Mum Comes To Town

This is a bit out of sequence, but better late than never.

As I was in between jobs, and mum was about to finish up her job, we decided, at the very last minute (ie a weeks notice) that mum should come over here to London. Talk about living on the edge.

I guess we didn't really get off to a good start however, mainly because of my aversion to travelling in London - going out to the airport and returning would have lost me 5 hours of my time. So I said that I would meet mum at one of the local stations. What I didn't know was that mum was held up in a long immigration queue and then got stuck on the Picadilly line. I had waited about an hour by this time, and scooted up to Victoria station in case she got confused. Mum must have passed by on the way. So I made my way back to the station only to find a flustered mum borrowing the cellphone of a nice TFL worker. Ahh well, there is nothing like a bit of drama to finish a 28 hour trip to the other side of the world.

So, after Craig and I being relegated to the blow up mattress which would deflate throughout the course of the night, we all settled in to having 3 people in a small 1 bedroom flat (it was going to be this way for the next two months which at this time we were yet to find out).

The next day was the first of our bit of English touring - mum and I off to see the parade for the Trooping of the Colour. This is the event to mark the Queen's birthday which is always held in June (regardless of when the real birthday is) as the weather is more agreeable. We didn't see the actual event as you need to book for that way in advance and be somone from a Commonwealth country. But at least mum could say that she had been to London to see the Queen (yes we saw her and all of the others on the balcony).



The next day we were off to Hampton Court Palace which is absolutely wonderful for a picnic. Mum got to see the amazing gardens that are in a DVD that I gave her on gardens of the world. Hampton Court was home to Henry VIII, James I (of King James Bible fame), Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, William III, Mary II, George II and Queen Caroline (when they were Prince and Princess of Wales).


On the Monday, I hired a car to head down the South Coast of England to Dorset and then Devon. I apologise that I am slightly void of photographs - maybe coz I was doing a lot of driving. On the way, we got kind of lost and ended up at Southhampton. At least I know now where to go when we go to the Isle of Wight and on a European Cruise? We managed to find a Farmstay in Weymouth and treated ourselves to a lovely pub dinner - traditional roast of course. The next day we drove down to Dorchester and I went for a lovely horse ride all around the peninsula. This is really surprising that there is so much land available, but I guess it is to do with the Portland Stone quarries in the area which probably wouldn't make the land so stable.

Then we continued down to Seaton in Devon for another farm stay - but this one was working dairy farm. We went down for dinner at a place called Beer, a rather sleepy (or was that the Football World Cup effect) but quaint village right down on the shore line surrounded by farms. We got lost several times trying to get back out due to the many similar looking windy roads to get back home. We were lucky. A couple staying in the same farmstay tried to get there after dark - only to find that all the pubs had shut (ahh rural England) and they could not find their way home. I think they had to ring the farmhouse to get help.

On the way home the next day, we stopped at a beach near Lyme Regis to go hunting for Fossils on the Jurassic coast. Mum and I hunted around the rocks for a little while, and I managed to find some fossilised corral. Hard to believe that a few million years ago, we could have had a tropical holiday there!! I also cheated by buying a fossilised ?? which was polished from a local store. Well it was better than nothing, but next time, I am taking a hammer. It is pretty fun.

We also stopped at another garden and farm on the way back home just to satisfy one of Mum's favourite hobbies. After all, I did the horse-ride.

Back at London I then had a home day, to catch up on all of the things that I always never seem to be on top of. Although we did sneak out at saw Madame Tussaud's - from tickets that I got from the family for last years birthday. It was quite interesting, but very crowded, meaning it was hard to take photos, particularly the way the figures were placed. I was also a little scared to go up to some of the figures as I have heard that sometimes they get actors (not the real ones that are being portrayed) to stand there and move if someone comes up to them. Spooky.



On Saturday, Craig and I had already planned a day of paintballing as a last hurrah to our friend's Sam and Claire who were off back home to Australia after a years stint here. This was the first time I have done paintball, and I have to admit, I had a blast, despite me getting hit every time and not hitting anyone at all. Our team who was up in the top for most of the day. The last game left us with a handicap where the other team outnumbered us 35 to 24. They were anihilating us until the last minute of the game, when three of our mates (admittedly from the British Army), run out in martyrdom, knocking down the barrels in which the other team was hiding, spraying bullets around and taking all the hits themselves, with Sam running around to place the flag in the home zone within seconds of the game ending. For that effort, we won, which was a brilliant way to end the day (and a year in England).







Mum took a day trip to Oxford and the top of the Cotswolds which I think she enjoyed.

So back to Mum's trip, the next day, in case we hadn't had enough of castles and gardens, went to Kensington Palace, where William III, Mary II, George I, Queen Victoria, Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon, and more recently, Princess Diana lived. They had a lovely exhibition of her dresses and photos of her, which is all a bit eery since it wasn't so long ago that her death happened. Afternoon tea was at the Orangery, which was Queen Anne's garden house built in 1704. Ahh to be royalty and have all of this to yourself!!

So on Monday, mum's last day, and the first day of Wimbledon, Mum decided to give it a go to queue up for the days tickets. I decided to pass for fear of being too tired for the my first day of work the next day. This is just as well, as the weather was miserable, and I think Mum saw a whole hour of tennis, despite being gone for like 8-10 hours!! Ahh well, at least Mum can say she had been. Maybe the French open next year Mum?

So it was tearful goodbyes, for a very brief visit to England. And a hello to Andrew, a friend of Craigs for him to stay on the deflated blow up mattress for a little while, while he discovered his roots in England and in Italy. It never stops.

Croatia & Montenegro (& Bosnia)

Slobodan Milosevic and his atrocities in the former Yugoslavia is so 1990s, and these days the region is pretty peaceful and enjoying a resurgence of the tourist population. Although it has now been a week since Montenegro has voted to split from Serbia - but it all seems pretty amicable so far.

Anyway, our trip started the usual way - Justin suggesting a random place and us following along. We got cheap flights early in the morning on 24th May into Split - about halfway up the coast along Croatia. Craig was wearing his Canada sweatshirt, and it was funny how many Canadians we came across on the way - 2 at 3am in the morning on the street who we ended up sharing a cab with, and some more in Croatia.

The trip was relatively uneventful - we needed to get down to Dubrovnik straight away - although this was a 5 hour bus trip away. Justin, who had gone the day before, had suggested we take the back seats so we could stretch out. However, Craig got a bit bus sick - so I guess in the future, we should think about going on those seats near the bus driver.

We stopped in Bosnia on the way - they have all of about 5 km of coastline - lucky them! It was here that we decided on the rules for collecting flag pins (I am collecting one for each country we go in). So the rules are, you have to be out of the airport, and contribute to the economy. So a half melted ice-cream counts then. BTW, does anyone know where I can get a pin for Tahiti?



(me getting a pin in a tourist shop).











We met Justin in Dubrovnik - a lovely typical 7th Century fortified town in the bottom of the Croatian coast. This was a city that was caught up in the conflict in the early 1991-1992, and did not have electricity or water for a couple of years. But the locals fought hard and managed to retain it. It is interesting that along the coast, you can see the odd reminders, such a bullet pocked signs, that there was war here not so long ago.




It was here that we remembered about European breakfasts - there is none. I think they survive on coffee - and if you are lucky some meats, cheeses and breads. So we are trying to convince Sam to immigrate there and start a restaurant that sells actual breakfast. There could be worse places to do this Sam??

We did a small obligatory tour of the town by climbing up on the walls and circling the perimeter. Even at the beginning of Summer, it was like 27 degrees, and were sweltering by the end of it. It was just as well that the Croatians make good gelati, (a by-product of being so close to Italy I suspect). There is also good, clean, warm beaches to be had. Although the beaches are pebbly, this means that the water is crystal clear.

After our swim, we hired a car and headed down the coast to Montenegro. It was Justin's first time driving in about a year, and first time driving on the right hand side of the road. What with the cliffs falling many metres into the water below, and Justin's tendency to drift towards them, left Craig and I with a few white knuckles.

Once we went over the border to Montenegro, you could tell that this country was Croatia's poorer cousin, but still pretty charming. Our first stop in Montenegro was in a place called Kotor. Another fortified medieval town in a harbour surrounded by huge mountains. It was fairly quiet and we managed to find a place (or sobe) at a lady's house in the village itself. These, we discovered, were the much better alternative to the hostel. It would always be an older lady running the show, who would have had rooms or apartments especially built into their property to let out to tourists for about £10 per person per night. I am sure that there is a government scheme running this, as these are pretty self appointed and clean and are everywhere! All you have to do is find a place you would like to stay, follow the sign, speak in sign language (as these people don't speak English), and stay the night! Simple really!





Sorry, I digress. We did a quick wander around the city, and a medieval church from about 10th Century (which I am sorry to say that the boys did not give the entrance fee and thus stole from God). I am glad to say, that the boys decided not to climb to the top of that wall!! (For those that can't see, the wall actually goes half way up that mountain - it is just in camoflage.




Exiting the city was fun, with Justin getting pulled over by the cops. They gave him an instant fine for not having his lights on, which incidently is not mentioned in the guide book. However, the cops English was not good, and our Serbian was even worse - so we got confused on the instructions on how to pay (at the time it sounded dodgy). So in the end the cop let us off. Whew!!

We kept driving around the coast to stop at a couple of beaches on the way. We finally found a little beach called Przno (near Tivat) - and stayed at another Sobe. This had to be the most gorgeous (developed) beach in the world. The sobe was overlooking the water where you could have a bottle of wine (around €2.50) and a beer (€0.75). After starters, you would wander down the path to the beach in about 2 minutes, and have dinner at one of the few restaurants along the sea wall. We swam a few times there, the boys went for a brief dive, and I went for an unsuccesful snorkel. The beauty about this place was that there was only one hotel and a handful of sobes and assorted apartments. It could not be built out. So if I could speak Serbian, I would have offered myself as a surrogate grandchild to the sobe owner just to have that magical property.










The next couple of days we were driving further down the Montenegran coast looking at sites and beaches. We stopped and had a look at the famous Sveti Stefan (St Steven), a rather up-market village on an island, where one of the hotels cost €1500 per night per room! It costs €7 just to go onto the island and have a look.





I guess if we had gone earlier, I would have had a swim at a pool overlooking the ocean (almost an infinity pool) and had a cocktail at the bar.



At this point, we needed to start heading back to Croatia as it would take us a couple of days to get back to Split. We realised that our timing was wonderful, as June 1st is officially high season. We could see a stream of campervans weaving down the coast. So we had got in with the weather being beautiful (and not too hot) and low prices. It is also noticeable that the coasts come to life in the summer, with a million tacky tents operating as restaurants, bars or souvenir shops. Some of the beaches can have a ton of rubbish from this sort of activity which is a bit sad. We really do appreciate that the beaches in New Zealand and Australia being not so developed is definitely a good thing.

We stayed at another little Croatian town on the way back up (I forget the name, Justin - can you help?) Despite the place being deserted (awaiting crowds of tourists for the next week) we had an awesome meal. I ordered the fish platter, but it seems as though I got two of everything. Craig had the same with the meat.

Another digression about the food though, it seems that the menu is both Croatia and Montenegro is limited. You have a choice of seafood, pizza, a couple of pastas, and salty beef - after a week this gets boring.

So it was back up to Split for our final day. We got majorly lost, but managed to find our way, after a couple of hours, to another sobe by the airport. The flight was first thing the next morning.

So verdict is - go!! - probably in the next couple of years before it gets too touristy. It kind of reminds you of a coromandel or far north new zealand beach holiday with extra amenities. I would love to go again, and go on one of the sail boats that travel along the coasts and amongst the islands.