Wood WalkAbout

WELCOME TO THE WOOD FAMILY'S 2009 TRAVEL BLOG
" WOOD WALK-ABOUT!"


(Scroll down to December first, as we will be adding from the top in future monthly updates.)

JANUARY

LONDON (-2 to 6 deg. C ) CANADA - (-10 TO -2 deg. C)

Sad to leave Melanie and Johnny and their wonderful hospitality, we headed off for central London. Unfortunately, London was experiencing it's coldest winter in 12 years. The fountains at Trafalgar Square were frozen. We were staying for three weeks, so were looking forward to unpacking our bags and cooking for ourselves for the first time since leaving home. Our apartment, whilst fantastically located, took a bit of getting used to. It was a cross between "George and Mildred" and "The Diary of Anne Frank." Despite this we were a 200m walk to Trafalgar Square and loads of attractions, so we quickly made it home. We had two tiny bedrooms, (one with all three kids taking up every inch of flooring,) a bathroom and a small "living" room which consisted of a small kitchenette, a couch, tv, table & chairs. In this room we, cooked, ate, did school work, used the computer and watched TV. It was pretty cosy to say the least giving us an added incentive to get out & sight see, and sight see we did after doing the obligatory school work each morning. We visited: Buckingham Palace, The National Gallery, The British Museum, Madam Tusard's Wax Works Museum, The Museum of National History (including ice-skating out front,) The Tower of London, The Movieum, the Greenwich Meridian, The London Eye, Picaddily Circus, and shopping at Oxford and Regent streets, Hamley's Toys & Harrod's where Julie and the girls came face to face with the owner, Mohammed El Fied, (Dodie's dad.) We also went to a matinee performances for both Joseph's Technicolour Dreamcoat & The Lion King, which was a real treat for us all!

On The Strand

Buckingham Palace

Big Ben & Westminster

The highlights of our stay though were worlds apart - going to church, and dancing! The regular Sunday church services at both St Paul's Cathedral & Westminster Abbey will stay with us for a long time to come. The organ and the choir at each were simply amazing and the individual blessings we received were very humbling. At the advice of our dance teachers back home, we also made a pilgrimage to "Pineapple," the infamous dance school in Covent Garden. It ran all types of dance classes on a casual/drop in basis for anyone and everyone. Julie & the kids did classes flat out for a week following a private tour by family friend, Ernie who plays the piano there for the ballet. All three kids enjoyed the Street Funk class in particular. Cassi couldn't stop dancing that night, and Sheri was on a high for a week! To top things off, Julie's cousin, (Nicole) got married in Chelsea during our stay so seeing her, new hubby, Sam, and her mum, (Julie's Aunty Lois) whilst we were there, was a real bonus.

Life in London was incredibly busy which took some getting used to. Besides the sight seeing, we commenced our school year early at the kids request. We hoped this level of motivation would continue, but weren't counting on it. London's close connection to the rest of the world was noticably evident: all the different accents about the place; the precence of two sizeable Pro-Palestinian Protests (prior to the recent cease fire in Gaza) were quite literally on our front door, as opposed to being something we'd only read about or see on tv; and the sourcing of the food we ate was particularly multi-cultural which was a reminder to how self sufficient Australia had to be. The children thought it was quite exotic to be eating strawberries from Egypt & Spain, blueberries from Chile, bananas from Costa Rica, and grapes from South Africa, not realising how lucky we are to be able to source most things locally at home.

On our last two days in London, Steve departed for Norwich in the north to collect the car which had taken months of negotiations late year whilst back home. A day and a half later he returned rather gingerly (especially for him,) with our 12 year old, left hand drive station wagon, having navigated his way through central London. Without the help of our Tom Tom (now known as "Tim" with the NZ accent, ) all the way into the car lift of the hotel's basement, he'd have been had real troubles. As it was, he needed a stiff drink when he got there it must have been a fun trip - not!

Nicole & Lois

Steve & 007

Just another day at school

Trafalgar Square with frozen fountains

CANADA: (-10 to - 2 deg. C)

With our first round of school work done & safely in the post, & the car stored at the long stay carpark at Heathrow, we left London for the wide open spaces and snow capped mountains of Canada. Steve had long dreamed of taking us all to where he spent three winters after uni. The ski fields of Whistler were not part of our original plan, but visa restrictions governing the amount of time we could spend at comparable European ski fields, meant that Canada had become a viable option. Well at least that's what he told us anyway. We arrived to even colder temp.s than we'd had previously, not thinking it was even possible, hired our remaining ski gear and got ready to tackle the mountains. The snow was good by Australian standards, although the locals were nowhere to be seen, believing the conditions to be poor. Steve and the kids hit the slopes early on, Julie preferring to settle in slowly scooping out the local spa & shops in the village. No need to rush these things. After five weeks on the road with the kids 24/7, self preservation was in

order.

Whistler Peak

Outside our Villa

Canadian Mounties at the Ski Jump

The kids loved their ski school despite the early morning's getting out the door all kitted up to tackle the elements. In her second week, Sheri thought she'd try her hand at snowboarding which she took to instantly! They have all improved so much now threatening to leave their poor mother in their tracks. The contact with other children and the international instructors all added to the experience. ( Mitchell's instructor was from Sweeden, Cassi's from Argentinia, and Sheri's were from Romania, Belgium and Australia.) We were all hit with a nasty brochial flu with the exception of Sheri. Thankfully our accommodation was very comfortable, so spending time tucked up in front of the fire wasn't all bad. Well for most of us anyway. Steve on the other hand was chaffing at the bit to shake it off and get back out there. He'd ski in his sleep if he could.

70% of the Whistler workforce was Australian due in part to the reciprocal working visa situation between Australia and Canada. They were definitely making there presence felt on Australia Day in the village with many sporting flags, boardies and thongs despite the freezing temps. We took advantage of the opportunity with a lovely aussie babysitter, managing to get out a few times for dinner which was really liberating. This opportunity would be much harder to come by in many of the places we were scheduled to visit during the year. It meant we got to meet up with Robbie Craig, a good friend of Steve's also over here on holiday with his dad and friend. He made a great ski partner for Steve for a couple of days offering him a nice change of pace to the blue/green runs that I preferred.

To our surprise, our visit coincided with the running of many World Cup winter sporting events in the lead up to next year's 2010 Winter Olympics to be held in Whistler/Vancouver. Luckily access and the cost to enter these events was non-prohibitive so we got to see them right up close: the Ski Jumping, which was simply amazing watching them free falling nearly 150 metres for 6 sec's down the hill. The Austrians took out 1st and 2nd so we knew Uncle Hermann would be pleased. The men's 4 man Bobsled was cool & the woman's Skeleton, where they go down head first was CRAZY! It was amazing seeing it all despite losing the feeling in our feet with the bitter cold, and cheering alongside the locals for the Canadian team.

Mitch with Sebastian, his Swedish Ski Instructor

Sheri off to snowboard school

Cassi Bob sledding

Next stop, back to the Uk. Kent / Sussex in the English countryside for a week before heading off on our much anticipated road trip of Europe.

DECEMBER

SYDNEY (30 deg.C) - AUSTRIA (-1 to 2 deg. C) - UK (-2 to 6 deg. C)

After, the flurry of farewells, catchups, school break up parties, packing up our bags and the ENTIRE house, (ready for our friend's The Wensley's to move in,) & meeting the kid's teacher at Sydney Distance Education Primary School, we left SYDNEY somewhat exhausted, but ready for our 12 mth adventure on December 18. After a sad farewell to Julie's mum, we began our 40 hour/4 flight marathon to Austria where we met Steve's brother Nick and his partner, Kirsten for the Christmas week. A well timed rendeavous with Julie's old uni. friend Melanie, at Heathrow airport, meant we only took half our luggage to Austria with the rest remaining with her until our return to the UK. The kids survived the flights, even enjoyed them despite watching Beverley Hills Chihuahua five times between Singapore and London because it was the only kids movie British Airways showed. Up until the final two flights it was great, but then a couple of tight connections later with frantic full security checks and half asleep children not able to remove their boots & jackets, quickly tested our parental patience & stamina. They don't show this on "Border Security do they!"

Leaving Sydney, bags packed finally

Christmas Markets in Salzburg

Carriage rides in Salzburg Old Town

Once in AUSTRIA, Salzburg was beautiful. It rained & was cold in the first few days, so good coats, were procurred early. It was particularly pretty in amongst the old town, with all the Christmas markets and obvious festive focus. Hot chocolates and Gluhwein, and roasted nuts whilst meandering our way thru. the paved streets were special treats. We saw lots of well dressed gentlemen, reminding us of Steve's Uncle Hermann from Austria back home. We did the obligatory touristy things, visiting: Mozart's Museum, the Toy Museum, The Fortress, and of course the infamous, Sound of Music Tour. We enjoyed it so much, that the kids found great joy in watching & performing it over and over alongside the hotel's inhouse continuous tv channel much to our entertainment.

Steve celebrated his birthday glad to have Nick along to indulge in a meal of Pork Shvinehaxer & good Austrian ale. Christmas Day, Steve, Nick and the kids went ice skating at Mozart's Platz, whilst Julie and Kirsten watched on preferring to seek the warm refuge of a nearby tea house. It snowed lightly in the afternoon, giving us a hint of the white Christmas we were hoping for. We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve like the Austrian's did with a visit to the Silent Night Chapel, (the sight where the original christmas carol was composed,) dinner out and the exchange of gifts. On Boxing Day, we enjoyed a horse drawn sleigh ride thru. the snowy mountain plains. It was magical despite the fact Julie forgot she was allergic to horses. A lend of someone's puffer, and a strudel with vanilla sauce later, all was well. Julie has long believed in the healing power of cakes, maybe there was something in it after all....

Silent Night Chapel

Ice-Skating Christmas Day

Horse-Drawn Sleigh Ride- Magic!

We left for the UK after a week saying goodbye to Nick and Kirsten until later in the year. We picked up our rental car and headed for Shere, a small, pretty village in the countryside just outside Guildford (where Melanie and family live.) It played host to movies such as Brigitte Jone's Diary and The Holiday. We recognised many of the scenes, and were told the film crew actually stayed in our room at the B & B. When not walking on the heath, regular highlights included trips to The Lucky Duck Cafe for scones and hot chocolates. Sadly a reoccurring cake theme seems evident here & gives validity to the new found firmness of our clothes.

We then spent a few days with Melanie & Johnny in Guildford around New Year's. Guildford was a lovely city, complete with castle ruins. The children really enjoyed the company of Ellie and David, Melanie and Johnny's children, who are now amazingly, 18 and 16. For New Year's Eve, Melanie had organised a fun Pantomine, (or "Panto' as she puts it,) starring Nigel Havis from the original Chariots of Fire film, and a lovley dinner at a French restaurant (complete with dress ups.) We then returned home to watch Big Ben strike 12 on TV. The kids really enjoyed staying up past midnight for the first time with the grown ups.

Julie & Melanie at New Year

Bedtime stories with Aunty Melanie

Mitch & Johnny on New Year's Eve

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