Our Australian holiday.

It is now early February and we are back on Matilda in Nancy. We have spent the last month or so in Perth, Western Australia sharing the festive season with family and friends. We flew in on Qantas / Emirates arriving on the 19^th December and were met by our son Rohan. We were staying with him and his family.

We had left with Paris expecting snow and arrived in Perth about 6pm the next day. The temperature was down to about 36 degrees from a 39 maximum. Quite an enjoyable shock. (For those who still talk Fahrenheit, multiply that by 9, divide by 5 and add 32).

The new pool was a popular spot with Robert, Daniel and all the family.

Christmas was only a few days away and there were things that had to be done. The gingerbread house needed to be made and Olivia, Emma and Daniel tucked in to get it done.

It lasted less than an hour after construction was complete.

Christmas arrived and was thoroughly enjoyed by all the children. We had a great lunch prepared by Olivia and attended by all the immediate families. In all, a wonderful day.

Marg and Peter had arranged to see the New Year in with their friends, Rob and Jill in Pemberton. It was a fantastic get together as Rhos and Bill, Janet and David, Louise and Dave all turned up. Rhos and Bill showed off their new caravan and Dave and Louise their new mobile home. – A good gathering of “Grey (and bald) Nomads”.

Rob’s new pizza oven produced some great food and together with the girls’ efforts we all ate too well.

Pemberton is the centre of a very rich food growing area in the state’s south west. As it has ocean around it on three sides the climate is temperate, rainfall fairly high and the good soil is very productive.

Rob and Jill have established an orchard growing Australian finger limes. These little fruit, when ripe open to reveal small spheres of intense lime flavour. They are highly sought after by chefs locally and internationally.

Pemberton started its life as a timber town. The local forests of karri, a eucalypt hardwood native to the area, were harvested along with the jarrah further to the north, to provide timber to the world.

The massive trees in this forest are mostly re-growth, about 80 years old. Karri trees form magnificent forests and are amongst the tallest trees in the world. These forests are currently being heavily logged for paper pulp – a sensitive issue in the area.

We had three good amateur photographers in the group, all keen to capture the wild life. There were many opportunities.

We returned to Perth and spent time with the family. There were parties to attend, aquariums to visit and lots of other places to go. 

The touch pool at AQWA fascinated everyone.

Marg managed to get in some early morning golf with the boys and other wildlife. 


All too soon our six weeks were up and it was back to the airport for an evening departure to France. We have to plan our cruising trips for the coming season and early in March, a week of skiing.

There will be more to tell so we will keep in touch.

As this is being written the area close to Pemberton has been devastated by a massive bush fire. Started with lightning strikes and fanned by strong winds this uncontrollable fire with a perimeter of over 270 kilometres, has burnt over 83,000 hectares (176,000 acres) in the area. Although now contained, this fire could flare again as the weather is still hot, dry and windy. We hope our friends and their community remain safe.

Leaving the Northern Winter

December came to Nancy, as did the rain and cold weather. The town was starting to warm though - with the Christmas spirit. Shops were decorating their windows and the squares were filling with traditional stalls as the street traders offered classic festive goods. The massive Christmas tree was erected in Stanislas Square to be decorated for the parade that would bring Saint Nicholas to town.

The day of Saint Nick’s parade arrived with plenty of fun.

Fairground rides made from found junk amused the children.

These miniature buses were actually transporting people around.

We found the parade and evening entertainment a little flat this year and retired to Matilda early.

Probably the most popular pastime for men in France is fishing and the sport is big business and supported by the government. One evening a truck arrived at the port and emptied millions of fish of all sizes into the canal.

Most seemed to survive – for the present!

We were off to Australia for Christmas in the sun and departed Nancy by train, Wednesday 17^th Dec. We spent a day in Paris giving us the opportunity to do a final Christmas shop (look at the windows of the big stores) and see a few sights.

The windows were full of animated monsters and toys, much to the delight of many children.

We wandered into the store – Lafayette, and Marg sampled (and bought) some of her favourite perfume.

  

The building is structured around a wonderful glass dome, the detail of which is typical of opulent French architecture of the late 19^th century.

Next day we visited the Les Invalides museum – the history of the French military. The building started its life as a hospital under the direction of Louis XIV in 1670 and has been expanded since then to the complex it is today.  It became a museum in 1906.

Amongst the massive collection of exhibits we found these models and dioramas which were made during conflicts in the 18^th and 19^th centuries so that attack and defense strategies could be worked through.

We left Paris with the Eiffel tower shrouded in cloud and rain. 24 hours later, the warmth and blue skies of Perth. We will be staying with Rohan and Olivia and their children.

There will be plenty to tell then, so we will keep in touch.

Finishing the Cruising Season

We have left Peter and Helen at the train in Luxembourg to commence their trip back to Australia. We will now make our way up the Moselle to Nancy and settle in there for the winter. We departed Remich at about 1100 hours on Monday 20^th October and plan to arrive in Nancy the following Thursday. The forecast was for unpleasant weather, strong winds and heavy rain over the next few days so we were going to take our time and be careful.

We had noted that in Remich there was an increase in the sculptures appearing around the town.

This was one we had seen before but as we wandered around, we found more:

Complete with model!!!

And going out of port, this double sized armchair – mosaic covered concrete.

 

Also this one, appropriate in the lead up to Halloween.

We were reminded of our friend Rhossie, collecting pictures of the sculptures in the streets of Melbourne.

On Tuesday, the weather closed in and we were finding travel difficult. Matilda does not like the wind and was being blown about and uncomfortable to steer. We arrived in Metz and took shelter on the end of the commercial grain terminal wharf where we wanted to stay until the weather settled.

We were concerned as even in this foul weather, the wharf was being used by commercials loading grain.

Empty Big Ben  swapped places with a loaded barge in a cross-over movement that we admired in the confines of the harbour.

There is a low bridge in the port and when empty, these ships have to drop their driving cabin to get under it.

We watched as this 110 metre barge coupled to its dumb barge making a vessel 170 metres long.

The vessel is so long that it had to back up under the bridge to line up for the lock. Note the crewman watching the clearance over the coach house,

We were sitting at dinner that evening while the storm raged when, outside we heard a heavy metal on metal noise followed by loud revving of a big motor. Looking out we saw that an empty freighter had tried to come under the bridge. (They work 24 hours.) He had wiped out his front mast and radar scanner and fortunately had stopped about 5 metres before his coach house hit the edge of the steel girders.

He was stuck

An hour later after flooding his cargo hold he was able to get out and continue. 

Sorry, no pictures. Too dark, wet and windy.

Next morning, after an exciting evening and with the weather eased, we continued, once again sharing with these large ships. The Moselle is a busy river but with a little understanding of how things work and some skill, using it is not too frightening.

We arrived in Nancy on the 23^rd  and set about bedding Matilda down for winter. There are a number of things that must be done at this time, including servicing the motor, the pumps and all those other bits of equipment on board as well as organising firewood and fuel to add to our comfort through the winter.

During the season the engine has been hard to start in the morning and had begun to “make smoke” in true battleship fashion. Peter has always been pleased the way the motor would always start on its first revolution. Investigation pointed to problems with the diesel injectors and metering pump so these were removed and we looked for a suitable service agent. We could not find anyone in France willing to take it on but searching the internet we found a Bosch service agent in Nuremburg who was willing.  

So, on Monday 17^th Nov. we hired a car and headed to Germany.

We were in Nuremburg about 6 hours later and headed straight for the workshops. We found they were actually part of the Bosch group of companies and had access to archival material on all the companies' products. Our contact turned out to be the Bosch Company’s specialist in vintage cars and motors. A great start!

Next day we saw some of the town which has great significance with the end of World War II. A lot of the city was destroyed during the war but most of the “Old City” behind the ancient city walls has been preserved.

The day was wet, cold and generally miserable so we did not go far. We walked to the Old City and looked around and were impressed by the massive city walls and the old buildings. The old town hall was completed in 1340.

The post war rebuild includes a subway system and many of the stations have an artistic touch. This is Rathenauplatz and the mosaic pictures in the tiles are best seen from just one point.

Our plans included stops at some other towns of historical importance and we next visited Bamburg.

This lovely old town has been here since the 7^th century. It has always been a religious centre of the area and has suffered very little from invasion and wars. Many buildings date from the 17^th century and earlier.

Unfortunately the weather was not very pleasant and Marg was suffering from a bad cough and chest infection so we cut our touring short and returned to Nancy to get her to a doctor. No great problem but with medication she will be right in no time.

We soon head back to Australia – for a holiday. There will be more to tell, so we will keep in touch.