Final Post

Well folks, the Great K/R European Vacation is officially over. Now that we're in Australia, we can hardly continue under this title. So we have started another blog: Brooklynites Down Under and it's at http://www.brooklyndownunder.blogspot.com. Check us out!

To review. We were hardly the Griswold's of National Lampoon fame, but our European Vacation had its Griswoldian moments. Some final stats:

Planes: 5
International Trains: 2
Cross-Country Train: 1
Car Ferries: 3
People Ferries: 2
Small boat rides: at least 5
Rental Cars: 2
Miles on the Rental Cars--about 4,000
Countries in Europe: 12 (including Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and Wales)
Most Countries in a Day: 4
Hotels: 27
Private Residence: 1 (thanks again, Lee)

Tantrums: Not as many as you would expect, but more than we would have liked.
Illnesses: 1 (not counting sea-sickness)--Philip's ear infection
Trips to doctor/hospital: 0!
Weight gained by adults: no comment
Blog posts: 80+

In the Merry Old Land of Oz

Finally, we're here! Just a quick note now as we settle into our digs in Whale Beach. We love the cool, modern, spacious house but the real attraction here is the view. Today a mother humpback whale and her baby swam past, frolicking in the waves--both of them occasionally breaching. We even caught some of it on film (or whatever we call it now). Photos to follow.

Anyway, we're here, we're happy, we're safe and sound.

Singapore, Schwing!

Second and final day in Singapore--we spent it lazing in and by the pool. Although the shopping in Singapore is epic, we just couldn't do it. Anyway, we needed to rest up for dinner with Christopher and Michelle to celebrate Christopher's birthday. While Clare stayed in with the other kids, we four pseudo-adults went had a fab meal overlooking the South China Sea.

Also of note today, Emmett lost his front tooth, which had been loose since France and hanging by a thread for the past few days. I wonder what currency the tooth-fairy will use...

Brooklyn Do-Gooder

Our dear friend Sydnee Jorgl is up for the Brooklyn Do-Gooder of the Year award for her work founding and running Brooklyn Autism Center, a school for children with autism. The prize, which will go to the school, is $5,000. Please help her win this award for the children by voting through this url:

http://dogoodrighthere.org/campaigns/96

You have 10 days to vote and spread the word. She really really really deserves this!

Something Tells Me...

...We're not in Europe anymore. The sign on our hotel door in Singapore reads: "We would like to recommend keeping the doors closed as the monkeys may enter and ransack the rooms."

So now every time we open the doors, Emmett runs into the other room lest marauding apes invade.

In other news: We all have EXTREME JET LAG! Emmett and Clare were up until 5am (oh yes! fun times!)

But we're happy to be here in this balmy, flowery city. Philip's brother, Christopher, sister-in-law, Michelle, and cousin Jonah met us just as we arrived at the hotel--a nice, warm welcome for us weary travellers.

During our first full day in Singapore, Philip and I did some shopping for necessary household electronics while the children played with Jonah at his apartment. We all met at the end of the day chez Singaporean Kearns for wonderful spicy Thai noodles prepared by Michelle. Yum!

My Beautiful Laundrette

We weren't sure how to illustrate this post, so we're going with a complete non-sequiter (or maybe doing laundry can be epically Wagnerian?)...


One of Sid's major concerns for this trip was washing - how, when, how much - what to do with our dirty clothes (this is Philip, btw). Here's how we dealt with that aspect of things...
First wash was in Tewkesbury at a local laundrette. Depressing place - we took care of our own machines, there were some ladies working there who'd take care of your wash for a price (& a 24 hour turnaround, which was too long for us). Maybe it was the job, maybe it was the place, but they were not happy. I exited with a few damp undies just to get out from under the black cloud.
Next, Galway. As noted before, its a bit of a backpackers haven & there were self wash facilities galore. Clare helped me carry our bags of dirties & we loaded up the machines. The lady working there was lovely, very helpful - and spent the whole time saying the rosary, flicking her beads. Maybe she was praying for the lost souls (aka backpakers), maybe she was praying that the machines didn't break down. Whatever her motivation, things worked out well & we headed out of ireland in lovely, fresh clothes.
Scotland - we got one over the canny Scots. The hotel (the Lovat!) said they'd do us a favour & wash a bag of clothes for a few pounds - we turned up with 4 bags. They looked askance, took the laundry & reluctantly washed it all.
London part deux - our hotel charged $4 for undies, no self wash facilities in Knightsbridge. I found a cleaner that agreed to do the lot for gbp20 & delivered it to our hotel. Nice!
Paris - interestingly, the most technologically advanced laundrette. Nice big machines, a central paying station, fully automated. Plus a cafe right next door. My favourite laundry experience from an ambience & technological perspective.
Florence - we put Lee's machine through its paces, dried everything on the line - the true Italian way.
Munich - again interestingly, the most social experience. Lots of tourists, everyone sitting around chatting (an Aussie couple fresh from the passion plays, a Canadian dude from Vancouver, a Brit, some yanks). One told the story of being in a laundrette & a customer stuffing the machine, then taking his clothes off & throwing them as well - sitting there in his undies. Fortunately (maybe unfortunately?), no-one stripped off here.
Santorini - again, a tourist mecca, found a convenient drop off place.

Last Day in Europe

We spent it repacking, reorganizing, reactivating (PK and I hit the gym), and relaxing. A quick boat tour on the Main (Frankfurt's river) and a walk around the Romer was the last of the European sight-seeing. Turns out that Frankfurt has a high quality-of-life rating, and apart from the gang of anarchists we saw (and me without my camera, curses!), we can understand why. It's a friendly, easy, even pretty city.

I'm writing this from the JAL Lounge in the Frankfurt Airport--we're flying Qantas to Singapore though, and the plane leaves at 11:55. At least we'll all sleep for the first half.

Folks, don't stop checking in. We'll be blogging from Singapore on our trip in retrospect (and then might start another that charts our experiences Down Under). The kids will have to wear school uniforms (gasp!). That alone is worth a few posts.

Missing everyone from home!

Frankfurter Burgermeister Meisterburgers

Back to Deutschland to prepare to depart Europe for Asia, staying 24 hours in Frankfurt, birthplace of Goethe and the hotdog. With very little intention of doing any sight-seeing, a quick walk around the city center has changed our plans. Tomorrow we will make our way past the Oktoberfest tents (Schnitzel! Bratwurst! Beer!) and perhaps take a bus around the city, which is clean, affluent, spacious and generally quite nice.

I'm glad we have given the kids another chance to make jokes about all the einfahrt and ausfahrt signage.

Truth be told, however, we are very excited for Singapore and then Australia!

The Poseidon Adventure

After all those rough ferry rides in the occasionally rough Aegean/Mediterranean, it now seems plausible that it took Odysseus 10 years to get home to Ithaca from Troy. Lesson: don't anger Poseidon (and desist from blinding his one-eyed son Polyphemus)! So we landed in Rafina instead of Athens on the Greek mainland, hired a car and driver (sort of a must in Greece), and made for Sounion, the place of Poseidon's Temple to pay due homage to the god of the sea and earthquakes. What a glorious, spiritual spot and well worth the trip.



The graceful column ruins (5th century BC) sit on a peninsula surrounded by the azure blue of the Aegean in a place of great peace and beauty. It was difficult to leave once there, and we would have dearly loved to have stayed for the sunset.

But we were due back in Athens to meet Phililp's friend/colleague D. who has also taken the brave leap of a year's sabbatical from Wall Street. On the way to Athens, we egged our driver on about Lord Elgin, "the thief" he called him, and the transit worker strike (he will lose the value of his very expensive limo license). But he also showed us the world's oldest amphitheater built to entertain the silver mine workers before the Golden Age--the Theater of Dionysus is only the second oldest theater.

We arrived in time to have drinks on the private roofdeck of our room in the Periscope with D. and his wife J.--it was a gorgeous night, that view of the Acropolis still stunning, and Lycabettus Hill behind our hotel was brilliantly lit as well.

We exchanged ideas, stories, blog addresses. I marvel at how much more difficult their year will be learning the language (a very difficult one) and negotiating the byzantine bureaucracy for which Greece is famous. One thing worth mentioning about Greece: whenever the Greeks break ground on new projects like the Metro and the Acropolis Museum, they find antiquities still buried--so apparently the metro is almost a museum; on display still underground are some of the treasures unearthed as they dug the tunnels.

It's quite a place, Greece. It makes me fantasize about being an archeologist.

Greece is the Word

After four days in Mykonos, including a day at Super Paradise beach, we are back in Athens. Mykonos was fantastic, and the day we spent at Super Paradise Beach the crowning glory of the visit. It seems that in Mykonos, unlike in Santorini, boardshorts win, but there's a dark horse entry--the full monty male nudity. For some reason Philip wasn't snapping photos of those blokes for the blog!

No surprise that Super Paradise is tricked out to be a major party spot--full outdoor restaurant, bar, dance floor, hidden sitting alcoves all overlooking a spectacular beach with a beautiful, warm, crystal blue sea. After the odd red beach in Santorini and the rock beach in Nice, we were thrilled to have real sand under our feet.

What Happens in Mykonos Stays in Mykonos

Shagadelic Mykonos

Having survived another ferry ride in the Aegean Sea (Poseidon going rather lightly on us this time), we arrived on the island of Mykonos, 5 miles from one of the most sacred of the Greek islands: Delos, birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. Very different from Santorini, Mykonos is flat in comparison and very cosmopolitan. We're staying at a shagadelic hotel that harkens back to the early 70's when Jackie O. and Brigitte Bardot made Mykonos their playground. The Theoxenia Hotel is in fact the lovingly refurbished hotel of the 70's that such luminaries frequented. You expect Truman Capote and Andy Warhol to walk in at any moment. The decor is very Austin Powers and overall it's a wonderful, luxurious place, right near the famous Mykonos windmills and a short walk from the island's town center.

But for those of us interested in the Greek myths, Mykonos is a very special place. Delos is considered to be the center of the Cyclades islands of Greece--they in fact "cycle" around Delos. And Mykonos is reputedly where Hercules slew the giants--and their petrified bodies are still discernible as the magnificent rocks you see all around.

Having lived in a cave 200 meters above the watery crater of the Santorini volcano, it's nice to be right on the water again, hearing the waves on the shores, seeing the colorful fishing boats up close, and even hanging out with the enormous pelican that appears to be the island's mascot--he walks through the town like he owns the place.

So far we are content to lounge by the super cool pool (with its own islands), slurping fruit and honey smoothies and occasionally dragging ourselves into town for some food, shopping, exercise. Philip is still wondering if he should trade in his boardshorts for the European options...please someone talk some sense to him!

It really wasn't chicken! (And other stories from a vegetarian perspective.)

Hey, it's Clare! The pescetarian! (Which, in case you don't know, is a veggo that eats fish... ironically I actually hate most fish except salmon and haddock) Here to give you the incredibly stupid stories that come with being the aforementioned eater. (These aren't in any particular order...)

1st: In Athens we ordered room service the first and second nights- first night I got some "vegetarian" pasta which, after I ate half of it, was pretty sure had chicken in it. I refused to eat the rest. The second night I got the same, clearly telling the room service people that I DID NOT WANT MEAT. When are food came up, chicken was in it. I refused to eat a bite, but Dad, not wanting me to faint, took all the pieces out, what an awesome Dad.

Turns out, now we are in Mykonos, it wasn't chicken! It was this Greek Island cheese that needs to be grilled so it has the same consistency and shape and look as chicken. I knew it tasted like cheese!

2nd: In Tewkesbury, I looked at the menu and there was nothing but meat and some fish, so I decided to be 'wild' and try Lemon Sole. When I told the waiter I was veggo, he made a crossing sign with his fingers and slowly backed away, saying "nt, nt, nt!" what a strange fellow.

3rd: I mistakenly thought proscuitto was a type of cheese, when Dad told me it wasn't, I was very upset.

And always there have been stuff like, WHAT WILL I EAT???? I AM GOING TO FAINT HERE!!!!!!!! And simply having to eat pasta every night. Also I am frequently saying,

Me: "I'll have the ceasar salad, without the chicken and bacon, please. Is that all right?"

Waiter: "Hmmm..."

Mom: "She's a vegetarian."

Waiter: "Ahhh. I'll see what I can do. And what would you like for a main course?"

Me: "The salmon, please."

Waiter: "I see..." (I attract dubious looks from the waiter.)

I am being labled as: "The vegetarian that eats fish" Sometimes I feel like yelling, "What's the matter? Haven't you ever seen a pescetarian before?"

Boardshorts or...?

Today we hired a small car, all crammed in & went for a tour around Santorini. Its not a big place, but with small roads, the occasional donkey train, buses stopping for pick-ups, it can take a while to drive even the 20km from one end to the other. But we did & one thing we wanted to check out was the "Red Beach" - a beach on the south side of the island with impossibly red sand - from the volcanic rocks of the cliffs above the beach. It did not disappoint - nice warm water, unusual "sand" and great people watching. Speaking of which, I've started to wonder (this is Philip, btw) - should I ditch the boardshorts & adopt a more euro-style of beachwear? I'll poll answers...


(Note the package here - David [of Florence fame] would be jealous)

Cave-Dwellers

More of the same here on Santorini--but today we tooled around the island to get a sense of its shape and culture. We checked out the "red" beach on the flat side, which is a mixture of red rocks and black lava--the water temperature and clarity were perfect, and the sea appears to be teeming with fish. The girls were able to catch them in their hands. This on top of the vines laden with grapes hanging down in restaurants makes Santorini a veritable Garden of Eden. The many honeymooners probably see it that way too until our kids go running by. I guess they thought they'd be safe from urchins in September. Think again. We did some laundry too (hopefully the last of it until we hit Whale Beach in Australia).

The Greek government just banned smoking in public places, but people are still lighting up in restaurants and on patios near ours at the hotel. You forget how obnoxious second-hand smoke is, especially when you expect to be inhaling deep breaths of good clean sea air.

Another idiosyncrasy we noticed in Greece is the number of stray animals--cats, kittens, dogs or all shapes and sizes. There's a sweet little pack of stray dogs that says hello to us near Thira. And when we were in Athens, Isabella counted something like 12 sleeping dogs between our hotel and the Acropolis; and some of them hang out in and around the Acropolis. They all seem nice and harmless. Of course, I want to take them home.

Lovely hot weather today--gearing up for Australia!

The Cauldron

As referred to on the prior post, we're sitting on the edge of the caldera, site of the 2nd largest volcanic eruption in the last 20million years or so. Must have been quite a bang. For us, of course, it means that we have some of the most sublime views you could ever ask for. The tourist industry of course takes full advantage of the setting - a tremendous concentration of hotels, restaurants, cafes are built into the cliffs, seemingly hanging on to the very edge of the precipice. I guess some have been here for dozens of years, so absent another eruption, they'll be here for a while longer. But you do wonder when you gaze over the railings...

Much needed R&R for the family. Our days consist of a late, lazy breakfast, some reading, playing, maybe a walk into town, 30 minutes contemplating where to have dinner - ie, island life. Not a bad place to relax.

Poseidon's Revenge--On Philip's Birthday

The god with the powerful trident got us back for worshipping Athena at the Acropolis. A very bouncy, wavy 5 hour ferry ride to Santorini gave Sid and Emmett serious mal de mer. Yuck--and on Philip's birthday, too. The birthday boy was stuck being nurse to the sickies for much of the day. As he says, though, how bad can it be when eventually you're on Santorini? Pretty bad, actually. We owe him a better birthday. Today he's sentenced to sleeping on a lounge chair in the sun with an umbrella drink.

So here we are in Paradise, studying geology now, having moved on from history. Santorini is an island formed by a volcano that erupted 3,600 years ago whose crater sank into the ocean. As Clare tells us, Plato thought that Santorini was Atlantis and that there's a city down in 400 meters of water in the Caldera of the island. The Caldera derives from the English word "cauldron," and you can see in our photos why it is aptly named.

We are on the edge of the Caldera, sleeping in a "cave" hotel that's built right into the side of the volcano--windows facing the water--but the deeper into the apartment you go, the darker and cave-ier it gets. The hotel Andromeda is clearly meant for honeymooners; we get the occasional curled lip when our children run around (hey, think of it as natural birth control you honeymooners), and the hotel's soundtrack is full of Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Bryan Adams love songs. It can get a little tiresome. Luckily we downloaded the premiere of Glee onto the laptop for a healthy dose of satire.

Clare informs us (who is home-schooling who?) that Santorini was the second biggest volcanic eruption in history. The first was Toba in Indonesia 75,000 years ago, an eruption that killed all but between 2,000 and 20,000 humans on earth. Sobering stuff. Someone said that they expect Santorini to rear up again, maybe in 150 years. Hope it's not while we're here.

Looks like I will never be one of those retirees who takes cruises through all the beautiful spots in the world. Thanks, Poseidon.

May all to Athens back again repair...

The seat of reason, knowledge, wisdom--it's Athens in spectacular fashion. We have perfect weather, no crowds (just funny looks and comments from people wondering why our children are not in school), but too little time! Even so, this post will be a little more detailed than the others because we know our friends the Bourotoglous are reading and wondering how we're finding this city they love and know very well.

First things first: last night, as I was sitting in our private jacuzzi, pondering the outlines of the Acropolis in the distance, I was remembering how Shakespeare uses Athens as a setting in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Oh, I'll spare you the lecture. I just wanted to write a sentence like that and for it to be true! And it is, gloriously so. We're staying in the Periscope, a very small boutique hotel, so small that we have the entire top floor, its roof-deck hot tub, and a full-on view of the Acropolis. It's a place for the poet, the lunatic, and the lover, as Theseus says in AMSND. Well, we all five of us are sleeping in the same room, so maybe more the poet and lunatic than the lover.

But I should focus on Ancient Greece, not Shakespeare. Because of large protests over the new austerity measures of the Greek government, we walked to the Acropolis this morning, through the National Gardens (past some Greek soldiers all geared up and high-stepping in fine style). When we got across the park, we realized that, due to the protests, only one gate was open (the one whereby we entered), so we did what seemed right--we squeezed the children through the fencing and climbed over the top ourselves. As one fellow fence-jumper said, "welcome to Greece."

From there we walked by the Temple of Zeus (see second photo) and then around the Acropolis mound to its entrance and into the hallowed grounds of the various temples and theaters. Wow. To see where the Ancient Greeks performed Oedipus and Lysistrata, to see where Athena and Poseidon supposedly battled it out for "patron god," and to see the Agora where Socrates and later, St. Paul spoke all within a few kilometers is an unparalleled experience. It's like seeing Stonehenge, Westminster Abbey, The Globe, and Buckingham Palace all in the same space. We soaked it in--noting the crevice where Poseidon drew salt water for the mortals but was beaten by Athena's more apt olive tree (the Erechtheion), the ingenius Doric columns of the Parthenon, and the seats of the Odeon. We took in the views of Athens framed by the columns all around--the masses of white houses, the sea, and the mountains. What a spot.

To top it off, we had lunch at the perfect Greek cafe outdoors in the shade in the area known as the Plaka--lots of cafes and shops and we could hear the vociferous protest in the background. Everything here is much cheaper than in the rest of Europe, and you can bargain. Philip negotiated a rate for us to get from the airport to the hotel--at one point the driver walked away, but he came running back when Philip called his bluff.

After the Acropolis and lunch, we took a tour of the new Acropolis Museum where the more precious original bits of the ruins are better protected. Here we saw 5 of the 6 Caryatids (gorgeous female figures that were sculpted 2400 years ago--no biggie) that hold up part of the Erechtheion. The missing one is in the British Museum with the infamous Elgin Marbles, other bits of the Acropolis that were taken out of Greece and rediscovered in the UK. Lord Elgin is responsible for the removal, some would say kidnapping, of the Caryatid as well as the Marbles. It's a very sore topic here in Athens since the British Government has refused to return anything. Clare, for one, is particularly outraged. I know that the original Winnie-the Pooh and Friends stuffed animals reside in the New York Public Library--and the British Government wants them back. But A.A. Milne gave them to his editor, who happened to be American, and the NYPL is keeping them. But old stuffed animals compared to a 6-foot ancient statue and parts of ancient government buildings and temples?

Anyway, the museum objets are ancient and priceless and very carefully and lovingly preserved and displayed. The museum itself is a marvel with its windowed facade looking directly up at the Acropolis, so you can imagine the friezes and statues in their intended context. Plus it's air-conditioned, which must be a relief for the tourists in June, July, and August.

We did some souvenir shopping; Emmett is very keen on Poseidon, so he got a little statue of the water god, and Isabella got some worry beads (no comment necessary), but we found that the shopkeepers did not like us touching the wares, even super cheap kitschy things. We got yelled at twice. We also suspect that Greeks do not think of chicken as meat. Clare the vegetarian twice ordered vegetarian pasta and got, both times, a concotion with bits of chicken. This after we urged them to double-check and noted the dish had to be vego. Conclusion: chicken is not meat in Greece. John B., is this true?

We ended up back at the hotel in the late afternoon and watched the sun set behind those huge and glorious Doric columns. Tomorrow is an early rise as we take the boat to Santorini and live for 4 days on a volcano!

Munching in Munchen

It's the first day of Oktoberfest here in Munich, not that we knew or planned for it. This explains the traditional dress on all the Austrians and Germans and now on tourists (not us). The Germans call the drunken Oktoberfest tourists beer-corpses, and we saw one last night at dinner, completely passed out at the table. Philip rode up on the elevator with some guy who smelled really funky and did not know where he was, and then later he saw 4 men in kilts and rugby shirts headed for the beer tents. Fun times.

You have to give the Germans credit, though, for their environmentalism. Solar panels are everywhere--on barns, on houses, in cities, in the country. Americans tend to think it's too cold in the Northeast for panels, but not so--it's already pretty chilly here, and those panels are obviously worth it. The top photo here shows you the typical house in the countryside of Germany--house with barn attached and those awesome photo-voltaics.

Clare and Philip left at the crack of dawn for the world's largest science museum (the Louvre of science museums)! Isabella, Emmett, and I are hanging out in the hotel using the high speed internet (yay!) and packing. We're down to 3 suitcases, having sent several more boxes on to Australia. Shouldn't need much in Greece. Second photo is of Clare in the museum of her dreams...

The Hills Are Alive . . .

. . . in the town of Saltzburg (la la la la). Took in the city via horse-drawn carriage (driven by the crustiest, most incomprehensible Austrian man), walked by Mozart's haunts (birthplace, family home, favorite cafe), shopped for Isabella (who cannot live another day with her clothes), and then ascended the funicular to the medieval fortress. Everything looks familiar from The Movie--the convent, the cathedral, fountains, etc..., and strangely lots of people wear traditional Austrian garb. We kept thinking there was a parade or some sort of costume requirement for work, but no--some people really wear the dirndl and lederhosen. Okaaay. The city is addicted to caffeine--not only Viennese coffee but also Red Bull (whose inventor hails from Salzburg). The weather here has been a little crummy--something new for us. In the whole 7 weeks of travel, we haven't had a real rainout. Some isolated showers (in London and Florence) and maybe a day of drizzle (in Scotland), but nothing to keep us idle. Here, it's dreary and a bit cold. Must almost be time to go South again!

Schlossing in Bavaria

Took in King Ludwig's pads (top one, a 19th c rebuild on medieval ruins; the other a 19-c. attempt to out-do all other castles and inspire Walt Disney)--and his obsession with the Middle Ages and Wagnerian Opera. Autumn is in the air--the trees are changing but the flowers are still blooming. Ended the day in Salzburg, Austria where we hope to learn something about Mozart and sing "Do Re Mi". Passing the mountain of Hitler's Eagle's Nest raised the hairs on the back of my neck.