Chihuly Nights

A couple of days ago we visited the Adelaide Botanic Garden, late in the evening, to see the garden glass sculptures all lit up. They were quite a sight. 

The rest of the time we’ve been visiting the old and the young and the in between, having some lovely meals. Tomorrow is our last full day, thoughts are turning towards home tasks..

 Adelaide in all its Multiculturalism 

Christmas Day has been hot! We ventured out of the holiday park three times while we rested and read in between times. 

This morning we went for a drive into the CBD to see Harriett’s Cottage and its locale. The building that was going up 12 months ago and overshadowing the cottage seems to be completed. We found a supermarket and got in some supplies, and then it was out to Marianne’s for lunch, conversation and looking at presents. 

Late this evening with the temperature still hovering around 32 degrees, we drove down to Seacliff for a walk, and we saw Adelaide in all its multiculturalism! Family groups from every conceivable country around the world were gathered on beach and parks for bbqs and picnics.

 

Settled In

We’ve settled in nicely to our cabin at the Marion Holiday Park. There’s a bit of a walking track under the trees, so that’s good. And we’ve checked out the nearby supermarket, so we’re making it work for us, after the twenty Christmas’s we had at Harrietts. The children have visited for a swim and a game of bowls.

There was a display of Christmas trees at the Meningie foreshore. 

Wonderful green surrounds at the holiday park. 

Cold children after swimming. 

Dinant (a town in Belgium on the Muese River)

About two hours into our journey back to Brussels, the bus pulled in at the Dinant Train Station. Hurray, I thought, there’ll be public conveniences here. There were, but they were locked... It was now more than four hours since our toilet stop at lunch time, and we were desperate! We straggled down the road from the station, after the others, and stopped at this boulangerie. It was a life saver. 

It was just on 5.00pm, and thankfully still open. There wasn’t too much product left on the shelves, but we didn’t care. She had cold drinks, food and conveniences. I didn’t want to move, but after we saw to our needs, we walked across the bridge and along the river promenade a little way, and back via a main street. Then we called into the boulangerie again - she was still open - and bought some bits and pieces to have on the bus, visited the toilet again, and then across the road, and round the corner to the station. 

We arrived in Brussels just as it was getting dark, stumbled back to the hotel, avoiding road works as best we could. Thank heavens we didn’t have an early start in the morning. 

Luxembourg 

I didn’t think I’d get another travel post done before we headed over to Adelaide, but this should be short, considering the day we had. Go to Luxembourg if you can, but don’t do it the way we did it. We were on a bus tour from Brussels, taking three hours to get there, and three hours to get back. The lack of conveniences were a problem right from the start. The bus stopped at a huge roadside facility, but the toilets were on a level halfway way up steep stairs with a turnstile that didn’t work, and the women had to crawl on hands and knees underneath the turnstile to reach the toilets. The leader was no help, and had disappeared somewhere else. There were other buses stopping, and twenty minutes was no way long enough to manage the toilets and get a drink. 

On we went. After these hours of travel we arrived at Luxembourg, along with several other buses from various places, and no conveniences. We straggled after the leader across a bridge and round to a lookout overlooking a valley and the Casemates.(historical armament fortifications) Then we were on own, with strict instructions to meet the bus at 3.00pm. Now what? 

We headed into the city centre looking for public toilets (non-existent) and a cafe for lunch and their toilets. After that we found our way back to the valley, wandering around and looking down to see what we could see, all the time slowly making our way back to the bridge, as we thought. Then the panic set in. We couldn’t find the bridge, and we didn’t have the name of the street where the buses were to turn up. 

I tell you, we walked for miles, on and on, and round about, and eventually sighted the roundabout, and the building where we were meant to be. I was just so stressed. And ready for a toilet stop. Here are all these people, travelling on the many buses, possibly for hours, and no conveniences for them to use before leaving. 

Tomorrow I'll write about Dinant, a small town we visited on that long drive back to Brussels. 

What Have I Been Up To?

Yesterday it was gingerbread biscuits. I did my fourth batch, following on from batches on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. In the afternoon I iced them all, very messily - managed to spill one small bottle of food colour - into the sink, thank heavens - and then colours were all over my fingers. Ended up with 4 containers to take over to Adelaide for each of the 4 families, with a few leftover for ourselves. 

I've been packing and repacking boxes and bags ready for travel... And I was at it again this afternoon. We've decided to do the travel leg in two stages.  Because we're carrying food - hamper, chocs and gingerbread, it'll all have to be carried into the motel room overnight - won't be able to have it sitting in the car - so I'm now rearranging items for easier moving in and out, and in and out some more! Jim disappeared himself this afternoon, out visiting the needy in the congregation, so I did some thinking.  And then I got distracted and had a general reorganisation of all my travel bags and pouches. Was able to filter a few things to the op shop, and generally make the whole storage of bags a bit more fit for purpose. 

After that, I got stuck into my books folder and spent a pleasant hour or so doing a review of authors with surnames starting with T,V,W,Y. Ordered a couple of books from the library, bought a couple of books from Amazon for my Kindle, and added some others to my upcoming list of books to read. Will be good to start the year, in January, reviewing A. 

Had to see a few people this morning to make arrangements for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services - all the people who generally take care of these matters are going to be away. Jim's had to organise safe storage of the offerings, and someone to do the banking.

I'm generally wearing out, and feeling tired; will be dragging myself to crossing duty the next three days, instead of going there with a hop, skip and jump, as I normally do. 

This, That and the Other

Yes, there seems to be lots of small "this, that and the other", to attend to at this time of year, and my walks and workouts have slid down the scale of priority.

Had our last church council meeting of the year a couple of days ago, and was the latest a meeting has finished for a long, long time. We have a substantial shortfall to the budget, as well as members leaving because of the recent Synod decision to approve the ordination of women. 

We did have a lovely Advent Lunch with a crowd from the church on Sunday, so that was an uplifting way to finish the difficult church year. 

I'm still enjoying my search for Father Christmas each day. In this one he's just on the right at the bookseller's stall; he's wearing a green coat and a red hat...

Paddle Wheeler Part 2

After our lunch we headed out again to explore a bit further.

So, we were back in good time to meet the paddle wheeler for the return journey to Bruges. No more photos as it mostly rained, and we were tucked up inside. The next problem was arranging for a taxi to pick us up. The paddle wheeler hostess was happy to help and make the call for us, but the taxi driver was busy with other passengers and wouldn’t be there until well after the paddle wheeler left again for Damme. The hostess was reluctant to leave us all alone on the outskirts of Bruges, but the boat had its own schedule to keep to. After an anxious 10-15 minutes our taxi arrived and all was well. Back to the station, catch a train, get off at the right station, find an exit, negotiate the roadworks and arrive at the hotel. We were beat - tea was in the hotel dining room!

Lamme Goedzak (paddle wheeler) Part 1

We’re onto Wednesday the 24th April now, and we’re based in Brussels, Belgium. The day before was a travel day, by train from Strasbourg to Brussels with one change. Didn’t get any photos to speak of. 

Wednesday was set aside for this excursion to Bruges by Belgium’s regional rail network; by the end of the four days we were getting pretty good at it.  The concierge at the hotel booked our tickets, so that was good. There were several entrances to the underground metro near the hotel; each time we entered and left I think we were at a different entrance and exit; very bamboozling - but we were able to recognise the building on the corner of our street, so we were right. There were roadworks everywhere we went in Brussels, but more about that another time.

So, we were off and away to Bruges Railway Station, about 30 minutes away. From the maps and google street view I hadn’t been able to work out where we needed to catch the paddle wheeler, so we had to ask at two different counters at opposite ends of the station concourse for directions. Too far to walk, so back outside to hail a taxi. What a relief to make it to the embarkation point and there was the beautiful paddle wheeler. And so started one of the best excursions of the whole trip.

We were almost the only ones sailing; we were able to purchase our cold cokes, glasses of ice and a snack, and just enjoy the canal.

Half an hour later we were paddle wheeling into the village of Damme, - picturesque and easy to walk. 

 

We came across a little cafe in a side street where we stopped for lunch; I can't remember what we had - maybe soup...