PRAGUE
Paul and I also had a trip to Prague in late June for the weekend to meet up with Stephen (brother) and Wendy, Caitlin and Regan who were there. We flew in on the Friday and met up with them for dinner at a fabulous place Steve had found during the day serving traditional Czech stuff!
We were lucky enough on check in to be upgraded to the presidential suite which was gorgeous! Very different to the 9 Muses Suite in Santorini.
It was lovely to see the family again and especially since it had been 2 years since I had seen Stephen and also 2yrs since spending time with Wendy, Cait and Regan as it was a bit “busy” at the wedding to stop and chat too long!
We called it an early night that night as next morning we were off on one of Stephen’s sightseeing expeditions. It resembles something off a cross between National Lapoons Vacation antics and where’s Wally combined. All done on foot and which so many funny moments it was brilliant.
Steve gets all the brochures and then proceeds to wander all over Prague giving the audience (us) a tour commentary from the guides and pamphlets. You have to keep your eye on him though as every so often he just disappears and you have to seek him out as he has wandered off somewhere in the crowd to look at something (where’s Wally)….you just look to spot the Akubra hat and chase it down! The children were great in playing the whole role of telling Steve how uncool he was and rolling the eyes at some of his suggestions of what is really interesting! Some points they had just had enough, like in photo below.
See photo #83 Coffee shop Duffy’s
See photos # 48, 52 Crossing the bridge on our tour and statue +church in next photo on our tour
After a full day of seeing churches, castles, changing of the guards, bridges, villages and lunch in the middle we made our way back to the hotel for an hours rest before dinner!
This was actually the next stage after starting swimming at 20weeks to getting myself fitter. We walked kms after kms that day, my little legs were screaming for mercy! Paul was sooooo funny looking at me everytime there were steep hills or steps I think he was wondering if he was going to have to carry me!
See photo 55 Caitlin, Corrine and Wendy at fountain steps in royal building
Dinners each night were great, we ate like Kings and never really stopped catching up talking!
Next day we met up with Regan and Steve for milkshakes and a spot of Czech shopping and cross off some Christmas present purchases before we had to leave for our plane!
The Duffy family then came to Königstein with us for one week Steve and Regan and 3 weeks Cait and Wendy. It was a great time and we got to show our little village, dinners, BBQs etc.
See photo 85 Dinner at Kempinski’s in Königstein Steve, Wendy and Paul
Greece
The holiday of steps and heat! We flew off on Sunday and landed some time later in sunny Athens. We were met at the airport by Attika travel company and sent on our way via taxi to the centre of Athens to our hotel which was lovely. We arrived very late so it was straight off to bed.
Next morning we selected our tours and booked in for those in the afternoon and following morning. Next stop downtown Athens shops – not a whole lot happening there but Paul found a fantastic Chess set for Eric which we then carried all over Greece!
See photo # 101 Paul at the square in Athens
Then we had a tour which found us on a bus driving along the coast to the ruins of a temple from 2000yrs BC. It was set up right on a cliff overlooking the AegeanOcean.
See photo 107 Spunky Paul at the Athina ruins on the Aegean sea cliff
Back on the bus for the trip home. Paul was dying for a seafood dinner fix for the holiday and found the best seafood restaurants and we were off for seafood dinner. We found that at this restaurant right on the bay was basically whole fish and/or lobster grilled and served with olive oil and lemon. No oysters or prawns or sauces such as mornay, Kilpatrick etc but not to worry we enjoyed the traditional grilled seafood served with Lemon and oil.
See photo #161 Paul with his seafood platter
Off home where I crashed out and Paul retired to the roof top bar and pool area for a nightcap overlooking Greece and the Acropolis lit up at night – he said he just sat there thinking “how lucky am I “…..
Next morning we were off early in the bus to the Acropolis, site the first Olympics were held at, old temple ruins, official Government buildings and ruins all around the city.
See photo #115 Paul at original Olympic site in Athens
The Acropolis was also set high on the hills with fantastic views in all directions which is just what you see on the pictures and postcards: white houses as far as you can see all on top of each other. Greece has 10M people and 5M of these live in Athens which was only suppose to be home to 500,000 so it is very crowded and traffic a nightmare!
We finally made it to the top of the hill (stairs galore) in 35C heat and blustery winds to see all the ruins, museums etc. It was a great place to see and just amazing to think of the age of these buildings.
See photo 126 Paul at the top of Acropolis overlooking Athens
# 128 Corrine and Paul looking at the main temple of the Acropolis
The ampitheatre is still used to today and had hosted a concert just the night before. You can see man in red suit right way below cleaning up – easy job just hosed out the concrete seating!
See #133 Ampitheatre you can see man in red overalls cleaning up from concert held there the night before.
We then went back to town for lunch and then to the hotel for swimming and sun all afternoon. Paul went off to the gym whilst I happily floated around the pool looking out over the whole of Athens. We again went off to the seafood bay again to try another restaurant – again grilled fish but very nice, they informed us they do not serve mornay or Kilpatrick or oysters, prawns at all…..Paul was a little disappointed with that news…..
Next day we packed up and were picked up and flown to SantoriniIsland.
We finally arrived 4pm and were again escorted to our 4 star hotel – “9 Muses”. We were very much looking forward to settling into our luxury resort for a week and really relaxing, swimming and reading with the occasional venture out to see the sights of the island.
As we drove the 20mins in the taxi to the hotel we really did not see much except very dry and barren land as it is a volcanic formed island - a little different to our luscious green Islands in North Queensland. Think of HamiltonIsland crossed with Ayers Rock minus the brilliant red colouring of the Australian centre, minus the golden sandy beaches replaced instead with black volcanic rock and there you have it. The water is lovely and blue and very clear, but no waves to be seen.
We pulled up outside a low lying resort with our luggage where we were deposited, no one came out to help so Paul loaded up with the two suitcases and I with the rest of the small bags and marched up into our “paradise’s” reception.
When we walked in it was very old and very quiet, you should picture the foyer entry of the hotel on the show FaultyTowers and like the show no staff to be seen on arrival, ringing of the bell instead. Then one lady came out and greeted us and proceeded to check us in – your in a suite (we had upgraded to this at the last minute to spoil ourselves) for 7 days, we need a deposit of €5 per towel and you can exchange this once a day at reception, you have a safe in your room but that will be a charge of €2.50/day or €15/week if you want to use this, breakfast is served between 8am-9.30am and dinner between 7.30-9.30pm, could I have your passports please and these will be returned to you later. Now let me show you to your room and that was that as we were handed one key.
No one else came to assist with luggage so off Paul goes again like Manuel on FaultyTowers loaded with luggage up and down the steps. At this point Paul and I had not made eye contact and I am trying to keep an open mind with first impressions being very poor. As we walked out of reception past the pool area I noted the pool looked green in colour and there was NO-ONE laying beside it, it was dead silent like a ghost town.
When we checked out finally tour company informed us the filter was broken down and they were waiting for parts, nice of them to tell guests their pool may not be clean or safe!
We continued to follow the lady to our “Suite” and she lets us in through the door and wishes us a nice stay. As I step into the room which was I guess the “living area” I mentally note, stone floor and two stone steps with a mattress on each similar to that on a cheap fold up bed in Australia, small TV on a cupboard. We walk through a small hall which has a wardrobe and the bathroom. Bathroom, no shower, built in the 60-70s I think and not touched since, big sign above toilet saying do not flush toilet paper please place it in the bin beside the toilet…….
See photo # 142 “Suite bathroom”
Then into the master suite bedroom which is two twin beds and a chest of draws – open French doors at the back to find overgrown courtyard 1m x 1m with view to nothing except overgrown bushes.
Paul and I still keeping upbeat and open minded unpack everything got changed and headed to the pool area. As we walk past the pool to choose chairs we notice the pool is truly green, you cannot see the bottom!!!!! Then there is a smaller kids pool which is blue but has scum all around the tiles which can be seen at 20 paces – we both sit down to take it in in the deafening silence……
Then Paul decides he will have a beer so wanders over to a canteen like “pool bar” where a boy is serving a mother two ice-creams, he asks Paul what he wants and then says ok but I am a bit busy at the moment, Paul says no worries and just walks to around the pool area and back to his chair which is 15ft from the “pool bar”. He turns to me and says “you should not swim in that pool, it is green for all the wrong reasons and we are not staying here”. I breathed a huge sigh of relief and we start to work out a plan. I then feel awful for Paul and decide to go and get the beer he wanted from the “pool bar” man only to be informed by him, “sorry madame the bar is now closed”. WHAT????? I ask him, why did you not bring the beer my husband had ordered but could not have as you had said you were busy? He then went off inside the main building somewhere came back with a beer and proceeded to tell Paul he did not advise him he was too busy…….
Paul and I then sat there in shocked silence, taking this wonderful service and sight of the pool area in…..Paul then decided to get the camera and capture this moment while I put in a phone call to the Attika Tour company advising them of our dissatisfaction and at that same time calling and asking Jenn and Dave in Germany to get on the net and find us another hotel. Attika advised they were too busy to see us today but would be there first thing in the morning to see us, we agreed to stay the one night. We were in for another treat when we saw the food, again picture Faulty Towers service and preparation of the food, still all done in mostly silence despite the 10 German guests that were in the dinning room also all quiet, a buffet which left little to be thankful for. We also had more discoveries after dinnerrwhen we found the TV did not work, mini bar empty, no hot water!!!!! So we called it a day early and escaped into sleep in our single beds and one pillow each (not good for pregnant women).
See #147 Green pool, the reflection gives false illusion of looking better than it did, in real life it was cloudy and not reflective just GREEN.
We were up and adam early the next morning and down waiting in reception for the Attika rep the minute she arrived. She spoke only a little English and advised us they could move us to another room, the pool should not be a problem and there was nothing she could do really and just sighed alot…….Ha not likely – in the true style of my mother I clearly stated I would not stay here and she should contact her boss. She did do this and the boss started again over the phone with changing rooms etc but again I stated we would not stay here this is not what we booked, end result was she came and picked Paul and I up to take us to see other hotels, still in the Attika catalogue. Some a little better than where we were but not our picturesque GreekIsland holiday so we (I) also insisted she show us the 5 star hotel Dave had found on the net! Of course the 5 star 3mth old hotel was completely in a different playing field to all the ones Attika had shown us and we were not settling for anything less. So after many phone calls and a delta of €440 we were settled in our brand new hotel, views in 360 direction, blue and gorgeous pool, fantastic pool bar that served chocolate milkshakes and fruit non-alcoholic cocktails for me, rooms with flushing toilets and showers, hot water, cable television, fans, aircon etc etc. we were again happy. We were also walking distance to Fira the capital!
New blue pool, blue sky and happy hunky husband! Pool towels which did not require a deposit of €5 each or a limit of one per day.
See #153 Paul and our new pool – BLUE!
So Paul and I went out for dinner and toasted (me with OJ) our successful day and focused on now settling into our fabulous Greek Island Holiday.
See #192 Dinner and sunset Corrine
We hired a SMART car the next day and spent the mornings exploring the Island and its sites, the afternoons by the pool, the late afternoon with Paul in the gym whilst I laid by the pool or in the room, busy growing the baby and reading a book!
Each evening we went off for an early dinner and wander around the 100s of jewelers and tourist shops in Fira, the walk there being a daily affair for me to keep in shape with more steps……
One of the days we went on a tour to the ruins on top of the island of the village from 3000 BC, it was set on the very top of a hill and you could either catch a donkey up or mini-bus halfway then walked the rest. I was all for the donkey but Paul could not be convinced despite my convincing argument that the virgin Mary had ridden on a donkey at 9mths pregnancy with no problem…….I am not sure if he was worried about my safety or how to get me on to the donkey or feeling sorry for the donkey soooooo we went up on the mini-bus.
When we got to half way up it was blowing a gale and as I looked up the hill where I had to climb and actually started to wonder if I would be able to get there as I could not see the top but alas off we went to try….I tried to watch the people coming down to guage their faces on the difficulty of the climb, it was steep and many stairs but I MADE IT!
We then wandered around took photos and started to make our way down again – this time the faces were hilarious on the way up as they would look pained then see me and a huge smile would result on their faces obviously reassuring them they could make it if I could! One group gave me a round of applause ha! We then returned to the hotel where I flaked by the pool for the rest of the day until dinner.
View back down the ruins you can see the tree in the background is permanently sidewards due to the strong winds always present up there.
See # 177 View with the permanently bent tree from the winds
View from three quarters of the way up, see how barren the land was, also see black sand. Whitewash is where the ocean hits the volcanic rock shelf – don’t mistake it for surf!
See #178
Every day was blue sky and blue waters, some windy days, but did not interfere with us too much. We settled into our routine and spent many evenings having dinner, Paul seafood and me a banana split or fruit salad looking at the sunset. Dinner was an early affair since Tarzjane decided to move into the space previously occupied by my stomach. This certainly prevents any over eating, late eating or spicy eating. I also don’t mind the marvelous sweet tooth I have for desserts during this pregnancy as well as chocolate. We found on the holiday that people absolutely stared at me as a pregnant person, I concluded it must be because I look ready to deliver, Paul’s view is it is because I am glowing! Too sweet! Finally we were relaxed and had unwound and were actually ready to come home…..
On the last morning we were up early packed and picked up for the airport on time at 830am. We checked in and then as it is such a small airport we managed to find me a seat with a small table beside which Paul sat on, we waited for our boarding call and waited and waited and waited. Finally 10 mins after we should have left at 10am they announced there was a technical problem and the next update would be 30mins. We were ok with this as we had a 3hr wait in Athens before a connecting flight to Frankfurt. After 1.5hrs we had not heard anything, Paul went to see the airline counter and they advised that yes there was a problem, plane was now on its way from Anthens (30min flight) and all connecting flights had been addressed. I called Attika rep again to let them know what had happened as our connecting flight was not with the same airline and I wanted to confirm all was organized. Again the junior rep arrived and informed us that the flight had not left Athens yet to come and get us and we would miss our connecting flight. She called head office and then informed me that we should go back to the hotel, pay for a room for the day, come back at 9pm tonight to see if we could get on the flight to Hamburg where we could then go to the train station at midnight and try and get a train home……You can imagine my reaction to this….calmly I told her that I did not pay x euros to spend 24hrs hopping my way home by trains, planes and automobiles whilst 7mths pregnant and she could ring her head office and tell them that. She looked surprised and could not believe it, she said there was no choices and we should do this. I simply told her she should get the owner of Attika on the phone for me which shocked her to the core, she made more phone calls then informed me the owner was on holidays and I could not talk to anyone.
Meanwhile after 1.5hrs the plane has arrived all passengers are boarding and I still do not have a confirmed flight from Athens to Frankfurt and no solution, Attika still advising we should stay put in Santorini until the night flight to Hamburg, the airline telling me if I did not get on the plane then we would be left behind…..with 4 people around me all talking at me with no solutions finally I lost it and had a pregnancy meltdown, tears, yelling the whole lot….. Paul then stepped in and ushered us on to the plane and told Attika to have a solution waiting when we got to Athens, I cried half the trip to Athens with fury.
When we got to Athens, now 2.30pm we had phone messages left saying someone from Attika would come and meet us, we should go to the Olympia counter to pick up tickets for our 3.30pm flight. What we weren’t told is that the flight was overbooked by 7 and we were holding weight list tickets to see if we may get on……we did not!
Instead we were informed all airlines were completely booked and that we would have to stay in a hotel they found for us 45kms out of Athens and come back tomorrow to try our luck there. We arrived at a not so bad hotel on the coast at around 5.30pm where I simply laid on my bed and read for an hour or so and Paul disappeared to have a few beers and call a friend to tell him of our day.
We were then advised later that night we would be picked up at 5am to go back to the airport and hopefully get on the 0830am flight to Frankfurt…..we did all of this and alas arrived home happily by 11am the next day, I have never been so happy to come home from holidays! Paul then was game enough to tell me he had to pay for the additional tickets to get us home and he was not launching his letter and claim to Attika to be reimbursed so we shall see!
So there is our trip to Greece…..some fond memories and some nightmares from hell stories. What we learnt is that Attika is a low budget German focused holiday inbound travel agent which we would not travel again with or recommend to anyone we know!
Paul has decided next time he will arrange all the travel plans ourselves without the aid of a travel agent……
HOME AGAIN
Weather in Germany is starting to cool but is still nice Autumn weather with blue skies and crisp mornings!
VISITORS
We have also had a few drop in fleeting visits.
Firstly Neil came for 24hrs on the way home from a business trip to the US. We had a BBQ with neighbours, (Vibeka and Josphine, Valdamar and Little Josephine all joined -good friends from over the back yard but Alan was away in Italy) Eric back for this one!
See photo #68
Then we had Chris here for a few days for work in IBM. So again a dinner was called for where you will see Jacqui (Eric was in Denmark), Jenn and Dave Dunstan…..
See photo #80
We also introduced more of our neighbours to the spirit of a Dutch Fondue – great night had by all.
See photo #196
All the neighbours have been fantastic to me during my pregnancy offering support and compliments whenever it all seemed a pain in the butt or I felt homesick for you all.
We are really lucky where we live that it is so international and everyone knows everyone and is very social! This is our dining room which the double doors open show our outdoor setting and the back doors of the house behind us which will give you some indication of how close we all live together – lets just say there is no walking around your living area nude or the whole neighbourhood would see and know!
PREGNANCY
Well the upside of the holiday was that I came home sporting a lovely tanned belly and rest of me, I had walked so much and climbed so many stairs that all the weight I put on was balanced by the loss of weight from other parts so only my belly grew an inch but he scales did not move. All banana splits, ice-creams and fruit salad/icecreams were all counter-balanced by exercise so feeling great and slimmer than ever despite the basketball in my tummy.
See photo #171 Corrine and her beloved dinners on SantoriniIsland!
We are now up to week 35 on Monday and it is getting to the exciting and more real end. We have completed the challenging task of selecting cot, bassinet, wardrobe, change table, pram and car capsule – all outrageously expensive and far too many choices. When communicating the price of the pram with Paul’s Dad the response came back via email – Does the pram have a navigator and air-conditioning on board for that price??????
We started pre-natal classes week before last, a series of 6 but we missed the first one so only 3 to go. We have a very international class with couples from Ireland, Scotland, London, Russia, Denmark, Australia (us), India and two others I can’t remember! Incredible! The due dates stretch from ours being the first one (YIPPEEEE) right through to some in February so it at least gave me a chance to see other pregnant women, how they looked and how they were going…. Paul looks for any chance to poke fun at the process and I am sure is only coming along to humour me! The facilitator is not a nurse and does not speak great English so I found myself feeling in a lot of the blanks for her in naming bones and muscles for her and translating questions others had! Have decided it is something to look into next year running an English pre-natal class and advice helpline for non-German speaking people – it appears the demand is high and facilities are low so will put that one on the thought burner until next year!
The girls in my class think I am outrageous as I am the one to ask all the forbidden questions to the natural, drug free, positive experience instructor like:-
When is the latest opportunity you can request an epidural?
Why don’t hospitals in Germany have Gas when the rest of the world does?
Since this is going to REALLY hurt what alternatives are their for pain relief throughout the labour?
They all fall about laughing as the instructor always ends at the same answer……it is the best for all if you can do without any pain relief, the body will give you natural endorphins but of course if you do need them you can ask but hopefully we will show you how to breathe and use your body naturally without any drugs! HA!
Hospital is now all booked and is the best one we felt comfortable but still no gas and very focused on natural drug free births, hmmmmmmm! I have requested from Mum and sister who are coming over to pack a cylinder of Nitrous Oxide. Hospital is only 10mins from home so should be quite convenient!
Baby is very big now and moves quite strongly often taking me by surprise! Looking forward to the growth slowing a little in the last 4 weeks and have decided if I do this again that I need to grow another 8 inches to give some more room in there. As a compromise the baby has taken over the bladder, intestines and stomach allocated spaces and pretty much rules the roost in there. We eat early and walk for an hour or so after dinner to allow some digestion so sleep can occur.
Paul tells me that even if he decided to be affectionate he would have not chance of getting near me in bed…..This would be due to the fact that I have found many great solutions to assist with sleeping….
1. Bed slats sit up like a hospital bed so I sleep at 45 degree head lifted angle,
2. I have pillows on all sides, around back, knees shoulders and two under head so this is what Paul calls my security wall protecting me from anyone who wants to get in a 1m range of me!
3. A fan which keeps me cool all night with the constant pregnancy temperature being set internally at warm or hot! Paul has to wear thermals to bed but I am very comfortable!
4. Tigerbalm and heat packs for my throbbing knees which scream at me when I go to bed about the enormous pressure they are feeling currently.
Soooo we are all well, baby continues to grow madly and run marathons internally, Doctors visits are now fortnightly and I have 1 weeks of work to go! It is getting very exciting and I hope that the weeks continue to race by as they have since end of August! Work is fine, my replacement started 1st September and so doing special assignments with a very understanding boss and peers support!
Soooo let the main event roll on in! I will write again when I finish work! We have two other ladies ahead of me in the street, one due this week (now had a baby girl on Friday) and one early November so I anxiously wait their arrivals so I know it is my turn next. I tell the baby every day that it should arrive anytime from November 13th when my sister arrives and that a fast intense labour is the winning goal! Working hard on mind over matter!
For the surprisingly “sick and sadistic friends” who keep asking for a photo of me pregnant here is the only shots I intend to share. Two things make me laugh about pregnancy (not much else is a laughing matter I tell you)
1. That people think your tummy becomes public petting property and
2. That when you are at your fattest you will ever be in normal life NO-ONE would think to request a photo of you, but when you are at your fattest due to pregnancy all think it is suddenly ok to request said photos! Too funny, so here you sadist go, here are the shots taken two weeks ago on vacation at our second hotel beautiful blue pool!
Photos #184 and 190 Corrine by the BLUE pool……
Just in case I continue to balloon I have completed all of my Christmas shopping this year and also all birthdays for 2005…..feeling very prepared and look forward to final soft furnishing shopping in October when I finish work…..
Paul has been on a 4 mth fitness kick and is now looking fantastic, I tell him I will chase him down the fitness, weight loss path in December getting ready for our next trip back to Australia to introduce our new baby!
We hope this email finds you all well and you enjoy our updates and photos. Thanks to those who keep sending us updates and emails of news we love it! So keep them coming!
All our love
Paul, Corrine and the very prominent bump!
PS I think Paul is starting to think it is very close now as he has asked me to put a “to do” list up with phone numbers and instructions just incase our baby decides to come early! I could be that lucky…….
PPS Next edition will cover our trip to the Frankfurt Car show, English cinema in Frankfurt, Paul’s birthday, me finishing work and anything else that pops up so stay tuned!!!!!!