Prague and The Wenceslas Square Blues: Saturday, June 16th!

Nothing is so impenetrable as laughter in a language you don't understand. -William G. Golding, novelist (1911-1993) 

Hello Dottore! Well, I'm probably doing quite well, under circumstances! Just a quick note to say that I am unable to leave Prague until Sunday, for Berlin, I think. Anyway, no bike reservations until then! Sorry but I really hoped everything would fall into place much more easily and quickly. This being the case I assume Monday will be my arrival date! More later but I've scads of things to do to get set, logistically, for early morning departure tomorrow. Cheers and Much Love. Patrizzio! Thanks for info Patrick. Keep me updated on schedule. XO Maggi

My home is starting to come together!!!

Hello Family & Friends! Finally below is the link to the Australia photos from the trip Jos & I did in November/December 2017. It was a challenge to do any work on them while 3 meters of powder snow are waiting for my skis 45 minutes from here! I did find time lately to order them, name them, etc, so here they are. I have other series with fun pictures and group shots, which I will send at a later date to those who appear in the photos. 

It was a beautiful trip, although if you travel a lot you always tend to compare with what you have seen before, and that, sometimes, makes it hard to appreciate the unique beauty of where you are. We are very grateful to our friends Karin and Jim Mitchell in the Barossa Valley and Nel & Reinout Quispel in Melbourne who went out of their way to welcome us and show us how beautiful their surroundings are. Also, it was great seeing our friends Helen & Kim in Sydney who we met in Patagonia.

Our trip was planned around asking ourselves what we think about when we hear the word Australia: Wild life different than anywhere else, extensive beaches,coastlines and the Outback. And that is precisely what we built our itinerary around.

It was quite a long trip, we covered some 5000 km. Starting in Sydney, then to Alice Springs in the Outback, the trek to Adelaide, to Kangaroo Island, to the Barossa Valley, to Melbourne, to Wilsons Promontory NP, to the Great Ocean Road, to Sydney via coastal road and Grand Pacific Drive, to the Blue Mountains and then ... home! Most NP's were visited along the way. Our trek was done with an outfitter, the rest on our own. In Sydney we used the ferry system extensively ... what a way to get around there!

There are a number of highlights, one of which is definitely Kangaroo Island, where the kangaroos and koalas were almost jumping on our dinner plates on the porch of our little cabin. I guess they cannot jump far enough to leave the island! All that with a beautiful scenery. There was one emotional event in our wildlife experience there worth mentioning. On a forest hike at dusk on Kangaroo Island we ran into a male koala bear who had just been rejected by a female high up in a tree. He was sitting on the ground staring up and down the tree totally disillusioned with an "I am good for nothing look" which I captured in several photos, but included 3 in the main series. A picture tells a 1000 words.

When you browse through the photos, the file names will tell you where they were taken (that was the time consuming bit). So if you wish to relate the itinerary maps to the photos, the file names will do that for you. 

As a reminder, browse the photos in full screen mode! If you don't do that Flickr sometimes injects static adds that you can simply flip through, but they are annoying. If you wish, feel free to download photos with the download icon on the screen. If you have any questions, please let us know. Enjoy! Aart & Jos

https://www.flickr.com/photos/99264714@N02/42806741341/in/album-72157668091711417/

Spent most of entire day organizing for early morning departure next day, [Laundry and visited ATM to pay for last night at hotel.], as I wanted to take other pannier to storage and buy another 24 hrs. Did this in the early evening and picked up a few nibbles, etc., for train. Back at hotel I asked for a wake-up call at 3:45am and then went to my room to pack most everything up before going to bed.