20-23 May 2006: Rome, Italy

From the peaceful surrounds of Asissi, Sarah, Timshel, Reuben and I were thrust into the city of the ancient and the new: Rome!
A hotel room in the city centre was our respite from the overwhelming colour, vigour, LAAAAAAAA!, VRrrmmm and buzzzzzzzz.
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17 May-20 May 2006: Asissi, Italy

After leaving England, and flying to Bergamo (near Milan) Italy, we then travelled south to the beautiful town of Asissi. We were met by our friend Sarah, her Dad, and his partner. We are camping out of town in a site surrounded by olive groves.

Time to leave England and fly to Italy!
We are very excited and scared.

In the airport Reuben spots a yellow truck that is just his size!

He is not very happy about leaving his yellow truck.

But soon enough he finds another exciting thing with wheels.

We will leave England soon for the continent of Europe. Before we begin our big bike tour, we will spend some time travelling with a friend in Italy and France. We will then travel to Germany to visit Timshel’s brother and begin “Cycling Europe with a baby”.
The details of our plans are as follows:

Leave north of England 16th of May.

We will arrive in Assisi, italy, on the afternoon of the 17th of May

Spend time (around 10 days) with Sarah Lausberg travelling in Italy and France.

Visit Christian community Taize in France 5-11th June. It’s a “family week” so participants will be sleep deprived and caked in foodstuffs and snot (or is that just me?).

Then begin our bike tour “Cycling Europe with a baby”, travelling for around 2 months.

Be home in August or September?

The image above is of a glorious spring sunset from our bedroom in Esh Laude, England.

Still working, playing and preparing for our big bike ride: ‘Cycling Europe with a baby’.
Last night we camped in the front yard of the Shogrens house in Esh Laude, England. Our new tent arrived in the mail and we were keen to try it out! It even rained so the road-test was a thorough one. The verdict: very good! We stayed high and dry and Reuben slept through the night. We have also bought a trangia, sleeping mats, phrase books and cycle-guides, so we can eat, sleep, speak and know where we are going! This is an exciting time but also full of uncertainity. We are working very hard to secure sponsorship, finish up work, and prepare well. I am tired, miserable and excited at the same time which is a strange mix …
Here is a fantastically wacky photo of the Shogren family, Timshel & Reuben, and good friends, Chris and Claire.

We are back in the North of England, still staying with the always-entertaining (five kids!) Shogren family.

There has been a number of complaints about recent blog entries. Specifically that there hasn’t been any recent blog entries. Not since Spain, anyway.
The reason? “Cycling Europe with a baby” (listed on side-bar, please click to reveal all).

“Cycling Europe with a baby” is not just cycling across Europe with a baby. It’s a project, a mission, a production. It is a beast that demands feeding: emails, research, more emails, web-site production, research, writing and design. Not to mention our physically taxing `training rides’ which involve us riding through the green hills of local villages, admiring the first signs of spring and stopping to sample local produce (marmalade spiked with scotch whisky on crumpets with Earl Gray tea).
Ahhh the sacrifices we make …

Understandably, with the demands of a beast to satiate, there is little time to write entries for a little while …but I will keep you all posted as “Cycling Europe with a baby” moves from planning stage to implementation!

I know it’s too much. It’s like an hours-long slideshow that Auntie Wilhelm shows on her return from Egypt. But there was so much beauty about, I just wanted to suck it up through my little digital eye. I’m afraid that when it comes to photos I am very much the consumerist traveller. Gobble Gobble Gobble.

So here they are.

25 postcards from Spain.

Click on the image to view a larger version if so inclined.
Ignore the numbers unless you want to email me about a particular photo.

Soooo good to be here.
On arrival in Spain, I fell asleep, woke, vomited, and fell asleep again.
I spent the next week lying in the sun (sun! sun! how I’ve missed you dear sun!) and moaning. Fever, dizziness, achey body aside, it was great. I felt like a tuberculosis victim sent to an infimary on the spanish coast.
From the sofa I’d call “Call me Florence Alice Robins the Third, and fix me some chicken broth!”

Timshel took time off his programming work to care for Reuben whilst I got over what was probably a flu. Later in the week, when Reuben became ill and I wasn’t any better, we walked through cobblestoned lanes to the village Chemist. With phrasebook in hand (translations of vomit, fever, aching body) we began an impromptu pantomine of mime, smiles and vigirous nodding of the head. We left with some drugs.
Drugs, Sun, good friends to catch up with: I was happy.

Reuben loved the challenge of a new environment to explore and two new playmates. He even worked out how to open the blind (see picture). He had two days of ill health but then seemed to recover sufficiently to develop a fascination with wooden spoons. Between the blind and the spoons, he was happy.

Timshel rises to the challenge of a new language with unbridled enthusiasm. His spanish conversation partner was the lady who worked at the deli-counter of the local supermarket. He would return home with sausage, cheese, olives, and the spanish word for “camel”. He was happy.

It was lovely to see Chris and Claire. Friends from Melbourne, Australia, they had spent a year here in Comillas, screen-writing (Chris) and creating childrens books (Claire). They seemed healthy and well-occupied, and gave us a real education on spanish culture, food, and wine you could buy for 60 cents (euro). We boughts lots of wine and croissants. They were happy.

I like Spain.