Monday 16 June 2014

Travels

The last two decades have been a great time of travel for me and mine.
We had a number of lovely holidays, principally at our beach house at Port Elliot.
WE began to experience what was called the "Flah" effect.
This involved driving from Adelaide about 75 kms. You then saw the Southern Ocean, or the delta of the Murray River....and started to travel downhill towards Victor Harbor and Port Elliot.
You could feel yourself go "Flah!"  This was not the exhalation of air but the release of anxiety.   "I have left behind me my mediocre life, and can have a few hours off"
In the first few months this didn't work. I used to get more and more anxious the closer I approached Port Elliot.
I came to understand that it was not the destination that was the problem, but the return. I deeply resented that as I drew closer to PE   it also meant I was going to have to come back!
How weird was that!
Gradually I became used to the fact that it was good to go away....and (possibly) good to go back.
I really loved long Januaries at Port Elliot with whoever, but particularly my children and my parents in law!
We had a lot of holidays in Bali. Some more bizarre than others.
How fortunate are Australians to live so close to this golden isle of Indonesia!
We really liked the exotica, the tropicalia, and just the general fun of Bali.
Some of us even thought shopping was quite a lot of  fun. Not me! but some of us.

Sue and I went to Europe in 2007. It was indeed a final fling. We went to Rome: the Trevi Fountain, the Coliseo, the Vatican Museum ...and to Paris; the Rodin Museum, the Picasso Collection, the Musee d'Orsay....and most most of all the wonderful Monets at L'Orangerie.
We sat on the steps of Sacre Coeur at night time and went to Mass at 10 p.m. at night!
Brecon Cathedral
We ate our way through the boulangerie on the Rue de St Anne, and sailed up and down the Seine.
Sue panicked at the top of the Eiffel Tower, but loved Euro disney.
We caught the train from Paris to Londres and saw some wonderful shows...Wicked, The Drowsy Chaperone, Americans in Paris, .... the Portrait Gallery, the Crown Jewels and so much more.
We accidentally came across the Brecon Beacons and the wonderful St David's cathedral in Brecon. A town apparently on the road to nowhere.
The Church has been there for a thousand years or more.
An exquisite monument. I suspect neglected by most of the historophiles

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