydney…..miles travelled…..587

After making our initial contact with Aussie culture in Melbourne we headed north to the Australian Capital Territory and the city of Canberra. We went on Tiger Air, which was convenient and affordable, but finding their terminal in Melbourn is a bit tricky (hint look for T4 or follow the tiger prints on the curb!). Canberra is the current residence of Angela, Paul (her husband), and Isabella (their daughter age 10 weeks). As we descended the stairs “old school style” onto the tarmac in Canberra a blast of hot dry air struck us. It reminded us of our first experiences in Arizona. Ahh, the “dry” heat. Angela and Isabella met us at the airport, and after eighteen years Sara and Angela still recognized each other in the airport crowd.

Angela and Sara

Paul, Isabella, Sara, and Mike at tilly's cafe

ISABELLA! 1

During our first few days, we hung out at home with the family, visited downtown Canberra, viewed the city from the heights of Mt. Ainslie, and enjoyed home cooked meals and hospitality.

View from Mt. Ainsley- Canberra

Canberra City Center

Canberra, while a small city, boasts nice shopping and restaurants in a pedestrian friendly center. Paul and Angela encouraged us to visit Sydney, Sara was ready, but Mike was hesitant about the three hour drive.
It turns out that my hesitations were unfounded, and the trip to Sydney was amazing. We saw the opera house from across the bay.

Everyone should know what this is...

Sydney skyline

Harbor Bridge

We crossed the Harbour Bridge that Mike’s grandfather had flown under against orders during WWII. We lunched at beautiful Darling Harbor,

Darling Harbor- Sydney

Darling Harbor, 2

walked and went to Mass in “The rocks” neighborhood. The Rocks is an older neighborhood which has been resurrected into a hip part of the city. We also walked through Hyde Park, and went to the Olympic Village.

Hyde Park sculpture

Hyde Park 2

Olympic Stadium

Olympic Torch fountain

We returned to Canberra tired and travel worn but glad to be back with our friends. The following day, we visited the National Museum of Australia (brilliant and free) and learned about Australian history, environment, culture, and people. We especially enjoyed the exhibit about the Aboriginal civil rights movement, which interestingly was happening at the same time as our own civil rights movement in the States. One evening, we went and saw 2012 at the local cinema to prepare for the end of the world. On our last night, we ate dinner with Angela, Paul, and Isabella and shared our tradition of celebrating with a bottle of sparkling wine. In this case a nice local one, Sacred Hill $5.99 at your local IGA grocery store.

Isabella tummy time

Isabella and Mike

Sara, Mike, and Isabella at Angela's

Our last day, we visited the National Gallery of Art and Parliament House. The art museum (free again =) was really fun and had some really unique exhibitions. We loved the sculpture garden out back. At Parliament, we had a tour of the main building, as the entire building is made up of 4000 plus rooms! The architect designed the building to represent the past, present, and future of Australia. We even had the opportunity to sit in on session of the senate. We watched the senators banter back and forth over immigration issues and climate change. It was a heated debate for sure and we were surprised at the way the senators mocked one another and disrupted those who were speaking.

European Marble Hall in Parliament

View from Parliament to Old parliament

Front Entrance of Parliament- represent aboriginal Period

National Gallery of Australia- creepy sculptures

Mike at sculpture garden

Sculpture Garden 3

Australia National Museum

As a send off we had drinks and snacks at Tilly’s, a cute local café/pub that was near to their home. The vibe is relaxed in Canberra, but it has all of the conveniences and offerings of a large city. Paul and Angela’s hospitality was amazing and we had a great time catching up and getting to know each other again.

Smiling Issy

SHOPPPERS!

Sleeping Isabella

Angela and Isabella

The send off at the airport was a little sad, but it was a real delight to get to know one of the newest Australians. Next episode: How many babies are there in Australia anyway?