Sunday was another nice day in Nice. The weather was warm and sunny, and our schedule was light. 
When planning this time period, we chose Nice because it was geographical reasonable (between London and Venice, where we're meeting Deb, Derek and Evelyn), and it was seen as a place of rest. I figured after a month of seeing churches and historical sites in Paris, Belgium, the Netherlands and London, the kids might enjoy a few days of beach time. I think I was right. We could be doing more here, such as visiting museums and exploring every nearby town, but that was not our original intent.
Saturday we rested completely, but Sunday I insisted on a little walk up Castle Hill in Nice before hitting the beach. Without Barry here to guide us we got a little turned around and made the walk a little longer than expected. Regardless, we enjoyed our view of Nice and beyond. The advantage of a French bakery under our apartment is that I can get the kids to pick something out, then use it as bait to encourage them up 500 steps. It works on Dad too.

The rest of the day was spent at the beach relaxing. George and Molly seem a little unsettled by the topless crowd, but John doesn't seem to mind. I didn't notice I've been wrong about at least one thing for years: men can look good in a Speedo. 
We were too lazy to go out for dinner, so we grabbed some pizza and stayed in and watch some tv and plan for the days ahead. The kids can still use Netflix when the internet connections are good, but the programming changes with each country. They get a little ticked when they start a tv series, only to discover it doesn't play in a new location. Maybe they can catch up in Switzerland.

We got up at 4am Monday to watch the lunar eclipse. Before heading to the beach, as planned, I opened the shutters in the bedroom to discover all we had to do was turn our heads to the foot of the bed and we had a perfect view of the moon. The clouds kept coming and going, but we had a decent view of the eclipse. I suspect we didn't see much of the red glow due to the urban lights in Nice.

Monday we decided we'd had enough of the beach and a short day trip was in order. In the best clothes I packed, black Croc sandals and a cotton dress, we boarded a west-bound train to one of the riches countries on earth: Monaco!
It's quite a spectacular city-state. It's only 2 square kilometres, and built on the end of the French Alps where they descend into the Mediterranean. It's a nightmare to navigate based on a flat map because the mountainside and tunnels are very confusing when looking at the streets - we were missing Barry again. We decided our safest bet was to hop on and off the local buses when needed.  
The Grimaldi family has ruled this small Principality (on and off) since 1297, and it was nice to see the current Prince wasn't too busy to drive by us on his way into the castle. For several hours we strolled the old town and Monte Carlo casino area with thousands of other tourists. My clothes turned out to be just fine compared the them...compared to the locals was another story. Outside of the movies, I'd never seen a woman get dropped off from her chauffeured Bentley to pop into Yves St. Laurent for some new clothes. Monaco is a unique place to visit for the day, but a bit surreal.

This small country impressed me, but I can't imagine living there. I'd always feel pressured, either by the extravagance or by the mountains wanting to push me in the sea. Nice is more my style.
Ted Brandon, I thought you'd appreciate the Rolex hanging in the casino lobby. It was beautiful.

Hey Mom, look at the photo of Molly in Louis Vuitton - No doubt she's your granddaughter. 

Our twenty minute train ride back was smooth and picturesque. After a rest at the apartment, we changed, headed for dinner in the Old Town followed by ice cream. We found a place yesterday that has awesome icecream. "Almost as good as Kawartha Dairy," according to Molly. They had spice cake flavour with cake bits in it, Lemon Meringue Pie with pie crust chunks, and rhubarb that tasted exactly like stewed sweet rhubarb from home - just with a creamier texture! Delicious. We had a final stroll on the Promenade des Anglais before heading home to pack. We leave for Christopher Columbus' home town in the morning.

Sept. 26, 2015


One month travel summary

After one month of travelling as a family of four, I have come to appreciate a few things that I’ll share here. These are in no particular order.

1. Life is wonderful for us. We are extraordinarily blessed to have the health, finances, support and courage to embark on such an unusual experience. 
2. This adventure was Barry’s brainchild, and he has done an amazing job preparing for this trip. Everything, so far, has gone so smoothly and it is mostly due to careful planning rather than good luck. As Barry has left for Canada and the the kids and I have gone to Nice, we’ll miss his attention to detail and careful navigation through the days. I have been quite lazy with planning and navigating, so now I’ll have to start paying attention to the signs. 
3. Our kids are wonderful travel companions. They have been brave, strong, patient, adventurous, curious, willing, frugal and full of interesting observations and different perspectives.
4. I still like my husband. We married 22 years ago and the day after our wedding we set out on our first European trip together. All these years later, he’s still my best friend and favourite travel companion. I was a little concerned that so much time together might present some unique challenges, but I was wrong. 25 days without him will be long.
5. People in this world are generally good. With all the negative news we hear so much of each day, it’s sometimes hard to recognize the simple truth that most people are kind and have the same hopes and dreams as everyone else. Though we have lived a fairly anonymous existence in the places we’ve visited, we have been met with either civil neutrality (people are busy with their own lives) or pleasant interest to what we are doing. Plus, old friends are so easy to reconnect with. Visiting people from our pasts has been wonderful part of our journey. They have certainly enriched our experience in Europe.
6. This world is not perfect. We, as a modern civilization, waste an enormous amount. Most of us have so much more than we need, and we are often frivolous with what we have. The waste that we create is unreal - I don’t know how this is sustainable. There are just so many of us using so much. I personally need to do better.
7. Homeschooling requires a lot of discipline. Never once in a month have I heard, “Mom, can we do our English lesson now?” or “Dad, how about an hour with our math books.” There is no daily structure to rely on, such as a regular school day, or even a regular home life, rather each day we need to make it a priority over exploring something new, which is challenging given what’s outside the door is so intriguing. Despite the lack of book studying, they are learning an enormous amount, here’s a few examples:

a. Economics- George tracks our daily spending and keeps us on budget. 

b. History - in Europe we’ve see how kingdoms rise and fall, how people, as a group and individuals hold an enormous amount of power, if they choose to use it. We’ll be visiting Christopher Columbus’ home town in a few days, so we’ll learn about exploration in Genoa

c. Geography - we’re learning how rivers flow, mountains rise, oceans shift, how to read         a map, and how small countries in Europe are compared to Canada.

d. Science- we’ve studied how the Netherlands has managed water and land issues with     a variety of different techniques, we’ve learned about combustion, steam engines, and         this week we’ll learn about moon cycles and gravitational pull

e. Phys Ed.- Endurance - by carrying heavy backpacks for hours: Speed - running to catch trains about to depart: Agility - while running to catch trains, dodging people, pets and suitcases: Balance - holding oneself steady on a train when it’s packed and you can’t reach a bar to hold on to

8. I miss my community. This includes family, friends, neighbours, the regular faces at the grocery store, the chaos of university classes and the myriad of kids always in and out of our homes. We see so few children on this trip as they all must be in school. I suspect the kids feel this loss quite a bit. Hopefully, we’ll find a good community of people once we settle in Seoul.


There’s always more to say, but this sort of covers where my head is at after one month on the road. 

Ursula

Friday we were on the move: Barry left us to return to Canada, and the kids and I flew to the French Riviera with my Dad.

Shortly after take off we could see the White Cliffs of Dover and soon after we saw the beach near Calais. The English Channel is quite narrow. Though we flew over the length of France, we couldn't see much due to clouds until we were over the mountains. Dad and I loved the view, but the kids were more interested in drawing and playing video games. Why is it that we don't appreciate some truly spectacular sites when we are young?
Because we had to land flying east, the plane came south over Cannes, turned around over the sea and back along the French Riviera coastline. You could see sailboats and yachts cruising in the water, and you could almost smell the money from 10,000 feet. 

We grabbed a cab to our 2 bedroom apartment and settled in. It's about a 7 minute walk from this great VRBO find to the beach via the Old Town. After we settled in, we headed out for a walk and dinner at a Cambodian restaurant. Travelling on budget may be a challenge here. I guess we'll just have to relax on the beach for 3 days...
​We miss you already, Barry.

We were all too exhausted to do anything after the studio tour, so we returned to our apartment for a quiet evening. With only two days left in London, we need to rest up to see more sites in the morning. 

Molly and I had a lovely day in London. We started by visiting our French friend Louis Vuitton, then we had a nice leisurely lunch with our English friend, Jamie Oliver. 
Okay, Louis Vuitton is long dead, and Jamie didn't really have lunch with us, but we truly enjoyed the works created by these two men; it was almost like they were there.
We started the day, after a stop for a Starbucks, by visiting 'Series 3,' an exhibit portraying the inner workings and creativeness of the 2015 Louis Vuitton fashion scene. I'm no fashion buff, and I'm sure we were the only ones in the exhibit who chose their footwear based on waterproofing, but I truly enjoyed the forward thinking, super creative approach to this event. While in France, on the Champs Elysees last month, Molly and I visited the Louis Vuitton store, so we thought this was a good follow up. The pictures we took are a bit strange, as was the whole experience, but let's just say our favourite part was watching a woman assemble the newest Louis Vuitton bag, 'Petite Malle'. With tiny tools and steady hands, she pressed and folded leather, fasten hardware, and showed us how her final assembly stage would take 30 hours to complete. No wonder we can't afford the bags! I've never had much interest in name-brand products as I usually just see them as over-priced status symbols, but these bags were REALLY nice! The leather was soft, the craftsmanship was stunning and the attention to detail was so obvious - I think I get it now, which is all I'll ever get of LV.

Afterwards we visited the Museum on London. We weren't much in the mood for it, but it was warm inside and I felt we should incorporate a little history lesson into our day. Learning about Roman development, plagues, The Great Fire, 18th century fashion and urban development kept us entertained for a while, but contemporary exploration seemed much more fun today.
Covent Garden Market was our next stop. Yesterday we'd been there, but the boys did not share our interest in the food or the window shopping so we went back without them. We strolled through a few shops, spending most of our time in Pylones, Molly's favourite shop, but the highlight for me was having a late lunch at the Jamie Oliver restaurant. We've been cautious restaurant spenders on this trip, but a nice lunch out was in the budget today. I had a the Superfood Salad and Molly had a pizza,  salad and ice cream. It really was the best salad I've ever had in a restaurant. It wasn't rocket-science, just super fresh ingredients put together beautifully. I looked up one of his recipes on-line that looks similar, so I've attached it below - I think my dressing had a touch of wasabi in it. Give it a try!
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/superfood-salad/#gY3ufAQLMSB92vk5.97

After more strolling in the rain, we headed home for an English lesson, a simple dinner and some much needed rest.

We started our day slowly; I suspect we were weary after our travel day yesterday. We wake early most days, but we're a little slow at getting going. Though we're travelling and trying to maximize our touring time, we still need to maintain a balance of normal activities over these six months. This means some mornings we just have to get the laundry done.
Around 10:30 we hopped on the double decker and headed to St. Paul's Cathedral. Yes, that's St. Paul's reflected in the bus. 

We spent the rest of the day wondering along the Thames river, over the tower bridge, and along the south side. We kept the kids going with the promise of ice cream. 

This lead to gelato at Borough Market (a very busy and chaotic placed filled with amazing food). We have discovered that ice cream/gelato is the great motivator and pacifier on this trip. I'm certain no dietician would recommend this much, but we get at least 3-5 km more of walking out of our kids if they are topped up with creamy goodness. I can only imagine what it'll be like when we get to Italy...and, for those of you who know my dad, you know he's worse than the kids regarding his desire for ice cream He joins us in one week so the ice cream budget will have to be increased. When I travelled with him to Switzerland 10 years ago, I remember having to request a real meal by mid afternoon because two servings of ice cream was just not enough for me. 

With full tummies we grabbed the tube to Buckingham Palace.  Lizzy must have been busy as she didn't come out to greet us. By 4:00 we were exhausted and ready to rest our feet and minds back at the apartment. All this physical and visual stimulation is rather tiring after a while! 

We left our little cabin on the farm in the Netherlands after seeing a newly born calf stand on it's wobbly legs to head to the Brussels airport and fly to the great city of London. What a contrast. We were welcomed with sunshine and easy transfers to our new home for a week.
After getting settled into our Crofton Park apartment, we headed downtown to see the Thames, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square and China Town. We took the classic double-decker bus ride back through the city after our tired legs had had enough for one day. Molly said she felt like the bus was going to tip over all the time, but we made it home safely.
England feels a bit more familiar than it really should. I've only been here once before, about 4 years ago, but due to our Commonwealth status and my love for BBC and English writers such as Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskill, I feel a bit like I've returned to the Motherland. Names like Brighton, Bath, Cheapside, Hyde Park and King's Cross Station are all so familiar. Not having to struggle with language barriers also helps this place feel comfortable.
We'll keep you posted on all our goings on while we're here thanks to awesome internet service! They say, 'you don't know what you've got till it's gone,' and that's true. After a week of lousy internet service which kept us from regular blogs and keeping in touch with the world, I so appreciate lightening fast WiFi.
I'm going to stream The King's Speech before going to bed just to get me feeling British.