On the home straight...

It has been nearly a week since my last posting (St Peter's almost made me want to convert...) . Almost all my (meager) online time has been spent trying to get home. Our agent in NZ has been doing battle on our behalf with both Lufthansa and Air NZ to get us back the seats that were cancelled by mistake. We had duplicate seats held by a nice Lufthansa agent in Nuremberg who was trying to help with a flight change (but actually couldn't from her end), which caused a bit of a system problem and our seats to disappear on our (now oversold) flight out of Shanghai. However, we will get home - still to be confirmed whether it will be via Tokyo or Shanghai. Flight Centre has fronted up with tickets Pusan-Tokyo in case we need them, so yay for that.

Anyway...not interesting, but has taken a lot of time and energy to sort out the options across the world and between time zones. Luckily the internet cafes in Rome were excellent, and even smoke free. That has been fantastic these last two weeks - hitting Paris on January 2nd, going to have dinner and realising all of a sudden that NO-ONE was smoking! We didn't have to rush through our dinner as everyone around us lit up as soon as they finished! Yay.

So. we had a lovely 5 days in Rome. We really did and saw a lot. Hen walked around 5 kms most days, fuelled by excellent pizza and gelato. Oh yes, and just a sip of the best coffee in Rome, at St Eustachio Cafe. Soooooooooooooo good, I reckon they may have a secret ingredient.

We saw so many cool things - when I have more time I will add more and links too. Our accommodation was wonderfl. A little out of Rome proper, but so peaceful and lovely friendly people. Self-catering is so much easier with little people too, evening s at home. We were sad to leave.


Yesterday we arrived in Shanghai - all was ok despite no visas, as we have ongoing tickets to Korea (today). We didn't have the time or energy (those all night flights - seem like such a good idea but C and I can never really sleep) to go far from our hotel (which is excellent - another very good deal through expedia.com). We did manage a great meal which, with beer, cost 20 NZD for many dishes - incredible. Managed to restrain myself from ordering fried pig tails, various stuffed tripey things and sliced snake heads, much to Hen's disappointment. They all ate little hairy-looking cold fried fish as a starter - rugged stomachs, this family!

It is spectacular here. The skyline, the efficiency at the airport, the range of amazing food and, I expect, shopping. It feels safe and pretty friendly, and we have provided much entertainment for the locals with our little blonde children - they are like rock stars here, it is very funny. Ok - now for a couple of pics as we must go off to breakfast before getting back on the maglev to the airport (400kph!!!)


: )

Rome is fabulous

We love it here. Will do a more detailed update when I am properly back online (internet cafes only right now as we are not online at our lovely accommodation).

Mild temperatures, extraordinary buildings, friendly and great food. As in most places we've been, but with the pantheon and coliseum thrown in!

Henry is even happy to run all day with some gelato and pizza to fuel him, so we are all sleeping like logs.

Only slight blight is the remaining issue with flights back home, as some complex and unintended things have happened with our tickets, but I have faith that it will all work out in the end. It has to. We are going to see/hear the Pope speak on Sunday, so maybe that will help...I will take all the assistance I can get at this point!

Ciao x

Pretty, pretty Paris

No matter that it is cold and grey, this is such a pretty old town. We spent ALL DAY (well, from 12 til 9) driving here yesterday and most of this morning bickering over driving directions and other silly things, but even so we managed to have a lovely time foux-de-fa-fa-ing around today.

We managed to tick off:

• the metro (duhh)
• the Eiffel Tower - great excitement from Hen, who has a real affection for it (at 6). Who knew?
• the Musee du Quai Branly, which is dedicated to the 'first arts' of asia, the americas and oceania
  
• mooching along beside the Seine
• crepe au chocilat (one between four was actually enough - yum!)
  
• Notre Dame all lit up and pretty-like with a gorgeous christmas tree - as above
  
• the Centre Pompidou and
• groovy ice skating outside the Palais de Justice (not participating, sadly, just a wee bit too late in the day for small people at their limits)

And we made it back to our hotel in one piece and married. Hallelujah. We changed hotels this morning as I was so incensed with the extraordinarily rude service on arrival last night where we had originally booked. It is a chain we have used in Germany and France several times, but we have never on this trip (except perhaps the Chinese Embassy in London, but let's not go there...) had such patronising customer service. And yes, I have given formal feedback that will make a difference - well it made me feel better anyway.

So now we are at our nice Novotel for an excellent online rate including breakfast, a short metro ride from the centre of Paris.

It can be v difficult and expensive to find quad/family rooms in Europe, with many hotels only allowing one child per room, so Novotels with their 'kids stay free" family rooms can be an excellent fallback option. Tip for the day. Sadly parking is 20 euro a day, but that is just part of being here.

Tomorrow the Louvre and other touristy things. Thank goodness for off season.

x

Presque Paris

Well, after a quick stop back in Furth to say hello to our lovely friends (who have been struck by lurgies, as has Bella - much snot and congestion - poor!) we are back on the road again, this time to Paris. I have only ever spent 7 hours there, so this time will at least have two whole days...luxury.

We are at the last truck stop before France, on the German border, so it is wiedersehen to wurst and bonjour again to la vie francaise. Only 5 more hours til Paris! Luckily the little people are excellent travellers by now, and pretty good at both sleeping and entertaining themselves in the car.

BTW Fifteen trattoria was one of my best restaurant experiences ever - Jamie Oliver really knows what he's doing, great staff and atmosphere, as well as v yummy food. Thanks Catherine and Marc for a fantastic evening - I felt almost young again!

London part III

Look at my sweet niece and her fabulous parents. So, so cute. Gwen and Graham have most kindly put me up on this funny little side-trip. I miss my babies terribly, but at least I can cuddle Honor!

We had a lovely vege feast last night at home with a very nice friend of Graham's Michael Maloney - you may hav eseen him as Cassius in Empire - lovely man). Tonight I am having an early dinner with my friend Catherine and her partner Mark at Jamie Oliver's restaurant fifteen. Great excitement! This morning Gwen and I went out for brunch and explored the local shops. Boy do I love British bookshops - they are the best (especially after being out of english-language countries for nearly 4 months). I am being very restrained and have only bought some clothes for the children so far. And a few books (for Conrad, of course).

Off to the Tate Modern now, to hang out with the groovy arty types. I'm sure I'll fit right in...

[PS - had a great squizz at Picasso, Miro, Giacommetti, Magritte...and many others. A cornucopia of coolness. Then when I was leaving I thought I would get a pic of myself with the spider. Little did I realise I ended up with it seemingly perched on my head!!! I do look suitably alarmed though. Maybe that is just my natural state. *sigh*]

London calling

Ok, I am now in London and not crying (but still looking tired and puffy - could this just be age creeping up??). *Sigh*


This is a relatively good day, then. After many phone calls and emails across the globe overnight (mostly done by Conrad this time - a role swap!), it looks like we can officially go through China after all, without visas. We will transit only (max 48 hours at a time), which means we will miss meeting up with Andreas, who has scheduled himself specially to fly in and meet us. But at least we can complete our trip (which cannot be re-routed on the fare we have).

What a mission. And what a disappointment to have such an appalling experience with the various Chinese embassies. I have letters to write, but will not send them until we have safely transited through the lovely People's Republic...very good advice from my dad -you just never know who's watching.

It is so cute to see my wee niece Honor all walking and, it seems like, almost talking. She was only 9 months old in August when we last saw her in LA, and has grown so much. She is a delight. I will take some pics and add later. Right now I am off to have lunch with my old friend from Otago/Carrington days, Catherine McCloy. I last saw her back in 97 for dinner as I was leaving London after a 2 week nannying stint in Phuket. A flying visit! It will be excellent to catch up : )

Tate Modern tomorrow, I think.

BTW - those post christmas sale shoppers on Oxford St are brutal! Like the Kirks sale crowd on P. Fierce.

One large step back for NZ-Chinese relations...

So here I am in sunny (hahaha) London, to get Chinese visas. I had been assured by the nice Chinese man at the embassy here that there would be no problem, that I could do it for all my family, blah blah blah. However, I should have been concerned at this point, as I had already been assured by the Chinese embassy in NZ that I could get them in Germany - wrong again.

So I fly over to London from Nuremberg, spend 1.5 hours delayed on the plane in Zurich for de-icing, spend 2 hours and many pounds getting here from Heathrow in the dark, by myself, only to be told this morning that they will not issue visas for the children because they don't have UK entry stamps! Well they wouldn't, as they are NOT HERE! No amount of explaining or even crying would melt the lady's heart. She was adamant that "if you want to come into our country you must follow our rules". Aaargh! Our tickets are booked back to NZ via Shanghai - it is not changeable! So now I am trying to change our v expensive Shanghai-Korea-Shanghai flights to ensure we are not in China for more than 48 hours at either end. More money haemorrhaging out for no good reason. Very irritating.

It does amaze me that while NZ tries to negotiate a free trade agreement with China our citizens are treated like evil overstayers when trying to visit for tourism purposes,. Surely a little inconsistent.

So I cried (embarrassing but unavoidable) and I was really so angry, though I didn't actually lose my temper, just an incredulous raised voice explaining the problem we now have, despite advice from the embassy at home that it would all be fine.

The injustice! I feel some letter-writing coming on. I mean surely not everyone who wants to visit China is in their home country when they need their visas? Crazy system.

I am in Starbucks Piccadilly so I can get online and make yet more changes to reservations. Hrmph. Lots of post Christmas sales here, and I get to see Gwen, Graham and Honor, so those are the upsides. Fingers crossed that this is fixable.