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+
Monday, October 11, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
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.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
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...
Monday, October 4, 2010
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!
http://dogoodrighthere.org/campaigns/96
You have 10 days to vote and spread the word. She really really really deserves this!
Sunday, October 3, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
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!
Friday, October 1, 2010
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.
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.
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