Europe 2008

26th July - 17th October

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Don and I left Australia on 26th July. We flew Qantas Link to Sydney and met my sister Kitty (Katharina), who lives in Portland Victoria. She had flown from Portland to Melbourne, then Melbourne to Sydney. The three of us flew to Frankfurt then split up. Don took a train to Paris and then to Bordeaux. He wanted to spend time photographing the prehistoric cave paintings in the south of France. Kitty and I spent the day and night in Frankfurt then boarded an Air Berlin flight to Alicante. We wanted to visit my uncle Adi Blechner and and his wife Thea. They live in Calpe on the Spanish coast.

After our stay in Calpe, Kitty and I went city hopping by train a day at a time till we reached Salzburg where we stayed for 4 days with my aunt Minna and caught up with the extended family. From there we took the train to Munich where we were met by Gabriele Blechner, the wife of my uncle Peter. We stayed for 3 days and then Gabriele drove us across to Schutterwald where we spent a week staying with my aunt Elsa and meeting up with Uncle Fritz and his family and my cousins and their families. Don and I bought bicycles and went on a few rides to test them out.

Kitty flew back to Australia on the 31st August. Don and I cycled the Danube Radweg from Donaueschingen to Budapest starting on the 1st September and spending a few days in Vienna along the way. From Budapest we took the train to Romania, visiting Bily, Mihaela and Sebastian in Timisoara then taking the train again to Filiasi where we stayed with Adrian Gheorge and his partner Alina. We had planned to visit my cousin Annika in Suceava but we felt too insecure in Romania. It was just as well because Annika went into hospital.

We wanted to come home a week earlier than planned but couldn't get seats on the planes. We subsequently returned to Schutterwald for a week and waited for our departure date, 15th October. We took the train to Frankfurt then flew to Singapore and Sydney, connecting with the Armidale flight on 17th October. It was very good to be home again. We are blessed living in a secure, stable and friendly country.