EMERGENCY BLOG

During the night of Thursday 11^th September 2008 we camped the night at a rest area in the Montpellier area of France.

We were careful to ensure that we were not isolated and there were other campers, cars and lorries also staying the night all around us...........We spoke to a friendly French couple next door to us and they also felt safer to know we were staying the night right by them.........

We cooked a lovely meal including jacket potatoes in the microwave which used lots of the power out of Nessie’s batteries and drew them down. During the night the lights tripped and as we didn’t want to disturb people in the night –we waited to sort this out in daylight.

During the early hours of Friday morning I was dramatically woken by Phil shouting at full volume...... (which is very loud). He had been disturbed by a very faint rustling noise and came to -only to see a male youth standing right there inside Nessie. As Phil screamed “RIGHT THATS IT “and jumped out of bed to grab his base ball bat - the thug (and this is my polite version) scrambled out past the steering wheel and out of the driver’s door. As we had no lights Phil took a few seconds to undo the double locked side door and got out as ‘he’ crossed the road and another thug  came running from behind Nessie to join back up with him........and they were gone.......it had all happened so quickly.....

Obviously the children were awake by now and we were all very shaken by the incident. We continue not to be able to understand the mentality or nerve of this ”........... “ to be able to break and enter knowing that there were people inside  ......It was all carried out so very quietly and beat  all the extra security  measures that we had in place ....(at that time).

Within half an hour we had established that ‘he’ had stolen Phil’s wallet, Phil’s watch (this had woken Phil as he had heard the attached chain rattle), Ben’s wallet, Jemma’s bag (including her purse) and (as we have since discovered )– a cowboy hat. (We hope that we know about everything.....)

Our friendly French neighbour telephoned the police for us and was very apologetic to us when she was told that there were no police available to send out and we could go to the next town and report it in the morning- if we liked, but they were not at all interested. The attitude of the French police has completely disgusted us, as we also asked a group of 8 policemen nearby to help us and none of them were interested either. When it became light we realised our next problem – a toll ticket that we had no cash to pay for. We talked to a couple of German lads who were parked behind us and had also slept the night, and they offered to lend us some money and then follow us to the nearest cash point to be paid back. This was really kind of them and we kept in touch car to car with our walkie- talkies.

We went and found the nearest police station and were eventually told that there was no point in writing a report because it would be in French (?). We were offered no sign of an incident number and just told to report it when we returned to England – how does this work? When we explained that this wasn’t going to be for quite some time – the French policeman stood there and shrugged his shoulders.......we found this unbelievable.........

We tracked down a Mercedes garage and Phil had mended Nessie before the end of the day and Phil’s bank cards were cancelled with one phone call to Cardguard within half an hour too.

We have all done lots of talking about this incident and probably thought of nothing else since...and “they” have been called every name under the sun. Our privacy and safety has been compromised .It will take us time to recover but we have taken this as our warning which we got away with lightly (total value £250’s worth, to date).We have learnt a BIG lesson and now have even greater security measures in place. It is now not possible for anyone to break and enter Nessie in the same way.  Phil has devised noisy safety devices and chains and we have motion sensors that will be switched ON when we are in or out.  We have an extra routine that we will be vigilant in conducting every single time......

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and we have decided we need a dog – the best security ever-Jessie would have sorted him out. We will not let this incident ruin our adventures.......take our advice (again in Hindsight) and avoid nights on the road in France.

The next blog will continue with happier times as we catch you all up with the end of our time in Croatia........until now.

Take care until next time.......(and  remember not to rely on the French police for anything).

 

Sunday, 14 September 2008 09:29:40 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [2]  France

Maybe Not..............

Slight technical hitch with the photos (on my part)..........Back soon!............

Wednesday, 10 September 2008 22:30:04 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [1]  

AT LAST - some photos?!

 

 

Family McKenzie begin the adventure....

Wednesday, 10 September 2008 11:56:02 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [0]  Croatia

Croatia and friends..............

We arrived in Croatia (27^thAugust) and travelled, until we found a camp site (Auto camp – Korana) on the edge of a National Park - Plitvicka Jezera. Phil constructed a hammock with materials that he had bought with him for that purpose (including safety netting -kindly donated by Matt & Bec!) and we held a ceremony as it was tested out! It was very successful until the children tried jumping in on top of each other........it lives to fight another day!

The next day we visited the National Park and trekked about 4kms along a series of lakes and waterfalls cascading all around us.....

 The crystal clear turquoise water was the most beautiful we have ever seen - and was the home to vast amounts of fish including Chubb and Trout – but no fishing was permitted –much to Phil’s displeasure (his previous 6 years as bailiff at Clawford Fisheries did not come in handy on this occasion!) The journey included a boat trip to the other side of one lake and with it a welcome rest! Luckily we found a road train that took us almost all the way back to the main entrance! The eight National Parks seem to be a pride of Croatia and luckily they have very strict rules to help preserve  and protect their natural beauty.

We tried out a Croatian restaurant on the way home and a good old mixed grill sorted us all out! We all ate and drank for 220Kn which was great value for money (approx £22.00). This did not include alcohol as Phil was driving and Croatia has a zero tolerance on drinking and driving.

The following day (Friday 29^th) saw us travel further south and the temperatures rose the further we reached – topping the day at 33.5 degrees! We followed our travel book idea and reached a camp along the Dalmatian coast.....and what a hit this was.

Camp Seget is situated on the outskirts of Seget, a small fishing village, just 2kms from the interesting old harbour town of Trogir. We pitched up right at the edge of the Adriatic Sea and snorkelling was another great hit. Many colourful stripy fish were seen as the children (and Daddy) loved using their new snorkelling sets!   We will have to see how successful the underwater camera has been!

We enjoyed spending time with new found English neighbours – Roger and Gaye (and their son Richard -who was visiting them). We had a laugh on the first evening (often at the blonde girl’s expense!) and during the days the children moved out of Nessie and anything to do with their mum and dad – and hassled Roger and Gaye- (and the pups) - almost to the point of adoption!? They even persuaded Gaye to go snorkelling with them one evening well after everyone else had left the sea! And she went.......

When we arrived we were introduced to “Dumble” - their adopted “stray” Croatian dog who had not let them into a little secret those few months ago and was now the proud mum of 4 pups!!  This was a lovely success story as the pups were all so different in colour and all gorgeous. They were born in the motor home and lived inside a dingy during the day time!  The saved pups all went off to their new homes during the time we were there.  This was all very emotional and as Jemma also became extremely attached in this short time we have promised that we can choose a family puppy when we return from Macswayround......

Roger became my computer helpline for a time and showed me how to transfer files of photos and camcorder clips across to our hard drive (thanks to PC Planet for helping to sort us out before we left). We are now happier to think that our records so far- are in a ‘safer’ place!

We would all love to be able to meet up with Roger and Gaye again in Croatia in 2010 (if they have recovered from Jemma and Ben by then!) – as they hope to buy a home in the local area.... (talk about us long term planning !) As we chatted it was quite uncanny to realise how similar we were as families –even down to the order of children, number of children, month of their birthdays and age gaps. Just a couple of years further down the line, it was kinda reassuring to see that there is another family out there who have been there – done that- and are still surviving!!

We took a water taxi to Trogir – which is often referred to as a “Little Venice” and we could see why. Phil much preferred this to our real Venice experience a few years ago as we came away not feeling completely ripped off. The town was very intriguing with its maze of very narrow cobbled streets, restaurants, cafes and oldie -world shops etc. It was a Saturday night and very busy so we eventually found a place to eat and had a great evening.

We enjoyed Trogir so much that we walked back the next day and captured the moment in time......

Back at camp Phil seems to be taking an ‘over active’ interest in the Continental swim wear (or lack of it –maybe you know what I mean Nigel?). All this to see and only a matter of metres away....I always knew Phil was a keen twitcher  .....

We seem to be managing quite well with our very pigeon Polish – as the Polish, Croatian and Slovenian languages all seem to have many similar words!  Over at Seget we enjoyed another meal and Ben surprised us by ploughing his way through a whole plate of fried shrimps – and loving them! We looked around this small village and saw that even this is a miniature, miniature Venice, with a maze of tiny cobbled streets.

This is our 10^th country on Macswayround, but we all feel that Croatia has gained a special place in our hearts ........

FACT-0IDS-

·         Sunglasses appear to be a more important fashion accessory than crash helmets, whilst riding a motor cycle in Trogir!

·         Croatia still appears to have an untouched natural beauty surrounding it....

·         Local wine can be purchased in bottles of any shape or form- that’s got to be the best 2 litres  of  Red Fanta we’ve ever drunk!

·         We have seen lime trees, kiwi trees, olive trees and pomegranate trees all bearing fruits.

·         Property is becoming more and more expensive to buy in Croatia.

·         Phil was stung again – by a jellyfish this time! Must have been giving him a kiss as he was stung on the lip?!

·         Cravats originate from Croatia.

WILD- LIFE HITS-

·         Lots of unrecognisable fish in the sea, during snorkelling lessons and sessions!

·         Dinner plate size crabs in the sea!

 

 

Friday, 05 September 2008 22:45:40 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [1]  Croatia

Austrian dreams...........

We decided to get where we are going by travelling through one of our favourite  countries of previous travels - Austria -and as soon as we crossed this border we remembered why we love it so much.......The Alpine mountain scenery and flowery balconies  are simply breathtaking........

Again we had to purchase a motorway sticker and stopped in the first petrol station to do this. We realise once more, how different this journey is from our past experiences as our wheels are now over 3.5 tons. This time we needed to buy an electronic box device – called a GO BOX which is struck to the windscreen and bleeps every time we pass under a detecting bridge. We paid upfront and did not need to queue at any more tolls, which was a benefit.

 We found a beautiful campsite (20^th August) with mountainous views and a castle (Schloss-Camping)) towering over us at the back of the site. The site takes its name from the castle and is situated in a village alongside the Inn River, named Volders (15kms North of Innsbruck).

The children once again enjoyed the pleasures of a warm outdoor swimming pool and continued their quest to learn flags and capital cities of the world!

We also had a wander around the village and found the back streets of Volders with all its magnificent backdrop scenery. It was lucky that we did wander casually around on this day as the next day saw us embark on a strenuous walking adventure that took us all by surprise!

We travelled the short distance to the town of Stans and Phil had a reversing encounter as the car park was too small for Nessie and there was nowhere to turn around! I went ahead and stopped any oncoming traffic while Phil negotiated the winding, narrow roads back down to the bottom of the hill! Kinda good that Phil can drive this monster!

We found the Wolfkskamm signs and from the leaflet this looked like a lovely waterfall along a river. That it was- but nobody told us of the steep incline for about 3 kms (and back again!), along winding tracks and a network of wooden bridges at the river’s edge!  It was a most breathtaking walk and our energy supplies were spent by the end of the journey back down to base again!

 There was a church (St. Georgenburg) at the very top of this Sacred Mountain (with the altar being at the highest point of the rock) and we later discovered the significance of this journey.  This mountain has great historical significance which dates back to 12^thCentury and is in the Karwendel mountain range).

The Church was built-after White Doves are said to have sent a sign from Heaven, as to where to build a new church. This became a monastery, but was not without its setbacks as the site was burned to the ground and had to be re-built, a total of four times following forest fires. In 1310 there is said to have been a blood miracle during a church service. As the Priest was reciting the words of transubstantiation, he began to doubt God’s presence. Almost immediately the wine in his cup turned to the colour and flavour of human blood. The news of this miracle spread quickly and to this day St Georgenburg is a place of pilgrimage to the Mother of Sorrows – Unter der Linde (under the Lime tree), St George and to the Sacred Blood.

On a personal level there is always something very spiritual about having completed a Sacred journey such as this, similar to previous feelings, felt at Lourdes (in France) and Fatima (in Portugal).

We moved from Austria and travelled to Slovenia. We had a pleasant surprise at these borders when we found that heavy vehicles (over 3.5 tons) do not need a standard motorway sticker and that toll and diesel prices are very kind to the ‘lorry’ driver! One in our favour for a change!  

Slovevian countryside has become much greener and similar to the landscape of ‘home’! We explored a  woodland and were surprised to find very similar trees to the ones that we are familiar with – Beech, Oak, Birch, Ash, and Sycamore.....

Our campsite (Camping Pivka Jama, south of the capital city of Ljubljana) was very pleasant with -yes – you’ve guessed it – a swimming pool! What more could you ask for?

Before we bade Slovenia goodbye we just had to visit the Postojnska Jama (Caves). This journey took us on a fast train ride (similar to a roller coaster!) through the first parts of the caves and then  to a guided tour (in English too!) where we walked a further  1 km through the biggest limestone cave in Slovenia, and the most visited ‘show’ cave in Europe.  The caves most beautiful passages were discovered by locals in 1818 and are 20kms in total with only 5kms open to the public. This underground world of stalactites and stalactmites has a constant temperature of 8-10 degrees C.  At the lowest point we were 250 metres below ground level. There is magical beauty around every corner with no two views the same. We thoroughly enjoyed this natural wonder which is 3 million years old (and 1 day!) We were warm enough even in our T shirts and shorts while everyone else was wrapped up in coats!

We learnt that the water droplets (stalactites) grow approximately 1cm for every 100 years – very slow work and truly amazing to see!

Back at camp we spent our final night in Slovenia talking with our friendly Dutch neighbours-Dick and Tinie who recommended a National Park which is well worth a visit in Croatia.......make way for another change of route......we always said it was flexible....... Croatia next stop!

Wildlife hit:

·         Plenty of  Lizards in Slovenia !!

 

 

 

Friday, 05 September 2008 20:17:00 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [2]  Austria

Good Friends and then troubles ahead................

That was quick - wasn't it !!

OK -So how many of you spotted the deliberate mistake in the last blog?

We have been corrected by a good German friend that there is no such place as Gotten in Germany! What we really meant to say was that we stayed North West of Gottingen!

We travelled to Weiterstadt – about 6 miles north of the town of Darmstadt and approximately  18 miles from Frankfurt. The camp (Campingplatz am Steinrodsee) was under the flight path from Frankfurt airport and this was great fun! The noise did not seem to disturb us at all (maybe because we were making more noise than they were!), although it was quite freaky when a Bowing 747 crossed our path, extremely LOW as we drove down the motorway! Don’t see much of this in Pyworthy!

We spent valuable time during the next few days with great friends in Darmstadt –Hartmut and Maria. There is a strong connection as Hartmut became best friend’s with Phil’s Dad many years ago and actually stayed with the family for a number of years. Phil has childhood memories of their time together and it was very special to be able to see each other again after more than 20 years! 

Hartmut and his wife were ever the perfect hosts and kept feeding us delicious food! We also spent time at their garden retreat – referred to by Hartmut as a wilderness rather than a garden! They have a beautiful wooden chalet with a veranda. We had a garden grill (BBQ) with true wild boar meat. This had been kindly given to us by our friends in Poland and was the first time we have tried this delicacy.

Quiet time is enjoyed at this haven , reading and contemplating life – that is (of course) until Jemma and Ben get there! It then turned into water fights and games as Hartmut tried to water his trees in peace! Ben was even tied to a tree at one point?!

We were also able to use the internet back at base and would like to thank them for this – we caught up on emails and looked further into campsites and routes for the next part of our journey. We would like to thank Hartmut and Maria for their outstanding hospitality.  We had to chuckle when we received an email from them after we left – saying how their house was suddenly quiet again!! We look forward to meeting again in a couple of years’ time – if they have recovered sufficiently by then!

Next Navman (and of course Phil at the wheel) took us into the middle of the Black Forest (Switzerland bound). We have never seen such windy roads on Navman’s screen to get us up these mountain roads!  The town was Titisee-Neustadt and we received a very warm welcome and lots of interest in our adventure from the  site – Naturcamping Weinerhof. This site has beautiful views set amongst trees, with a lake that the children swam in straight away and direct access into the forest. The beer  called Waldhaus was supped and in Phil’s ratings is the most tasty in Germany so far -  this is one of two beers local to the Black Forest. We had a BBQ on the first night (last Saturday night – August 16^th) and as the temperature dropped - we snuggled into Nessie to watch the new series of X Factor through our satellite (something’s never change!)

We took a walk around Titisee which is a very touristic town in the heart of the Black Forest- the home of the Black Forest Gateaux! We also bought fresh bread which is made from a Black Forest recipe and has 100% natural ingredients and was very tasty!

Back at the campsite we took a rowing boat out onto the lake and enjoyed the magical views and sunshine!

We left the Black Forest on Tuesday (19^th Aug) and had an unexpected and most unwelcome experience as we tried to cross the border into Switzerland.  We remembered that we needed to buy a motorway toll sticker to travel through the country but as we are now in a larger vehicle (weighing over 3.5 tons) we were unable to purchase this sort of pass at the border control. We had to turn around at the border and go about 10kms to the town of Waldshut in Germany to purchase a ticket.  We found somewhere to park Nessie  (which in lots of cases is easier said than done) and Phil set off on foot to try and discover how and where to get a ticket. He had to cross the border on foot... and  returned some time later –fortunately having got help from the same two border policemen that had turned us away at the other border control !

Within seconds of Phil’s return the Heaven’s opened and the gails rose out of nowhere to create a torrential storm with enormous hail stones ,thunder and lightning. We moved Nessie away from the trees in the car park only minutes before a large branch cracked from one of the trees and landed on two cars directly below it......

Phil was worried that the force of those hail stones would dent the sides of Nessie but luckily all is well.

Oh yes....back to the Border Control saga..... as we now had paid about 32.50 Francs for a motorway pass  (on which you had to fill in the date for each day we were in  Switzerland) – we progressed back to the same border that Phil had just walked across. We duly showed the officials our bit of paper and got glared at. Through a series of hand signals and gestures we arrived on a weigh bridge and were told to sit still. The bloke was gone ages with our vehicle documents too and we sat and waited.......

The Border Control official came back looking even more solemn than before and was greeted with a cheerful  “OK?” from Phil !

“NO, IT IS NOT OK” came the reply......... “Pardon?..........” The weigh bridge results were then thrust at us and we were told that Nessie was TOO HEAVY for Switzerland. We assumed that we had filled in the wrong part of the form and would just have to pay more but when this was suggested he said “NO” again! (on later reflection Phil thought that perhaps he thought we were trying to bribe him!)

So we were told that we must LEAVE and there was no way we could travel through Switzerland. We had to turn back from the weigh bridge area and go back to the Border bridge. The official with zero sense of humour even kept our documents until we were safely back on the other side of the bridge again!

As Phil returned to collect his documents his blood was already at boiling point and he was up for a fight. We KNEW that Nessie was NOT over weight and when Phil knows that he is right the McKenzie temper cuts right in....... The legal laden weight limit for Nessie is 4.6 Tons and she was weighed in at 4.5 Tons ??  The official (in all his worldly wisdom) was taking the gross weight (UNLADEN) of 3.8 Tons on the documents as our weight limit.....

Hang on a minute.......with a  twin wheeled truck of this size that would mean that if Nessie was completely empty – no water and only a dribble of fuel, with no passengers and only Ben to drive across the border – Nessie would STILL be overweight !!! How does that work exactly......We will leave Phil’s mood to your imagination as there was NO budging the decision. We even had to pay a fine of 30 Francs to get back out of the country again!!

We tried to think of ways to PROOVE our legal weight limit and Phil even telephoned Western Truck Rental (Mercedes dealership) in Barnstaple for conformation as he had began to doubt himself. We are now concerned that this might happen again at other borders and are looking into a way to get written proof about our limits.

So, as the chance of a Swiss Cuckoo Clock bit the dust we stayed in Germany for another night. We cheered ourselves up a bit by eventually finding a Thai Curry House and treating ourselves (it was lovely- but Phil still prefers the Bay of Bengal in Holsworthy!)

 

FACT-IODS:

·         Phil crossed the border into Switzerland 3 times in less than half an hour, got fined and then sent out again!

·         Switzerland do not seem to like vehicles over 3.5 tons on their roads!

·         We shall NOT be visiting Switzerland again, in the near future!

·         The Black Forest also has their own traditional Cuckoo Clock – so who needs Switzerland anyway?!

WILD-LIFE HITS :

·         We have seen Stalks in Poland.

·         We saw Red Squirrels in the Black Forest.

 

 

 

 

Monday, 25 August 2008 18:05:41 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [0]  Germany

HELLO
HAPPY BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY ENGLAND !!

A NEW BLOG IS ON THE WAY !!! SORRY FOR THE LONG DELAY !!!


Monday, 25 August 2008 15:31:45 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [0]  Germany

Polish Life..................

Hello  !

We have spent a week in sunny Poland since we last wrote......in the deepest depths of the country where the dongle refused to work!

Anyway – we took a successful ferry from Ystad (in Sweden) to Swinoujscie (in Poland) on Tuesday (29^th July).  It was a night crossing taking 9 hours, on a very posh ferry. The children had entertainment   (in Polish!) and face painting and then we decided to get a cabin as there was no -where else to get our heads down. We each shared a bed with one child each and luckily I picked the quiet side of the cabin. Phil – on the other hand, suffered a disturbed night as he had very noisy neighbours in the cabin next door. He was very unimpressed!

When we landed in Poland we instantly remembered about Polish drivers and the way, in our experience, that they like to wait until the very last minute to overtake and especially enjoy the challenge if there is an oncoming lorry!!

We travelled through N/W Poland and visited interesting places including Szczecin and Koszalin. The children and I climbed over 350 steep steps up the lighthouse in Gaski. Phil’s leg would not allow this climb and so he filmed us at the top as he supped a piwo! (Life’s tough!)

Phil and the children paddled in the Baltic sea – just to say they had – until their shoes were swept into the water! It was not the best day for paddling!

We had a great time staying with friends  - no time for sleeping – only partying and dancing! They are all excellent dancers and are determined to teach me (which is a bit of a losing battle!). We were very pleased to have been invited to a wedding during this year’s visit and we were honoured to be seated among family at the ‘top table’ during the reception. Our thanks to Kamil and Asher.

These wedding celebrations lasted for a whole two days! The wedding day began by us all having our hair done (kinda curled!) at 7am – yes  7am!  I had been shipped off the day before to buy a dress (as my idea of wedding attire was not approved!) I also had to buy STILLETOES! –well – I tell you – and for those of you that know me – I don’t need to tell you – me and high heels don’t go! I tried to walk the minimum distance but its actually walking in these things that is the problem – and Phil said I did a very convincing impression of Tina Turner!

The church service on Saturday was very similar to that of a Catholic service in England. As the bride and groom left the church they were showered with coins – wishing them wealth and happiness throughout their lives together.

Then it was off to the Reception celebrations which continued through to Sunday evening! We noticed lots of extra’s and differences to that of the traditional English wedding  and will include some of these in our fact-oids!

We enjoyed the remainder of the time in Poland with lots of swimming in the local river and drinking of Vodka (but not at the same time!)

We also did plenty of eating of Polish foods during this time. Our friends fed us delicious food at every opportunity, including:

BIGOS - A mixed dish including cabbage, sausage, garlic and onion.

GOLAMKI – A concoction including minced pork and rice which is then wrapped up in a cabbage leaf.

KIELBASA – Sausage

KRAKOWSKA – Large Sausage

TATA- A favourite meal made from raw pork and raw egg. This is considered a deathly combination in England – so why do many, many, people on the continent not think twice about eating this, treat this as a delicacy and do not die from eating it either?!

Many meals were served with a tomato, onion and pepper dish which was very tasty too!

We said our goodbyes – until next time – and left Poland – bound for Germany.

We have camped in Mid Germany near a village called Hohegib. This was north of the big town of Gotten. The site - “Camping Platz Am Barenbach  “- was very efficiently run with friendly and helpful owners . The children enjoyed a huge swimming pool all to themselves and Ben has cracked his 100 metres! Jemma managed 300 metres and has been motivated to practice her diving after watching the beginning of the Olympics through our working satalite system! (much to Phil’s pleasure!)

The children have had sickness and we have both spent a bad day suffering from the two bob bits!

All is well now and we have moved on to a campsite near Frankfurt.

Polish Fact-oids:

·         The Bride and Groom and then the Bridesmaid and Best man sign the register BEFORE the marriage service is conducted.

·         Wedding rings are worn on the index finger of the right hand.

·         Widows and widowers change their rings over to the left index finger.

·         At the beginning of the wedding reception-all of the guests join together in a pledge (holding two fingers up similar to that of a scout pledge). This pledge promises that everyone will not leave the Wedding Reception until all the food has been eaten and all the alcohol has been drunk!

·         There are no speeches apart from a vote of thanks from the Bride and Groom.

·         There are no long-winded photo sessions – the Bride and Groom were taken off for a photo shoot and then they come back and take selected members for photos – while everyone else continues the partying!

·         The wedding cake was wheeled into the darkened room- with fireworks blazing from it!

·         The Bride and Groom cut the cake and offered it around themselves.

·         At midnight some humorous rhymes and games are dedicated to the Bride and Groom – including a blind fold game to ensure that they can recognise different parts of each other’s anatomy!

·         The Bride and Groom thank their parents and then join them for a very emotional circle dance to very powerful music.

·         The Brides veil is detached and she throws it out for a girl to catch.

·         The Grooms tie is removed and he throws it out for a boy to catch.

·         This newly formed couple must kiss for a minimum of 20 seconds, as everyone claps and cheers!

·         At any and many times throughout the celebrations – loud clapping and jeering requires that the Bride and Groom must kiss and not stop until the cheering stops! Easier said than done sometimes!!

·         The newly married couple charge 5 Zorte for a two minute dance with them or until the next person pushes you off – and this money is collected by the Bridesmaid and the Best man.

·         The second day continues the celebrations with much dancing and drinking!

·         Everyone leaves at the end of the second day...............

·         From our experience – a tooth mouse (not a fairy)  works in Poland and gave Ben a 5 Zorte coin.

·         From our experience – a tooth Fairy works in Sweden and gave Jemma a gold 5 Krone  coin.

 

Thanks again for your interest – we all hope that you are continuing to donate to the

                                                DEVON AIR AMBULANCE

                                                  Through our website.

Please can you leave messages through the website or to spmkzie@hotmail.co.uk  (as access to Yahoo is sometimes limited) -              Many Thanks.........

                                                          CHEERS!  (More pics  soon!)

Wednesday, 13 August 2008 16:40:04 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [1]  Poland

photos!

When I find out about making these pics smaller - we will show you more!

Sunday, 27 July 2008 16:38:54 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [0]  Sweden

Moving onto Swedish Adventures......

Hi there,

The amount of well wishes from people we meet along the way – who are going to keep a check on us through the website- is overwhelming! We are genuinely amazed at the amount of interest we are generating! Kinda safer feeling with this many ‘big brothers’ looking our way!

So we left Tonder on Sunday (a week ago!) and went to Naerun (near Copenhagen). On the way I made a fuel chart so that we can keep a record of the cost and amount of that dreaded stuff we use!

We found another friendly site with helpful  English speaking people! We have been very lucky so far – with being able to communicate easily. When we arrived at this site we were slightly confused about the time of year as we were met by many Christmas decorations glittering around the caravans? We later found out that there were 8 Father Christmas’s staying on site as it was traditional that they have a meeting in July to make their arrangements for the following Christmas!

We took the little blue train from Naerum to connect up to the underground metro into Copenhagen. A  much cheaper and stress-free way to travel into the city. We enjoyed a guided boat tour around the city and saw several of the most important sites,including the Royal Palace. We did not realise that Copenhagen is similar to that of Venice (although of different style) with its network of waterways and very low bridges to negociate! The children even spotted a coot who decided to nest on the back of a moored boat! We also saw war ships and torpedo boats.

Back at the site we managed to use Wifi and Skype back to England for the first time! At least we know this works when we have connection!

We left Denmark and moved across to Sweden. We were left in a state of shock at the toll prices to cross two bridges - £120!! Because Nessie comes under HGV for toll pricings – over 7 metres long. Even if one happens to be the longest bridge in the world (we think) –this is still expensive travelling. If we had time to move further north – a ferry would have made a more cost effective method of travel. We found a fantastic campsite (not our intended one from our travel book) but as is often the case – a site we just happened to come across! These often result in being more satisfactory to us with our very flexible nature! On this site we were able to pitch right in front of a lake (with plenty of room for shallow swimming!) The children were off into the water within minutes of arriving! Phil was also stung on the base of his foot within minutes of arriving by a very vicious looking bug. This was EXTREMELY painful – we must remember to wear shoes!

We were fortunate enough to enjoy the best sunny weather that Sweden has had in a long time with temperatures rising  to the high 80’s – even 90 degrees F. I began to sort my ghostly white English skin out although I think this job will take a lot longer to complete!

We met a lovely friendly Swedish couple –Leif and Inger Nystrom and spent interesting times with them finding out about more Swedish fact- iods (wait until the end for these!) Once again their good English saved the day and Phil had found himself a Whisky drinking buddie!

Thursday 24^th – morning – up to have a shower but  NO WATER! What is going on –the tank is full? Off Phil goes to investigate and luckily it was nothing more serious than a pipe which had blown off the water pump. A bit more tricky to get at to fix as it was inside a sealed unit....problem solved – we expect there will be more where that came from in our duration of time!  Our good friend Leif took us all out for a trip around  a small proportion of the lake (Ringojon)  in his motorised dingy and this cheered everyone up! Thankyou!

On Friday (25^th) we enjoyed a great day at the Skanes Djurpark (the world’s largest zoo park with only Scandinavian animals). There were over 800 animals belonging to about 85 different species, including bears, lynxes, wolves, wolverines and elks. Many of these species can only be seen at Skane Zoo as they have become extinct in the wild and it is only through the zoo’s successful breeding programmes that they have been saved from total extinction. As the brochure boasts these animals are homed in generously proportioned enclosures- adding to the fun as we had to often track them down first!

 Another few days in the sun – again high 80’s and swimming! Phil helped our new neighbours – a young Swedish family who did not have any lights working in their caravan. Daniel and Jenny  thanked  us by  bringing around some Swedish cakes and a bag full of chilled beer  which went down very well that evening! (Phil can never stop working!) We then enjoyed some time together exchanging notes  and making good friends .They have said they would like to come and visit us when we get back to the UK – this would be great! ......look forward to meeting again......

So we leave the lake behind (at the Swecamp Hoor – Jagersbo-Sweden)  tomorrow (Monday) and have a ferry booked from Ystad to Poland direct to save going back over the bridges!

*FACT-OID – 1 Swedish mile is 10kms!

* FACT-OID – Traditionally all Swedish houses were painted red as this was the cheapest way to make paint out of copper and water. These houses also have wooden painted panels with the corner panels painted white.

*FACT-OID - It  is not possible to buy alcohol which is any stronger than 3.5% volume in any supermarket type shop. You can only purchase stronger alcohol in a state owned store (for tax purposes) and also pharmacies are state owned too. You will never find any privately owned medicine stores in Sweden.

* FACT-OID- Snus is a Swedish alternative for smoking cigarettes. It is very popular among males but also ladies too! These little poaches are like miniature tea bags and one is put under your top lip – sitting on your top gum. This is a direct form of nicotine into your system and is equally as additive. This method is obviously more sociable in terms of passive smoking and is kinder to your lungs. However – apparently it is not so kind to your gums or lips.

WILDLIFE HIT:

Phil is proud to announce that not only do we have Osprey as regular visitors to this lake – but he has managed to film the moment one dived and caught a fish!! Fantastic!

UNTIL NEXT TIME – TAKE CARE ....

 

Sunday, 27 July 2008 16:33:19 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [3]  Sweden