Somewhere between Mount Gambier and Tantanoola, South Australia.

Early into our Adelaide road trip, I told Justine I wanted to stop roadside and get a photo of a rusty old windmill. Why, I wasn’t sure, but I set myself the task of shooting it nonetheless.

It took until the third day to get one with the right conditions of us driving, a windmill being present and the sunlight casting itself attractively over the scene.

I think this shot also fits well with the feel of our current story, which is another reason I chose to post it now.

For Justine’s birthday, we rented a small self-contained villa a few kilometres outside of Hepburn Springs. Even though her birthday had been a few weeks earlier, this was the first weekend since then we’d been able to get away.

Getting there was easy, even without a GPS (is it like we’re in the dark ages?) though we did drive past the driveway to the property as it was hard to spot. A quick U turn and we were sorted. After quickly investigating the place — quite nice; a canopy bed, spa bath, sauna, large shower and small kitchen — we headed back through Hepburn Springs and into Daylesford to buy some dinner to prepare later and returned.

The view from our villa was — for over 270 degrees — totally unspoiled with nothing in front of us but bushland. To the right was another villa but since it was difficult to see, it wasn’t a big deal.

After a great night of relaxing and burning myself trying to cook marshmallows in the open fire with a small pair of tongs, we headed out and about. We first checked out a big antique/collectibles place which had a lot of stuff but nothing which really took our fancy. We then made our way to visit a honey stall (where an asian couple were buying over $350 worth of honey!) and to a chocolate “mill” where Justine had a wonderful time ogling the chocolates.

We headed further into Castlemaine which was a ghost town compared to Daylesford, so turned immediately around and headed back. We stopped in at a second-hand bookstore which had so many books it was hard to know where to start. After a bit of looking Justine bought a couple of books she enjoyed as a kid and I bought first editions of “The Amtrak Wars” (paperback, from the 80s) and “A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur” (hardback, from 1935). Neither are in great condition or worth much, but it’s nice to have them anyway.

Dinner consisted of a wood-fired Calabrese pizza (me) and Spaghetti Puttanesca (Justine) and wasn’t too bad. We then retreated to the villa where I gave the sauna a whirl; we chucked a few potatoes wrapped in foil into the fire. And promptly forgot about them… until one exploded.

Next morning we checked out the local Daylesford market; not much worth checking but we did find a print of San Parco place in Venice, which the stallholder was selling for only five dollars. The frame is a little dirty but the picture itself is in good condition. We are interested in reframing it anyway, but the frame is probably worth more than the canvas print.

Justine wanted to take the steam train from Daylesford to Maldon but as we arrived at the station realised we had the information wrong — there’s one from Daylesford to somewhere, and Castlemaine to Maldon. Instead, we drove directly to Maldon where a food and wine festival was running for the day. I had a nice yabby bisque and Justine a vegetable pie — which was vegetables and pastry, nothing else — as well as buying some harissa paste which I’ve been wanting to try for a while.

Tired, we headed home and arrived at a reasonable hour before retiring for the night.

Taken at around 12am (Bangkok time) while waiting for our plane’s departure lounge to open.

Day Nine
Amsterdam
16 August 2007 22:39

Today was a lazy day. After more than a week of walking until we almost collapsed we needed some time off.

We ended up watching TV (most of which was in Dutch) until around 10:30am and headed out around 11:00am. An episode of Spongebob was quite funny in Dutch.

After, we strolled out to the Van Gogh Museum where we waited in yet another line for ~25 minutes before entering. I’m not a fan of Van Gogh’s style and don’t consider him to have been a particularly good painter and the museum didn’t change that. Justine did enjoy the museum though.

Walking back in the direction of our hotel, we grabbed some food from a local supermarket and decided to return to our hotel.

Some TV was in English so we flicked channels a little while, while eating our sandwiches.

Around 10:00pm (nothing opens hereuntil 11:00am or 12:00pm and is open late) we headed out and grabbed some fritjes (French fries) and fritssaus (fry sauce), which is a creamy mayonnaise-style sauce that is widely eaten here. A stir-fry place was next door so we grabbed some rice and shared both.

We needed a “day off” (strange we needed a holiday from our holiday) and both feel a lot better for it.

Tomorrow evening we leave for Munich on an overnight train which will be interesting, I’m sure.

Day Four
Outskirts of London
August 12 2007 - 12:25

We are currently sitting on the Eurostar train travelling through the outskirts of London. As I forgot to write about yesterday I will do so now.

We had a little sleep-in until 8:30 or 9:00, before heading out to Buckingham Palace. I’m finding the London Underground system to be chaotic, but well organised. Without the good setup (frequent trains, coloured criss-crossing lines, etc) it would be impossible to navigate but as it is we’re having no problems whatsoever.

To buy tickets to the Palace took us around half an hour, at which point we had to wait in yet another line to get in. It was, however, totally worth it as the interior State Rooms of the palace are splendiferous in their magnificent opulence. Rooms are huge, with gold leaf everywhere, as well as works of art in all free spaces. We missed the changing of the guard but saw some of it from the “quadrangle” in the middle of the Palace. A unique viewing angle to be sure!

After, we sat in the Palace gardens and ate some extravagant ice cream which was 90% cream. Or at least it seemed to be.

I’d wanted to visit St Paul’s and climb to the top so we traveled there next. The price was an absurd £8.50 each (about $25) so we decided against it. Justine wanted to get more locations on her “Monopoly” tour so for the rest of the afternoon we walked or “tubed” the streets hunting for the locations. There are only seven of the twenty-six locations left and we know where most of them are. Mayfair has proved to be elusive as we aren’t sure whether it is a street or just the suburb. Either way we’ll find it next time we come back to London (in about six weeks).

During the walking tour (which ended up showing us a lot of the city we may have otherwise missed) we also visited 221b Baker St (Sherlock Holmes’ house). Technically there never was a 221b and there definitely isn’t one there now, but there is a Sherlock Holmes museum a few doors down which has a re-creation of the famed address. Even the Baker St station has images of Sherlock Holmes all over and seems to be a restored 19th century station.

The train is picking up pace now so I will sign off as I want to see the view!

The “big list” of things to do before we depart is getting ever shorter, but so is the amount of time until we depart.  Obviously, one of the larger things I’d wanted to cross off the list is the introduction of this website, but there are still heaps of (very minor) little things left.

As I put on Facebook, I need to buy small bits and pieces (most importantly a new battery for my camera) but there are bigger things to organise, like accommodation.

We have accommodation in both London and Paris locked in, as well as preliminary bookings in Amsterdam and Munich, though we haven’t paid so they could be lost if we wait too long.  On the other hand, we also want to ensure we aren’t stuck having to travel across three countries just to make a booking.

Back on the topic of lists, the list of things to do when we eventually get back is growing longer and longer as well — there are things to buy, things that need fixing, things that need doing.  To put our lives “on hold” for seven weeks while we’re away has required us to almost put our lives on hold for months prior, as well.  Scrimping and saving are not enjoyable but will definitely pay off in the long run.

In just 14 days, Justine and I will be jetting overseas. How exciting! Our plane tickets, train tickets and insurance are settled, as are the first week or so of accommodation.

Excitement, nerves are building, as is the sense that we haven’t done enough planning. Of course it will all be OK but anyone who has ever planned something big like this (a trip, wedding, etc) understands exactly what I mean.