Week 17 - Day trips

Week beginning April 20th

We went to Monza for lunch with John, and looked inside duomo. No photos allowed inside, suffice to say it is decadently decorated.

 

Mum and Dad successfully returned from Como. On Monday I took the three of them to Monte Vecchio. Sadly, almost everything was shut on the small mountain.

We had a wander around, enjoying the sunshine, but returned to Vimercate for lunch. Dad found a plaque comemmorating Maria Agnesi, the woman who discovered a mathematical curve now called the Witch of Agnesi.

 

On Tuesday, all the travellers left, Mum and Dad to Bologna, Ravenne, Venice and Salzburg, John to Venice. I confess to being apprehensive seeing him go, but at lease he has my address and phone number now! John successfully negotiated his way back on Thursday with minimum fuss, so was ready for an outing on Friday. Jupy and I took him to Cassano D'Adda to kick back beside the Adda river on a day with glorious weather.

 

It also features this vista, just fabulous. Jupy and I walked whilst John read and relaxed at a cafe here.

 

In this main square is a tree they estimate to be over 400 years old. Some luck flat has a feature window enjoying it's charms.

Juz got back late Friday night, we had a lazy weekend. John left on Saturday and got home very late that night. We bought a hedge trimmer that I tried out on Sunday, could be addictive!

Posted with Blogsy

Week 16 - First Visitors and Phoebe's Birthday

Week beginning April 13th

Mum and Dad got settled in, and toured Milan for a day just in time for the arrival of my Uncle John, on Tuesday. We successfully pick him up at Linate Airport, which is much closer to our house. On the Wednesday things turned sour though, as we lost John after a relaxed lunch in Bergamo.

 

We left the restaurant about three minutes after him and never saw him on the short return to the car. I had to leave as I was rushing to school pickup, ready for Phoebe's birthday party at Acquaworld. Dad stayed behind to look for John. I made it back to Monza in time for the school pickup, and we hotfooted it to the pool.

Mara is born on the same day so they had a shared party.

The girls were having a great time, until an hour before the end Georgina got tossed out of an inflateable doughnut and banged her head on the slide. She had an instant egg above the left temple. After the cake and presents, George began vomiting, so I took the girls back home, to find out Dad had not located John. We now realised that he probably didn't know my address and definitely not my phone number. Did I mention he doesn't speak Italian? Aaaagggghhhhh! I rang my super friend Sushil, who handled the police report while Mum and I took George to the hospital. Poor Sushil was stuck at the Police Station in Vimercate for three hours, for someone she hadn't even met! They quickly established John was not in any hospitals in the BergMo region. Meanwhile Mum and I were at the hospital until 4.30 am, still no John. Importantly, Georgina was on the improve. The Doctor wanted me to stay in hospital with Georgina for 48 hours for observation. This was not possible given John was missing and Mum and Dad had no means of communication. So we went home, keeping a vigilant watch on her. At 8.30 the next morning we received an email from John, stating he was safe and well. He'd spent the night in Romolo, in the south of Milan. How he got there is a story too long for here, but I am happy to tell it in person someday! As the girls had been up so late, none went to school and I spent the rest of the day in a zombie state, keeping a close watch on Georgina. Justin changed his flight to return a day early to help with all the drama. Mum and Dad decided to stick with their plan to go to Como, so I drove them. I didn't want them negotiating trains and buses on the little sleep they'd had. Lexie came with me, we settled them in and it looked like they may not leave the hotel room until the next day. We all had an early night, we were emotionally drained. Georgina continued to recover well. By the end of the weekend she was out of the woods. I don't think we left the house all weekend.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Week 15 - Scotland and Home

Week beginning April 6th

On Monday we visited one of Mum and Dad's favourite properties, Mellerstain. Scotland put on the perfect weather for a visit to a country house! We could have had a picnic.

The girls went rolling down the lawn that slopes down to the lake. Down there we relaxed in the sunshine for an hour, watching the frogs frollic.

They were a bit brown and wary for the girls, but they still were able to touch them, they seemed tame!

From there we walked around the property, and found this quaint cottage next to a brook.

 

 

There was a dog cemetery that hasn't been utilised since the 1930s. It looks like dogs are highly regarded in Scotland.

We explored the house which was lovely, Mum and Dad love the proportions, as they are perfect. The front rooms have an amazing view across the lake.The colours are beautiful, sadly no photography was allowed inside. We ended this idyllic day with a drive through the countryside, coming across this gate, a lot of sheep but little else.

 

Tuesday saw us at Stirling Castle, the principle Royal Residence of the Kings and Queens of Scotland. Mary, Queen of Scots gave birth to her only child here. Our guide was the typical Scot, red hair, ruddy face and an accent to enjoy. "Thut cuncloods yea wee tur" ("That concludes your small tour", for those that need the translation).

 

It was fairly windy up on the wall of the castle, looking across to Bannockburn and the memorial to William Wallace.

Inside the castle, there were some great activities for the girls to do, including dressing up in costumes worn in the 1500's. They were most interested that back then ladies wore no underpants, just lots of skirts.

They got to sit in the "thrones" in the Great Hall.

 

From Stirling, we just had time to explore the ruins at Linlithgow Palace, on the way home to Edinburgh. This is where Mary Queen of Scots was born. It is a ruin, but you can see how grand it must have been when intact.

 

Lexie got to unlock the massive solid oak door to let us out, with the key seen below.

 

We ate dinner with some work colleagues and I commenced packing as we fly to Heathrow late tomorrow afternoon.

Justin worked the next day, so I finished packing and the girls and I went back to the old part of town. There were plenty of buskers.

 

We didn't get far, as a great street performer caught our attention, Super Scott.

 

He was a good juggler of knives and torches on top of a ten foot pole, but his comic comments made him very good. We spoke to him after the show, he has busked in Melbourne at Southbank, so you may have even seen him. Justin drive us to the airport with plenty of time to spare. We fell into bed by the time we got to the Hotel, 2km from Heathrow. The triple glazing meant we didn't hear a thing.

We relaxed at home the next day after returning. We heard later that a gunman was captured in Vimercate at a local shopping centre. He had shot 3-5 people in Milan and escaped on a Vespa (?) to Torre Bianchi. We were blissfully unaware, with the doors and windows all open as it was a beautiful day. I did hear the helicopter overhead though.

The next day my folks were due to arrive at 8 am, but due to an inability to communicate with each other due to technical issues, and a chapter of other errors, we missed each other at Malpensa Airport. They finally turned up at my place at 3.30 pm.

By this stage they had met half the local shopkeepers in the square near our house! It is so nice to have them here. They spent the weekend recovering from the flight, even though they got upgraded to Business Class Melbourne to Singapore. Girls back to school on Monday.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Week 14 - Scotland

Week beginning March 30th.

School ended for the term on Tuesday, and we flew to Heathrow that night.

There was a half hour delay on the ground in Milan, and possibly the pilot got lost, so we arrived landed at Heathrow an hour later than expected. The trauma of dragging three tired girls through customs added extra time. By the time we got through, our two bags were dumped off the carousel at baggage reclaim by someone, and the carousel stopped! Justin, who was picking us up, must have nearly given up on us.

We stayed at Sanctum on the Green, in Cookham Dean, for two nights, before heading to Scotland.

 

They were filming Midsomer Murders in Cookham Dean last week, at the below building.

The signage was added by the film crew, it is really a private house. It is currently up for rent at the bargain price of £9000 per month!

The next day I took the girls to the Roald Dahl Museum in Great Missenden. We all had a fabulous time.

My Willy Wonkas.

Dinner was out at the Jolly Farmer, traditional English Pub Grub.

On Wednesday, Justin took us along a Thames walk in Marlow. It was in the general area that inspired Kenneth Grahame for his book The Wind in the Willows.

It was almost too picturesque to look at.

After dropping Justin at work we drove out to a privately owned property, Grey Court. It has a lot of outbuildings, including one that houses a donkey wheel to grind grains!

This property was lived in until 2003, and it still owned by the four sons. The eldest, the fifteenth Baron Grey of Rotherfield, now runs a vineyard somewhere in Australia.

We saw three pheasants on the drive back to pick Justin up on the way to Heathrow Airport for our Edinburgh flight. Note to self: don't leave as little time to catch a flight again. Running through Heathrow with three children is no one's idea of fun.

The following day we caught the very clean and efficient tram into the centre of Edinburgh to have a look around the shops. There are a few beggars in the touristy areas. We walked down Rose Street, a cosy pedestrian mall.

 

We ran into this drunk Irishman, who just liked the outfit so bought it.

 

Justin and Phoebe weren't feeling too well, so we had dinner in the hotel and an early night.

Unfortunately our plans for a good night's sleep went awry when the hotel fire alarm went off at 3 am. The noise in our room was excruciating, but I realised why it needed to be so loud when Justin woke from a deep sleep and asked what was going on and George covered her ears and tried to go back to sleep. We were out of our rooms for about an hour, I was extremely glad it was not raining! They gave us space blankets to keep warm.

Naturally, it was a slow start for the Shumacks the next morning. We visited The Royal Yacht Brittania, decommissioned by The Queen in 1997.

I'm sure she felt like she was slumming it when onboard, but really. There was so much room in the royal bedrooms. The boat has its own crockery and the glassware has engraved insignia on each piece.

 

From here we drove out to the Firth of Fourth Bridge, try saying that after a few Highland Whiskeys!

 

On one side of it will be a bridge due for completion in 2016, on the other the 1880's railway bridge.

There is a quiet little fishing village between the Firth of Forth bridge and the Railway one, near where the ferry used to depart from. It has the shortest lighthouse possibly in the world.

Tonight, we REALLY hope to have an uninterrupted sleep.

All quiet last night, so we had the energy to tackle Edinburgh Castle. Edinburgh put on a glorious day for our visit. Before we headed off, the girls handed over their entries for the Easter competition, and scored chocolate as prizes.

 

We took a tour inside Edinburgh Castle, and I managed to understand most of what she said, the accent wasn't too broad.

There are so many things to explore here, it is a whole day of entertainment.

The view is fabulous, which goes part way to explain why it was such a great place to build a castle. The other reason is the steep, craggy walls on three sides. There used to be a toxic moat at the bottom of the hill to further discourage invasion.

The girls met Mary Queen of Scots,

hung out in a phone booth

and saw the dog cemetery.

This simple church is the oldest building in the castle and Edinburgh, at 900 years old.

You can still hire it for weddings, but only 20 people fit!

 

From here we went to the excellent Camera Obscura. It has all kinds of optical illusions, fascinating to all our family.

 

It also had great views of the Edinburgh rooftops and the Royal Mile.

One full day and week!

 

Posted with Blogsy