Halloween and Girl Scouts of America

Hannah and Jacqui carving our Halloween pumpkins

Halloween pumpkins by Jacqui & Hannah

Jacqui's Halloween costume

Hannah and Jacqui and their new Girl Scout troop - just after making their promise (being invested) into the Girl Scouts of America

We haven't been so busy over the past few weeks. Mainly we have been finding where everything is in Annapolis (we still haven't figured out everything yet), but we've still had some fun.

We had our first real Halloween. Hannah and Jacqui carved pumpkins which we lit up with candles. One is of a bat, and the other the classic "Jack-o-lantern" shape. On the back of the bat they carved a southern cross, to bring a bit of home to Halloween. Jacqui and Hannah actually celebrated Halloween at Lake Peekskill, New York, with their friends from the NBTSC camp, and had a great time trick or treating. Nikki & Steve were at home in Annapolis, looking after the neigbourhood kids who came trick or treating - which was a lot of fun.

Hannah and Jacqui ran an "Australian Girl Guides" workshop for 130 girls & parents near Washington DC - this was partly for their Queen's Guide Award back home, but mainly to start spending some time with some Girl Scouts. Unfortunately there were no Girl Scouts their age (the oldest was about 12), but they had a great time, and did a great job.

After many months of negotiations with the Girl Scouts of America (Central Maryland) Jacqui and Hannah finally have a Girl Scout troop to call home when they are here. They seem like a nice bunch of girls, very similar to their unit back home. They took part in an investiture ceremony, where they made their promise as Girl Scouts.

We are heading off to Florida next weekend to spend some time with Steve's exchange student sister Tammy & her family, going to Walt Disney World (to see our friend Sara from Australia who is working there), and most excitingly of all, to watch the launch of the Space Shuttle, with the families of the astronauts (thanks to Tammy).

We promise to put up some photo's from Florida as soon as we get back.

We hope you are all well. We are having some challenges with our health (see the post below this for an update on that), which we hope will resolve over time, with the right treatment.

Our (not so happy) news

This is our new weekly medicine routine - maybe for the next 18 months

Normally we post here about all the fun exciting things we’ve been up to and spare you the boring or not so pleasant things. We will get back to the fun and exciting again after this post, but thought this was a good way to let everyone know what was going on for us…..

Nikki is continuing the treatment for Lyme Disease (LD) that she started in January, and has had some slow improvement (very slow - it is a bit of a long hard slog). We are hoping that will continue with her now seeing one of the world’s experts in Lyme Disease in Hyde Park New York.

During her consultation in September with the LD specialist, he was very concerned about Hannah, Jacqui and Steve possibly also having acquired Lyme Disease, so they had the testing. They all came back positive, and have all been diagnosed as having Lyme Disease, and are starting similar treatment to Nikki. Hannah & Jacqui got it from Nikki transplacentally, and Steve got it sometime during the 20 years they’ve been married.

It explains Jacqui & Steve’s strange health problems over the past few years, and we have suspected that Hannah has had Lyme Disease for a while now, as she has been getting much sicker (almost as sick as Nikki, with many of the same symptoms making our trip in Europe very hard for her). We are hopeful that now we have a diagnosis and we start
treatment for everyone, that we will begin to get better, and possibly even recover completely (there isn’t a cure for Lyme Disease, you always live with it, you can keep it under control with antibiotics, supplements and herbs).

We just want to stress that Lyme Disease isn’t normally contagious, except from a mother to a baby in the womb, and sometimes sexually transmitted, so there is no chance that our friends and family can get it from us.

So the summary is that Jacqui & Steve have Lyme Disease mildly, and Hannah & Nikki have it severely. The treatment will be large doses of antibiotics, supplements and herbs, as well as injections for Hannah. We don’t know how long the treatment will last, but a few months for Steve & Jacqui (maybe) and a minimum of 18 months for Nikki & Hannah (& maybe much
longer).

We will post here soon about our Halloween experience, and our upcoming trip to Florida (where we will be watching a Space Shuttle launch (with the family of one of the astronaut’s being blasted off into space), catching up with old friends and going to Walt Disney World). We are missing all our family and friends, and think of you often, & hope you are all well back home, and enjoying the warmer weather.

Hannah and Jacqui go to camp

1. Jacqui in her "prom" dress at the Not Back To School Camp (NBTSC)

2. Jacqui at the prom

3. Hannah and Jacqui at the NBTSC Prom

4. Jacqui and Hannah at the NBTSC Prom

5. Hannah at the How to make chain mail workshop

6. Jacqui at a workshop (how to make chain mail?)

7. Hannah at the How to make chain mail workshop

8. Hannah working in the kitchen with "Hobart", the dishwasher. Both girls recieved a part scholarship for the camp, which meant they worked in the kitchen for 1 hour a day

9. The Lake that the NBTSC was on

10. Jacqui with the 1000 paper cranes (that she, Hannah and some friends made in 3 days) - awaiting

11. Jacqui and Hannah hand over the 1000 cranes to the camp staff

Hannah and Jacqui go to the Not Back to School Camp

Hannah and Jacqui headed off to the Not Back to School Camp (NBTSC) for homeschoolers/unschoolers in Vermont. They were a bit apprehensive about being at camp at first (mainly because everyone at the camp seemed to know each other), but ended up having a fantastic time. They did workshops on all sorts of topics (from making organic raw chocolate through to computer programming). Jacqui ran a workshop where she taught people how to make paper cranes and then with a bunch of campers (including Hannah) they made 1000 cranes over three days ! (which will be given to a person with cancer in the unschooling community). Hannah ran a workshop on celtic knotting which was also very popular. One of the highlights was that they got to have a "Prom", even getting the opportunity to glam it up a bit. They tried to organise a homeschoolers formal in Australia with their friend Hayley, but there wasn't enough interest - so they REALLY enjoyed the Prom at NBTSC.

The accommodation was a bit more primative than they were expecting (it was a “hut” with a roof, two or three walls and then open on the other sides so you could enjoy the fresh (freezing) air at night. Thankfully their friend Zoe had warned them about this, so they took two sleeping bags and a blanket each.

The food was amazing - organic vegetarian food from local produce (with lots of gluten free food for Hannah). We wish they had a NBTSC cook book, so we could bring some of the recipes home.

The best part of the week was that they got to make some new friends in the USA. It has been 4 months since we left home, so the girls have been feeling a bit homesick and lonely, and it was exactly what they needed right now (although nothing can replace their wonderful friends back home). They made good friends with a group of unschoolers from New York, and are planning to go up there and stay with them in the next few weeks (it is only 2 ½ hours by train from us).

All in all Hannah and Jacqui decided that the NBTSC is the BEST camp they have ever been on - which is pretty impressive considering all the Guide, Church and Young Carer camps they've been on.

Nikki and Steve had a very quiet week, although very social as Steve’s boss came over from Australia, so we got to spend some time catching up with him.

Jacqui and Hannah also have just got a regular job as a babysitter for our neighbour’s 10 year old daughter, Emily. They are going to split the shifts, so that they can save up their money – to possibly come home to Australia at Easter.

p.s. sorry the photo formatting is off, I can't work out what I'm doing wrong with it this time

Moving to Annapolis

The boxes arrive - hurray

















Our Apartment - the bottom floor, the 6 windows on the right.





















Hannah's precious things from home arrive





















Jacqui unicycling outside the apartment (one footed)

















Enjoying the local maryland crabs - you whack the crabs with a wooden mallet before you eat them.
















Our new Car - we've called her Suzanne (she's a Toyota Sienna), and the sat nav we've named Michael (after our neighbour in Canberra), as he is so enthusiastic (and we chose an Australian accent).

This is how great the US TV is at the moment (Big Bang Theory starts this week). We got the jigsaw puzzle at the Louvre.

MOVING TO ANNAPOLIS

We have been pretty quiet on the blog and emails since we arrived in the US. This is because we’ve been doing all those boring time consuming things like getting a lease for our apartment, opening bank accounts, getting the phone put on (and most importantly the internet), buying furniture (mainly from a Goodwill store – we’ve found some amazing bargains, including a lazy-boy recliner for $15), getting beds (hurray, no more sleeping on the floor), as well as buying a car.

We really like where we are living – it is in a community of 10 apartment blocks in a landscaped area (complete with BBQ and gazebo). We have half of the bottom floor for our apartment (3 bedrooms). Just outside our front door is the children’s playground for the community (and basketball hoop). Many of the families have young children who play there, so the parents hang out a fair bit on our front door step. Even though Hannah and Jacqui aren’t playing with the young children on the playground, Nikki and Steve have been going out and sitting with the neighbors, who are all very friendly. Most of the children are much younger than Jacqui and Hannah (there are two other teenagers in the community) and so the girls are very popular for babysitting (especially when Navy are playing a home football game).

The weekend after we arrived we had a wonderful time with our friends Jerry & Phil at their holiday house about 1.5hours from Annapolis – the house is nestled in amongst the trees, and is just next to a river (although I think it is called a creek). We were all pretty exhausted the weekend we went there, but it was so nice to relax, be with old friends and to sleep in real beds (we were still sleeping on the floor at that stage).

One highlight of the past week was our boxes arriving (4 boxes and a bag of unicycles). We packed them at the end of June, so were keen to rediscover what we packed. It was great to have some more clothes (the same 5 shirts for 3 months can get a bit old), be able to put the unicycles together & go for a ride, and fire up the laptops. There were some precious things in the boxes that we all brought to remind us of home, and after 3 months on the road, it was great to be able to put them on or set them up here.

Hannah and Jacqui have gone off to the Not Back To School Camp in Vermont for unschoolers/homeschoolers, and hopefully are having a great time (no news is good news). On the way up to Vermont Nikki had an appointment with one of the world’s leading Lyme Disease Dr’s (Richard Horowitz) and her initial consultation took 6.5 hours!!! Thankfully he doesn’t bill by the hour. He is hopeful that he can help her improve. He is very concerned that Nikki had active Lyme Disease when she was pregnant with the girls, so Hannah and Jacqui have an appointment with him at the end of October. Hannah had already started the testing, as she has been very sick for some time, but now Jacqui will get tested too.

England

Yes, you can buy absolutely anything at Harrods - Jacqui with a bullet proof vest
















Grant, Martin, Nikki, Hannah, Jacqui and Steve

















Jacqui and Steve at Lords
















Hannah and Jacqui at Pax Lodge
















Hannah and Nikki at The Globe Theatre production of Romeo and Juliet
















Hannah, Colin the Yeoman Warder (Beef Eater) and Jacqui





















Jacqui and the first female Yeoman Warder






















Jacqui at the prime meridian in Greenwich (o deg longditude)






















Hannah and Jacqui getting ready to leave Greenbelt, with their new mittens (and Jacqui's new hat)

Welcome to summer in England – Greenbelt was COLD

London

We have had a wonderful week here in London. Hannah and Nikki were sick for part of the time, which has given us all some time to rest and recuperate a little bit (they are feeling better now). We have been staying with good friends of Stephen’s parents – they have very kindly given us the top floor of their house – 2 bedrooms, our own bathroom, our own kitchen and our own living room – it has been great to have so much space.

We visited Harrods and were AMAZED at all the things you could buy – including not only bullet proof vests, but bullet proof jackets and jumpers. We also asked in their bike department if they sold unicycles – the reply was “yes certainly, we don’t have any on the floor, but if you tell us what you want, we can order it in for you”. We really liked the food hall, the toy department and the pet department.

We all enjoyed going to the British Museum and were embarrassed to discover that the Elgins’ Marbles are not in fact large round balls of stone, but rather marble carved pictures taken from Greece by the British Ambassador in the 1800’s.

The Tower of London was a real highlight – the Yeoman Warders (Beef Eaters) were a lot of fun and very helpful about the best way to get around with a wheelchair. We enjoyed seeing the Crown Jewels and comparing them to the Danish Crown Jewels we saw last year.

One day Jacqui and Steve went on the London Eye (a very nice view) and to the Greenwich observatory and took some photo’s on the prime meridian, whilst Hannah and Nikki went to a local council so that Hannah could interview the local Young Carer Youth Worker about how they look after carers (and specifically young carers) in the UK, for her Queen’s Guide report.

One lovely Saturday Steve and Jacqui went to The Oval to watch Australia and England in the final test of the Ashes. They didn’t like the outcome, but loved being there in the crowd with all the atmosphere. There was a lady in the seat in front of them from Bruce (the suburb next to Kaleen in Canberra).

Another day when Hannah and Nikki weren’t 100%, Stephen and Jacqui went on a tour of Lords. It was AWESOME – they saw the Long Room, the dressing rooms, the honour boards (in the away dressing rooms), and the media centre which is like something from an alien spaceship, as well as the actual Ashes themselves in the Lord’s museum.

That night Hannah and Nikki went to see Romeo and Juliet at the Globe Theatre, which they LOVED. The disabled lift to get them to their seats was broken, so they had to go up in the theatre lift and be taken on a behind the scenes route, which was very exciting. The performance was amazing (we both cried at the end) – it was very different from the Bell Shakespeare Theatre version we saw a few years ago. It was the last performance of the season and so on our way out of the theatre we got to share in some of performers sadness (and joy) as we went through the change rooms out to the foyer.

We also visited the British Science museum and saw a cracking exhibition on Wallace and Grommit, as well as seeing an amazing 3-D printer in action.

We visited another World Centre for Guiding, at Pax Lodge. It was very nice, and we enjoyed the tour and meeting some of the workers there, but after Our Chalet it just didn’t feel as special (mainly because we were staying at Our Chalet and just visiting Pax Lodge for the day). We also visited the Guide Shop twice, to buy some UK Guiding resources that we will use when we get back to Australia.

Greenbelt was unlike anything we have every experienced before. There were 25,000 people at the Cheltenham racecourse, most of them camping. We were camping (we paid for a tent and air mattresses to be set up for when we arrived), and were FREEZING. After the first night we actually went and bought two more sleeping bags for Nikki and Steve, as it was just too cold for the two they had already paid for. Apart from the cold, we enjoyed Greenbelt – lots of amazing talks - many about the Israeli occupation of Palestine (it seemed to be their theme this year), as well as talks on climate change and Christianity, Biblical theology, Dr Who and spirituality. We went to music gigs, comedy performances, ate yummy food and bought hand made mittens from Nepal to keep our hands warm. On Sunday they had an amazing worship service, but due to swine flu couldn’t do communion or pass the peace (for communion, everyone anointed each other with oil, and for the passing of the peace we had the “elbow bump” of peace). Nikki also caught up with some of the Ministers she trained with at the theological college in Sydney. All in all, we really enjoyed Greenbelt, but were very glad to get back to a regular warm bed in London.

One last highlight was catching up with our old friend Grant and his partner Martin. We were lucky enough to be able to get together with them twice whilst we were here – Grant really hasn’t changed at all since we saw him last (4 ½ years ago), and we had a great time catching up with them both.

Some statistics for you :

Number of kilometers driven – 4577km

Number of times we filled up with diesel – 8 times (giving us 763km to a tank – in Australia we get 350km to a tank of petrol)

Cheapest country we visited - Italy

Most expensive country we visited – Norway (everything was almost 3 times as expensive as Australia)

Most friendly country we visited - Germany

Number of pills Nikki’s taken on the trip – 2,000

Number of herbal drops Nikki’s taken on the trip – 6,000

Number of photo’s we’ve taken – 3,309

Number of places we’ve stayed – 18 (which is a lot, but considering we are away for 60 days, it’s not too bad)

Place where we met most Aussies – London (there were Aussie accents everywhere)

Place where we felt most different from the local people – Japan

Best disabled access – The Louvre in Paris

Worst disabled access – London Underground and Paris Metro

Best Meal – Versailles

Worst Meal - Paris

Shortest stay in one place – 1 day (Brussels – twice, Versailles, Bottrop)

Longest stay in one place – 11 days

Number of times we’ve missed people from home – too many to count

GERMANY

A tourist "train" goes past our house in Bernkastel, built in 1630

Berg Eltz - an amazing castle

Up close with the Roman Ruins in Trier

Candles in Constantine's Basillica

Trying out the new Diablo in Trier

The Cologne Lego Store

Best .. Museum .. Ever
(Cologne Chocolate Museum)

Borgmann Family in Bottrop

Yes, they have speed signs for tanks in Germany

BERNKASTEL-KUES

We have really enjoyed Germany, just like we did when we were here last year. We spent 5 days in a small old town called Bernkastel-Kues (Bernkastel where we were staying was on one side of the Mosel River, and Kues was on the other). There are many old wooden buildings in the town, and the house we were saying in was built in 1630! We became a tourist attraction, as people walked down the street taking photo’s of the house we were staying in. We loved the house with all it’s nooks and cranny’s. The only down side was the stairs to the bedroom, so Steve got a good workout carrying Nikki up the stairs each night.

Whilst we were staying in Bernkastel we did the mountains of washing from camp and Norway, but we had some fun too. We had a really great day exploring the roman ruins in Trier, including Constantine’s throne room (now a Basilica), where we lit a candle for Nikki’s Grandmother who is in hospital back in Australia. We were also really lucky to find an amazing toy store in Trier, with all sorts of games (which we were tempted to buy) and juggling equipment, including really cheap top quality Diablo’s – so we bought one for Steve as his souvenier, and enjoyed watching him use it in the local park during our picnic lunch.

In Bernkastel, we also had the chance to go to a wine education session where a Wine maker explained all about how wine is made, the different types of wine, and how you drink wine for tastings. We learnt a lot (we only really knew that there was red and white before the session). Nikki & Hannah didn’t drink, but Steve & Jacqui got to try a little bit of 8 different wines from different vines and different vintages. Before we get lots of emails, it is legal for Jacqui to drink in Germany, and she was only taking a little sip.

Between Bernkastel-Kues and Cologne we visited the most amazing castle - Berg Eltz. It is almost a thousand years old, and has a lot of the original furniture, tapestries and weapons from the middle ages. The castle has been inhabited by the same family for 33 generations, and there are still members of the family living in the castle. Steve, Jacqui and Hannah went on an amazing tour of the castle, whilst Nikki sat and sketched (there were too many stairs).

COLOGNE

We spent a few nights in Cologne, where we went to the Chocolate Museum!! We learnt a lot, got to sample some chocolate, and really enjoyed ourselves. Whilst we were in Cologne we got to see lots of bucks nights and hens parties walking around in the pedestrian area under our hotel room (which did make it very loud at 4am). They really take their buck’s nights very seriously over here – everyone wears a special T-shirt with the name of the buck’s party, and the groom (or bride) wears a special outfit (usually a dress for the guys, and often a nurses uniform or a hawian outfit for the girls). They often push a trolley along with all their drinks, and get the buck/hen to do all sorts of strange tasks. Our favourite place in Cologne (apart from the Chocolate Museum) was the Lego store, which was the biggest collection of Lego that we have seen since we were at Legoland in California in 2000. It was a lot of fun.

BOTTROP

We went to Bottrop and had some time with Elisabeth Borgmann, who was a unicyclist we met in Denmark last year, and came to stay with us for a week last November, when she was in Australia as an exchange student. We were a bit nervous meeting her family, especially since we were staying the night in their house and we had no idea what they were like. We really enjoyed spending time with Elisabeth, and also with her family, they were a lot of fun. Unfortunately her brother came home sick with some sort of flu, and they quarantined him to his room (which made us feel really guilty). The highlight for Steve and Nikki was late in the night after Hannah and Jacqui had gone to bed, Jan (Elisabeth’s father) told us the stories about his family during World War 2 – his Grandmother went to Berlin in 1936 and protested against the Nazi’s outside the parliament, an incredibly brave thing to do at that time. She was spared from retribution because she and the other women she was with had been awarded a Nazi medal, for being the mother of more than 6 children, which gave them a lot of respect. Jan also told us about his mother helping to hide a member of the group who attempted to assassinate Hitler in 1944, as he tried to flee Germany. Jan’s grandfather had kept a diary during the war (which he kept buried in a field to keep it safe from the Nazi’s) and he read out excerpts from the diary about how he felt about the Nazi’s, and wondering where all the Jew’s had disappeared to. It was a spine chilling thing to hear these words being read out.

MAINZ

We now have two nights in Mainz, in our favourite hotel in Europe (the very disabled friendly Hotel Inndependence), eating gelato, going to the local swimming pool, and packing up to go to London (yes, yet more packing).

Flamboree

The inflatable Kangaroo (Kev) was very popular at Flamboree.

Hannah & Jacqui had a great time at Flamboree. There were 1300 people from 36 countries. We were joined in a patrol with 4 kiwi's and 3 belgain guides, so our patrol was a lot bigger than we were used to, but it worked out fine.

Everything was different - the tents, the way they cooked, the gadgets (we had to use coppers logs, when we usually use tomato stakes), the games, the language. Most noticeable was the "fraternisation" between the participants - there was even a condom tree where you could go and get your condoms (which was bare only a few hours after it was erected). In Australia "fraternisation" of all sorts is discouraged at mixed camps, but in Belgium they even have it in the Flamboree newsletter (lots of photo's of couples pashing).

The highlights of the camp were the mass games (which was set up in a giant amputheatre, with 1300 people battling it out in 4 teams), the village (where we shared Anzac biscuits and vegemite with everyone, and got to try out other countries games and food)(everyone loved the Anzac biscuits and surprisingly a lot of people liked the vegemite too).

We really enjoyed getting to know the girls from NZ, Great Britain and Lethotho.

All in all the camp was a lot of fun, but we have mountains of washing.

We can't put up any photo's because the camera died the day we arrived in our homestay, but we will put up one of the official photo's of us with Kev the Kangaroo.

Norway

We had a weekend in Oslo staying with some distant relatives of Steve’s Mum (Torrun and Leif). They were so lovely, and we enjoyed our time with them immensely. Their English was perfect and they made us feel very welcome. We had lunch one day overlooking Oslo harbour, and the next day Nikki rested whilst Steve went to the Viking Ship Museum and the Flam museum (on polar exploration).

On the Monday we caught a beautiful train trip from Oslo to Myrdal, where we changed trains to go down a really steep train track to Flam. From there we caught a ferry and enjoyed being on the Fjord whilst we traveled to our hotel in Balestrand (which overlooked the Fjord – it was spectacular). In Balestrand we rested a bit (the trip from Oslo took a bit out of Nikki), but spent one day driving around the Fjords and catching a slow boat up the Narrow Fjord which is World Heritage Listed (the guide book said that the deck of the boat would be slippery from the drool of all the tourists – and we agree, it was stunning).

Overall we LOVED Norway, but were really shocked at how expensive everything is (roughly three times the price of things in Australia).

We finally caught a boat to Bergen stayed the night before flying back to Germany via Oslo. We had one night in Leige before we picked up the girls. We stayed in a hotel which we thought would be nice, but turned out to be backpackers party central – right outside the door of our room until quite late at night, and early the next morning (we must be getting old).

p.s. thanks to Nikki's brother Steve for the internet cafe suggestions.

Paris, Chartres, Brussels, Amsterdam

Nikki walking the Labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral

Atop the Arc de Triomphe

An example of disabled friendly Paris

The Eiffel Tower at night

The Tour de France rides by - this is the front of the riders, with Team Astana in the lead. Lance Armstrong is fourth from the left and Alberto Contador is in the yellow jersey, far left.

Enjoying Monet's Water Lilies

Chocolate heaven!

The girls at the opening ceremony of Flamboree.

Paris

Some highlights of our time in Paris

- visiting the Louvre three times (we could have gone back ten more times after that). It was especially good at night, when there were a LOT less visitors. We got to see the “Mona Lisa”, the “Wedding at Cana” (set in Venice), the “Venus de Milo”, statues by Michaelangelo, some famous French paintings (such as the “Coronation of Napoleon” and “Liberty Leading the People”), as well as many more others that we enjoyed. We didn’t plan on making Paris an “art” stop, but it definitely turned out that way.

- We took a day trip out to Chartres Cathedral – Nikki was very excited to be able to walk the Labyrinth (it is only available on Fridays). There were lots of other people walking the labyrinth, but it didn’t feel crowded. Nikki found the experience a very spiritual one, and it was worth the pain she was in afterwards to be able to walk the whole thing without her wheelchair. While Nikki was walking the labyrinth, Steve, Jacqui and Hannah enjoyed exploring the church, looking at the stained glass windows and the statues depicting scenes from Mary’s life (the Cathedral is actually called Notre Dame, meaning Holy Mother). We were very lucky to find a wonderful restaurant for lunch and enjoyed a meal to help us forget (to some extent) the terrible dinner we’d had a few days before.

- On Saturday Nikki and Hannah rested whilst Jacqui and Steve went up the 284 steps to the top of the Arch de Triomphe – what a stunning view. After they came home that day we had a lazy lunch at the Creperie at the Pompodou Centre (the building that is inside out).That evening we took a sunset cruise on the Seine (which was beautiful), followed by a trip up the terrifying Eifel Tower (we all got a touch of vertigo – except Hannah). A beautiful site of the night lights over Paris. We were especially happy to get back to the ground, as the tower had been swaying slightly in the breeze.

- On Sunday we were excited to be right on the barriers to watch the Tour de France fly by (in 15 seconds). We got a great view of team Astana leading the peleton, complete with Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador (who won). We were on the banks of the Seine, right near Notre Dame Cathedral and the atmosphere was very festive. We had our Aussie flag on the barrier and some Aussies on the other side of the road were cheering “Aussie Aussie Aussie” to which of course we replied “Oi, Oi, Oi”.

- On our last morning as we were leaving Paris we visited the Orangerie museum, which has the most amazing series of Water Lily paintings by Monet – he painted them whilst almost blind with cataracts so they are huge, bright and full of feeling. We loved them, and enjoyed seeing a group of student artists sitting and sketching (surprisingly this is something we haven’t seen up to now in Paris).

- Our other highlight was discovering that while Paris itself is particularly disabled un-friendly (especially the public transport), once you get to where you are going, most wheelchair users get in for free, as does their carer. Since children under the age of 16 get in for free as well, this made many things free for the four of us in Paris, which was a nice surprise)! This made it possible for us to go back to the Louvre so many times.

Brussels

The highlight of Brussels for us was our Chocolate crawl along the main square. We stopped at all the major chocolate makers showrooms, buying a few chocolates to sample, and then decided which one we loved the most, and went back there to get our souvenirs. Nikki was very excited that the Leonidas shop had sugar free chocolate (she’s had to avoid sugar on this trip because of side affects of her meds). Their website is here http://www.leonidas.com/ if you want to feel jealous.

Flamboree

The next day we met Hannah & Jacqui’s Belgian Girl Guide buddy at the airport in Brussels, as well as the rest of the Aussies and a Kiwi leader as well. The poor father of the house has 4 daughters, and had another 6 girl guides from around the world staying with him that night!! We enjoyed seeing their house, part of which is older than European settlement of Australia, and is set in the middle of beautiful fields, not far from Antwerp.

Hannah and Jacqui headed off to Flamboree with the other Guides on the 29^th of July. We had a quick email from them, but don’t expect to hear anything else until we see them again on the 8^th of August. Having said that, the Flamboree website has a daily blog, website, newspaper and photos for us to keep up to date with what they were doing. We found a photo that the girls were in, and were very excited to see that the inflatable kangaroo had been getting a good workout.

Amsterdam

Nikki and Steve have headed to Amsterdam – we were drawn to The Netherlands to see where our very close friend Mim comes from. We have LOVED Amsterdam, and have agreed that it is the first city so far that we would be happy to live in (Paris is beautiful to visit, but the really formal dress code and the suicidal drivers aren’t something we’d be able to live with for long). Most of our time here has been spent resting and relaxing in our canalside B & B (which is the same size as our apartment in Paris!), but today we went to the Van Gogh museum (it is actually pronounced Van HHHHock here). It was interesting to see his painting up close and those paintings that inspired him, but it made us realize just how much we loved Monet’s paintings in Paris. Our favorite painting in the museum was actually by Renoir.

Nikki and Steve head off to Norway tomorrow, while Hannah and Jacqui continue to enjoy Flamboree. We don’t expect to have internet access for a while (maybe not until we get to England in a couple of weeks time) so there may be a bit of a break in the blog. So, until we write again, Au Revoir, and Tot Ziens.

p.s. we have just been looking at the Flamboree website and seen both Jacqui and Hannah on Belgian TV and on the Flamboree Video's (it seems that carrying an inflatable Kangaroo is a good way to get yourself noticed). You can view the video's here http://vimeo.com/5840188 (no 3 is the news, and no 5 is the opening ceremony - the girls are both at the beginning).