GritzFranzOE

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:25:22 PST

Elephant riding in Kumily

Lizard we saw this morning in Mamallapuram

At the Five Rathas - Mamallapuram

Our houseboat captain

Goodbye India - Hello NZ!

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:01:33 PST

So here we are in Mamallapuram, a small beach-side town just south of Chennai and tomorrow we will be flying home!

We really enjoyed the rest of our time in Southern India. After our short and very chilled stay in Fort Cochin we hired a car to take us down to Aleppey, where we bargained for a houseboat and stayed in the dingiest place by far of all our accommodations in India. However, as it was only one night, and we were looking forward to the house boat the next day, so we put up with it.

The ' Kettuvallam' (former rice barge) houseboat was a one-bedroom plus kitchen number with two oarsmen and a cook. Graham haggled hard and got the price down from the initial 8000 Rs to 5750 Rs, still a bit pricey but the boat was definitely the best of the 7 or so we looked at. We set off at noon, cruising the backwaters, lazing around on the deck and enjoying the view over the canals, little villages and rice paddies. The cook made us gorgeous food - by far the best we had in South India. At around six pm, and shortly before the rain hit, we docked up for the night. It is a rule for the houseboats to get off the canals by this time so the local fishermen can have their turn. It rained most of the night but we were nice and cosy inside the boat. The next morning, to Fran's surprise, Graham proposed and so we got engaged! A very memorable setting and a special day for us.

After breakfast it was back to Alleppey and back on the road, this time on two local buses (1 x change) which took us up into the mountains to a small town on the Kerala/ Tamil Nadu border called Kumily. Here we spent two nights and a whole activity-packed day jungle trekking, visiting the Connemara tea factory, elephant riding (so much fun !!!) and learning about spices (and then shopping for them - vanilla pods are soooo cheap here!!)

Next day we had another big bus-sing day - an eight our trip to Thanjavur. In hindsight we may have been better breaking our journey to Pondy in either Madurai or Trichy, for Thanjavur was quite off the beaten track and apart form the temple (which only took an hour to see) there wasn't much else. But hey - how were we to know, and we'd decided to go with the World Heritage list choice so Thanjavur just ended up being the pick of the day.

After another long bussing day we treated ourselves to some more upmarket accommodation for two nights in Pondycherry. Seeing the french influence in this Union Territory was interesting, and we spent a fair bit of time just walking the streets, doing some Xmas shopping and eating the different food - a nice change from the curries!

In Mamallapuram (just up the coast from Pondy) we are staying in a basic resort-style place in the middle of town. This morning we did a lap of all the awesome rock-carved temples, sweating buckets in the process (Having checked the NZ forecast, 18 degrees there will seem quite chilly compared to the 40 defrees here), before escaping back to the airconditioning.

And so we're nearly at the end of our trip and really really excited about getting back home!!

60 curries, 42 cups of masala chai, 10 temples, three road accidents, two courses of delhi-belly antibiotics and zero tigers later....

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:41:51 PST

And India is still as endearing as ever. Our two week tour of Northern India culminated in Varanasi, one of the most spiritually important towns in the country. Varanasi, located on the mighty Ganges river, is a place where you can see every aspect of life, all of which are played out on the ghats along the river. We took dusk and dawn boat rides along the ghats witnessing the pollution, ritual bathing, washing of clothes, pumping of water, arti ceremonies and cremation of the dead.

We found it difficult to comprehend how a river so religiously venerated by the locals has been allowed to become so dirty. If it is true that the water of Ganga will wash away your sins then there must be a lot of sinners bathing in the river. However we have been told that if you believe in its powers the water (despite its bacteria content being way over the acceptable limit) won't harm you and this must be true for the Hindu believers. It's just one of the many contradictions we've come across.

In Varanasi we also took pleasure in seeing the latest bollywood release - 'London Dreams'. Funnily enough it was about an Indian band trying to make it big in London, and it was set there. The drama, exaggeration and unrealistic storyline were amusing but the music and and acting were entertaining.

On Sunday we had our last dinner with Ruby before we hopped on an overnight A/C 3-berth sleeper train to Delhi. It would have been a pleasant experience were it not for what must have been the loudest snorer in India sharing our berth! Still we made it in good time to Delhi to fetch our bags from the hotel and head to the airport. After a three hour flight and 1 hour taxi ride we arrived at our accommodation in Forth Kochin. If the laid-back feel of this town and the yummy two-course silver service meal for the equivalent 10 pounds we had last night is anything to go by we will be having a good time in Southern India!

Today we are shopping around for a Kerala backwater boat cruise from Alleppey to Kumarakom. From there we are aiming for the hill town of Kumily from where we hope to see some of the wildlife at the Periyar National Park. Then it's on to Trivanjur, Pondicherry, Mamallapuram and finally Chennai.

We're both also getting really excited about being back in NZ soon and catching up with everyone!

Delhi to Kachuraho

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:36:58 PDT

Well we're officially one week into our tour but it might as well have been a month as we've seen so much and met so many people. After Monday in Delhi it was an early start on Tuesday morning to catch the 'Taj Express' to Agra. 'Express' turned out to be a bit of an exaggeration as we were delayed by three hours. There had been a train crash on the same line earlier that morning, with several fatalities. Policemen were escorting a criminal who, under the pretence of needing to use the toilet, tried to escape and so the policemen ended up pulling the emergency brake. Several minutes later a train behind - which must have missed a signal - crashed into the back killing about 20 civilians. The policemen are in big trouble as you can imagine. Once we were on our way we passed the wreck. By that stage there had been some tidying up but it still looked pretty messy.

So our trip was off to an exciting start, but we made it safely to Agra. After a nice lunch we headed off to the Red Fort where we joined another Intrepid group for a guided tour. The guide was great - an old chap who'd been showing people round for decades and has even been on telly several times. The architecture was interesting incorporating muslim, christian, hindu, jewish and jain elements. Apparently, the mogul that built it was of the view that all religions should join to worship one god.

Then on we went to the Taj Mahal. The setting is most impressive, overlooking a massive bend in a riverbed, and the use of pearlescent marble and symmetry is amazing. The tomb inside was not quite as interesting but we spent some time just oggling at the outside.

Next day it was another train ride and jeep transfer to get to the remote medieval town of Chanderi. We met a young indian girl - Shilty - and her dad and brother who were on a 24 hour train ride to Mumbai to attend a cousin's wedding. We had to tell her everything about NZ and she took great delight in listening to all the 'western' music on my ipod (particularly Enrique Eglesias)and reading the Lonely Planet. We also learnt about indian weddings, indian cricket and bollywood stars so our four hour train journey went by quickly.

In Chanderi we were greeted by local guide Kalley Bhai. This friendly man showed us around the 'village' (with population 30,000 it would classify as a city in NZ) and into his home where we had dinner on the terrace under the stars. Chanderi was once a large and strategically important city of the muslim Mhoguls who built a fort with numerous karawansereis and mosques in the area. Today there are muslims, jains and hindus living side by side. Even the population exchangs after the Indo-Pak war did not affect this. The next day Khalle Bhai took us for an orientation walk and we got to visit the local school where the pupils asked us about our jobs and it took some time explain what a town planner does. In the afternoon we headed 25km out of the town to look at some prehistoric rock paintings which Kalley Bhai stumbled on about 4 years ago. He has been lobbying the government to protect them (as well as the Mhogul ruins in Chanderi) but until now they have shown little interest in his cause. It was interesting to meet someone so passionate about preserving and promoting his local heritage. The people in Chanderi were amzingly friendly, open and inquisitive because Intrepid groups are pretty much the only tourists which come to this remote area.

The next day we proceeded to Orcha. An even smaller town this place was home of the hindu Bhandela dynasty who built several massive palaces and temples in the area by the Betwa river. Here we got to witness Hindu celebrations down by the ghats and the daily prayer in the Lord Rama temple. We also took a cooking class with a local lady called Vandana. We've got the recipes so we'll be trying them out back home!

Today we had a three hour drive to Kachuraho, again famous for its temples, this time built by the Chandelas from about 900AD. They are famous for their many tantric and erotically themed rock carvings of men and gods practicing various positions from the Kama Sutra,. As our guide put it these carvings were intended to illustrate the union of opposites (men and women) to make a whole. Despite these carvings only constituting about 2% of the temple sculptures, Sex sells and these carvings have certainly put Kachuraho on the tourist map and bought a lot of traffic to the town.

Today we caught up with another traveller - Mike - who we had met back at the Delhi hotel and who was two days ahead of us on the same tour but with another group. Due to illness he sadly has had to discontinue his trip and is heading back to Oz tomorrow. So we caught up with him while Ruby organised a local doctor to see him.

Tomorrow we are heading off to Panna National Park where hopefully we'll be able to go for an elephant ride!

We're staring to feel at home in India and can say with confidence that the people we have met are some of the friendliest we have met anywhere. Many Indians do not have much but they are amazingly hospitable people. We've been treated like celebritys in the smaller towns and at the Taj with many photo requests.

Namaste,

F & G

Delhi

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:45:07 PDT

Well here we are in India and still can't quite believe it because we are too busy trying to register all that is going on in this busy, bustling yet ordered chaos! We got here very early morning on Saturday which also happened to be the day after the opening Friday of the Diwali festival - the festival of lights which is celebrated by all Indians regardless of their religion and which features candles, fairy lights and all kinds of fireworks - the louder the better!

So our trip was off with a bang! We met some other Intrepid travellers at our hotel - Mike, Sarah and their leader Karni - and had dinner with them the first two nights and got in the Diwali spirit by lighting some sparklers. On Sunday we took the brand new Delhi metro into the town centre and checked out the national museum, the Rajpath and Connaught Place.

Yesterday we met our leader Ruby who will be our guide for the next two weeks. It turns out that there's just the two of us on this trip but that's probably good for Ruby as it's her first time guiding (although she has done an understudy trip before so knows the places we are going to). It's great getting an insight from a local and we keep bugging her with questions.

Today, via rikshaw bike, we explored the largest mosque in Delhi and then the big Sikh temple which also runs a 24/7 soup kitchen feeding thousands daily. The Jain temple was closed but we had a snoop around the grounds.

Our hotel is in Karol Bagh which is south west of the town centre and a air-conditioned haven which presents a parallel universe to the street reality outside.

Tomorrow it's an early start catching a train and seeing the mighty Taj Mahal which we are really looking forward to.

Not sure what else to report, there are not enough words to describe the many impressions we've had in just three days!

A day in Athens

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:05:10 PDT

Santorini and Athens

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:22:32 PDT

We arrived in Santorini at nightime so missed the spectacular view of the cliffs upon arrival. However we made up for this with a half day sailing trip to the volcanic islands the next day and the caldera is stunning, formed by what must have been the mother of all explosions about 1000 BC (although not quite up there with the much earlier Taupo eruptions back in NZ, as I just read on Wikipedia).

One of the islands in the centre of the caldra is still active and we took a hike over it. Then it was back to the old port from where Graham took the gondola up the hill and Fran a donkey up the 300 or so steps up the cliff face. A mad racing donkey as it turned out, kept trying to cut off the aussie ladies on mules, so there was a bit of competition going on amongst the friendly chit chat.

The island was a lot quieter than expected and I guess this may be due to the unpredictable weather this time of year which was proven by the dust storm, 13 degree temperature dive and rain we had the following day. All the ferries in the greek islands were apparrently cancellled due to the wind, so we were already making contingency plans should that affect our ferry booking to Athens the next day. Armed with a mini (two-stroke) Chrysler instead of scooters, we missioned it up a steep hairpin road to the ancient settlement of Akrotiri from where there were magnificent views out to sea and into the eye of the storm. That evening we drove to Oia for the sunset, dinner and a stroll around the clifftop village.

Yesterday it was an eight hour ferry ride to Athens, the weather was back to normal and we were sad to leave, for one can get quite used to the island life.

Today we have been roaming the new Akropolis museum (and getting annoyed at Lord Elgin's senseless destruction of many of the sculptural elements), the majestic Akropolis itself, a walk down through the Agora and associated museum, lunch and then the Archaeological Museum - all awesome. It is mindboggling to see so much very old stuff in just one day - its like w roamed about 6000 years in one day, what a privilege.

Off to dinner now and very hungry.

Santorini

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:26:31 PDT

Donkeys on the steps down to the old port at Fira

On the boat out to the volcanic islands in the caldera

Overlooking the caldera just after sunset

Oia

Crete photos

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:19:47 PDT

At the start of the Samaria gorge track

Graham at the narrowest point of theGorge

Hania boat

More photos - Germany

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:11:49 PDT

The four dutch guys we shared a table with in Oktoberfest

With Philipp

With Fran's Oma at her cousin's wedding

Crete

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 08:51:29 PDT

Just a quick post to say we made it safely to Crete where we've spent the last three nights in Hania and are now in Iraklio from where we are catching a ferry to Santorini tomorrow afternoon.

From Hania we hiked the Samaria gorge which was a gorge-os (he he) 16km walk through some amazing rock formations. The hard part was the bus ride from Hania to the start of the track up a very steep, narrow and winding road with lots of goats who were not one bit bothered by the bus!

Today we saw Knossos, the former Minoan capital of Crete, largely recreated (with some imagination) by british archeologists.

Looking forward to more sunshine and chilling on Santorini where we've just booked three nights in a place with a pool : )

We haven't learnt much greek yet but we'll have some time on the four hour ferry ride tomorrow.

Halfway through our trip already, cant't believe it!!

Love to you all,

F & G

Germany

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 03:11:11 PDT

We´ve been here for a week now and it´s gone super-fast catching up with Fran´s family and friends. But weve been enjoying the german hospitality and managed to survive Oktoberfest despite bomb threats, bag searches and large quantities of beer this entailed.

Christoph is kindly letting us use his computer, so here (finally!) are some piccies from the last few weeks:

Camping in St Emilion

Sunrise at the Pont du Gard

Pizza and beer dinner on the beach at Les Issambres on the French Riviera

The superyachts in Cannes

Walking the Cinque Terre

Graham and Mt Vesuvius from Monte Santo in Napoli

Sicilia

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:01:11 PDT

We've had a great few days in Sicily. Siracusa was the definite highlight - a beautiful old town on the south-east coast. We spent the morning wandering through Ortygia (the old harbour town) to see the layers of greek, arab, roman and rennaisance history evident in the old buildings. In the afternoon we wandered to the greek ruins on the other side of the new town which included a massive theatre carved into the solid rock and a nearby cave - named the ear of Dionysus.

The next day we spent most of our time bussing to Agrigento. Although from our map it appeared that there was a direct road of some 100k's we had a 6 hour bus ride back up to Catania and through the interior of the island. This was still quicker than the 9 hours and two changes it would have taken by train!!

The reason for the excursion to Agrigento was to see the greek temple ruins - the largest remaining ruins outside of Greece and therefore a great warm up for the greek part of our trip. Around 500 BC some Cretans and Rhodians (sp?) decided it was a good idea to set up camp here and in the end were spending more money building temples on Sicily than they were back home. We got to see some awesome finds at the adjacent museum - mainly pottery offerings people sacrificed at the temple, including some very ornate and detailed painted vases.

Then it was back on a train and off to Palermo. It's been raining quite a lot (mainly thunderstorms) but judging from the dry parched countryside we saw on our bus and train rides the locals will be grateful. The rain was not so welcome in Palermo however where there is virtually no drainage system as it only rains once in a blue moon. The roads quickly turned to rivers and we had great fun splashing our way around in the dark finding a place for dinner last night.

Today we strolled the streets to the Teatro Massimo, the largest opera house in Italy. Took a look at the opulent interior with one of the deepest stages - big enough for them to use real elephants for some of the performances! Also famous as the setting for the closing scene of one of the Godfather movies. The local markets were also quite impressive with abundant fresh produce.

The hostel we are staying at has free internet (but still no luck uploading photos sorry) and we are just taking a break in its cool and breezy interior before donning our packs and heading off to the airport for our flight to Germany.

We have been invited to the wedding of a cousin of Fran's on Saturday and on Monday we are off to Munich to Oktoberfest along with Fran's brother Philipp, hopefully followed by a couple of days camping in Bavaria.

Until the next installment,

Ciao,
F & G

Cinque Terre to Sicily

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:35:04 PDT

Finally we have found some internet after a serious drought of such facilities in Naples and power cuts in La Spezia. After dropping the rental car in Nice we ended our French sojourn exploring this old city before catching a train to La Spezia.

On our last day in France it started pouring and it did not stop until 48 hours later when we woke to fresh blue skies and sunshine the morning of our Cinque Terre walk. After a serious overnight thunder storm and accompanying deluge most of the track, apart from 'lover's lane', was closed, so we did some sections by train and others (inc. the steepest part) on foot along the road. The coastline was beautiful and the villages full of character, preserved thanks to their seclusion and limited access from the outside world over the centuries. Our accommodation in La Spezia was a treat on the fifth floor with nice views over the town and a short walk to a restaurant recommended by the owner of the accomm., where we had the most beautiful seafood pasta dish and tried some of the Ligurian wine.

The next morning we caught a 5.30 am train all the way to Naples. On first impression this is a rough city, particularly the area we first saw walking out of the train station, we could have been in Cairo what for all the illegal street trading, people of all colours and tooting traffic. After dropping off our gear we headed straight out to Pompeii where we spent about four hours exploring this vast and once magnificent city which is still remarably intact.

The next day we discovered some of Napolis hidden charms - the duomo, monte santo and the narrow side streets running through the old town. It just so happened that the saturday was the Festivali di San Gennaro - celebrating the city's patron saint. Two vials of his blood, when reunited with fragments of his skull, apparently liquify on two days each year and this 'miracle' is considered to protect Napoli from volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and plagues etc. We watched the beginning of the ceremony in the duomo before venturing on to the National Archaeological Musem where we saw more stuff recovered from Pompeii - coins, mosaics, jewelery, glassware and so on. Then we toook the ferniculare up the hill to Monte Santo where there were awesome views over the city and the harbour with Mount Vesuvius towering in the background.

Due to ferries no longer running daily now that the peak season is over we had to abandon our plans to head out to Stromboli volcano, although this has given us more time for Sicily.

Yesterday was another long train ride (thankfully we both have patience on our ipods, warning - it's v. addictive!) down to Messina in Sicily and then on to Syracuse, 12 hours all up. Syracuse is a lovely town and we are about to head off to explore the greek ruins and the old town down by the harbour. Plan to come back here tonight and upload some photos from the last two weeks...

Bordeaux to Nice

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:28:16 PDT

Here we are in Nice after six lovely days touring from Bordeaux through the Dordogne along the Cote d'Azur to Nice. Highlights along the way have been the wine tasting in St.Emilion, seeing the prehistoric cave paintings in Lascaux and the Pont du Gard. Not to mention the french food and several visits to Carrefour, obviously!

Today we returned the car and it's trains from Wednesday onwards as we travel into Italy. The camping has been fun, the camp grounds here all have amazing facilities and were a lot less crowded than they would have been a few weeks ago. Even so we are very excited about sleeping on a proper bed tonight! - the fact this is such a dry area means rock hard ground under the tent.

Tommorow it's sightseeing in Nice and then we are off to see the Cinque Terre.

A bientot! - photos to follow

Graham's passport is back and it has a visa in it

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 02:11:56 PDT

The courier just dropped it off now so it looks like we are free to leave!

Once again a big thanks to Traude and Peter for sorting things in NZ and for Jess & Andrew for putting us up here in the UK after we moved out of our flat on Friday.

The delay has been a blessing in disguise as it has meant we've been able to chill out over the weekend.

Right, off to book some flights to France....

Indian High Commission in NZ much friendlier than the one in London

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 02:17:37 PDT

Instead of hanging up on Graham, 'Raj' chatted with him for about ten minutes and assured him the visa could be processed within an hour.

The passport was sent off on Saturday morning so now we're just waiting for the post to do their bit. Fingers crossed our trip might only be delayed by 5-7 days! Big thanks to Peter for handling things in Wellington!

In the meantime the packing continues and the lounge looks like a tornado blew in.

Trip home gets off to dicey start as Graham's Indian tourist visa is refused

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 08:14:16 PDT

Right - so it turns out that in order to get a tousrist visa for India from the UK not only does your passport need to be valid for at least another six months but (and this is not stated anywhere on their website) your UK visa/leave-to-remain must also not expire less than 6 months before your visa application date.

Graham's UK visa expires in November this year....bugger.

So we've been told the only other way for him to get his visa is to send his passport to the Indian High Comission in Wellington where it will take ten working days to process.

But we want to leave the UK in seven days from now!

We've had some ideas of how we can tackle this, but it's fair to say that our first encounter with Indian bureau-crazy has not gone too well ; )

All I can say is India better be worth the trouble!!!

Eleven more sleeps!

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:35:38 PDT

Paranoia is starting to set in as we realise how much there still is to do, and how little time there is before we leave London. The fact that our internet at home isn't working currently is not helping. Thankfully we have sorted an appointment to get our India visas this Friday, fingers crossed the queue at the visa centre won't be too long. Currently in the process of scanning backups of all our important travel documents. Some of the boxes are packed but there's still a few to go. Good thing there is a long weekend coming up : )

If you're wondering why you got this - I've added a few of you to get automatic emails whenever our blog is updated, I'm thinking this might save a bit of time at internet cafe's on the way.

Love from London,

F & G

India

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 05:09:55 PDT

Day 43 - Saturday, 17th October
Arrive 3.30am in Delhi

Day 44 - Sunday 18th October
Delhi

Day 45 - Monday 19th October
Delhi

Day 46 - Tuesday 20th October
Delhi

Day 47 - Wednesday 21st October
Agra

Day 48 - Thursday 22nd October
Chanderi

Day 49 - Friday 23rd October
Chanderi

Day 50 - Saturday 24th October
Orchha

Day 51 - Sunday 25th October
Orchha

Day 52 - Monday 26th October
Khajuraho

Day 53 - Tuesday 27th October
Panna National Park

Day 54 - Wednesday 28th October
Chitrakoot

Day 55 - Thursday 29th October
Allahabad

Day 56 - Friday 30th October
Varanasi

Day 57 - Saturday 31st October
Varanasi

Day 58 - Sunday 1st November
Varanasi

Day 59 - Monday 2nd November
Delhi
Flight to Kochi

Day 60 - Tuesday 3rd November
Kochi

Day 61 - Wednesday 4th November
Allepey & Kerala Backwaters

Day 62 - Thursday 5th November
Kerala Backwaters

Day 63 - Friday 6th November
?

Day 64 - Saturday 7th November
?

Day 65 - Sunday 8th November
?

Day 66 - Monday 9th November
?

Day 67 - Tuesday 10th November
?

Day 68 - Wednesday 11th November
Pondicherry

Day 69 - Thursday 12th November
Chennai

Day 70 - Friday 13th November
Flight to Auckland

Greece

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 06:50:42 PDT

Day 33 - Wednesday, 7th October
Arrive in Heraklion, Crete, Pick up hire car, visit Knossos Site

Day 34 - Thursday, 8th October
Samaria Gorge

Day 35 - Friday, 9th October
along South Coast back to Heraklion

Day 36 - Saturday, 10th October
Ferry to Santorini

Day 37 - Sunday, 11th October
Santorini

Day 38 - Monday, 12th October
Ferry to Folegandros

Day 39 - Tuesday, 13th October
Ferry to Milos

Day 40 - Wednesday, 14th October
Ferry to Athens

Day 41 - Thursday, 15th October
Athens acropolis

Day 42 - Friday, 16th October
Flight to Delhi

Germany

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 06:50:59 PDT

Day 21 - Friday, 25th September
Stuttgart

Day 22 - Saturday, 26th September
Stuttgart

Day 23 - Sunday, 27th September
Schwaebisch Hall

Day 24 - Monday, 28th September
Stuttgart

Day 25 - Tuesday, 29th September
Munich

Day 26 - Wednesday, 30th September
Munich

Day 27 - Thursday, 1st October
Munich

Day 28 - Friday, 2nd October
Baden-Baden

Day 29 - Saturday, 3rd October
Bretten

Day 30 - Sunday 4th October
Stuttgart

Day 31 - Monday, 5th October
Stuttgart

Day 32 - Tuesday, 6th October
Stuttgart

Day 33 - Wednesday, 7th October
Flight to Heraklion, Crete

Italy

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 06:51:17 PDT

Day 11 - Tuesday, 15th September
Cinque Terre

Day 12 - Wednesday, 16th September
Cinque Terre

Day 13 - Thursday, 17th September
La Spezia - train - Naples

Day 14 - Friday, 18th September
Pompeii & Vesuvius

Day 15 - Saturday, 19th September
Amalfi Coast

Day 16 - Sunday, 20th September
Amalfi - Naples
Ferry to Stromboli, afternoon trek up Stromboli volcano

Day 17 - Monday, 21st September
Stromboli - ferry to Medina, Sicily

Day 18 - Tuesday, 22nd September
Sicily

Day 19 - Wednesday, 23rd September
Sicily

Day 20 - Thursday, 24th September
Flight from Palermo to Stuttgart

France

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 06:51:39 PDT

Day 1 - Saturday, 5th September
Paris

Day 2 - Sunday, 6th September
Caen & Bayeux

Day 3 - Monday 7th September
Mont St Michel & Rennes

Day 4 - Tuesday 8th September
Avignon

Day 5 - Wednesday 9th September
Loire Chateaux

Day 6 - Thursday 10th September
St Remy

Day 7 - Friday 11th September
?

Day 8 - Saturday 12th September
?

Day 9 - Sunday 13th September
Arles

Day 10 - Monday 14th September
Nice

Catching up on some blogging...

noreply@blogger.com (Franziska Lang & Graham Hooper) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:50:26 PDT

Well, once again there's been complete slackness on my part in terms of keeping the blog updated, but that's now been rectified!

Seeing as we will be leaving the UK shortly I thought it would be a good time to catch up so that we can actually use this page to keep you updated on our way home.

And there's been no lack of inspiration from fellow bloggers so I really have no excuses this time!

To catch up on our last eight months (in pictures, mind) click on the 'July 2009' link under the 'Posts' menu to the right.

Coming soon: Details of our intended route home....