mybigadventures.com

. . . sadly folks the end of the trip is fast approaching, much faster than we had infact anticipated and now we find ourselves with just Paris to go. This is only a short one as we still have packing and showers left to go and checkout is in an hour . . . oh we're in Bruges (Belgium) by the way - I'm sure you'd all like it here - its very nice. We have now uploaded the rest of our photos including Strasbourg, Amsterdam and here. Hope the sun is as shiny there as it is here. Catch you all very soon, xx

Where to begin . . . . we are now in France, Strasbourg to be precise close to the German border, it seems very nice so far although we have sadly spent much of the day indoors due to some bad weather, I guess the rain had to catch up with us eventually. You're going to have to bear with me as this keyboard is a bit hazadous to get on with as these French types have cleverly re-arranged all the keys making it an uphill struggle to type anything remotely coherent - phew.

Over the last few weeks it's been a bit of a nightmare to add any updates as the tinternet has been rather expensive and time has become a little pressed. Over the last few days we have tried to catch up a bit and have added some much more recent photos, so if you haven't checked back in a while you should find lots of new albums from Copenhagen, Berlin, Prague, Heidelberg and Interlaken.

We've been having a fantastic time and on the whole the weather has been fantastic too, although we have been caught out a couple of times - particularly in Heidelberg when we got caught half way back from, the castle and ended up seeking shelter in a random portaloo we stumbled across whilst running for cover (much to some onlookers amusement).

Talking of Heidelberg we must thank Horst and Petra again for inviting us to stay in their very nice house, not to mention all the food and local beer. It was really great to see you both and Lena and hopefully we'll see you again soon! Whilst I'm doing thankyous I should also say thanks to Lowe Alpine for my shiny new bag - for those that didn't know mine broke and was being held together by some crafty stitching by Dani since Vienna!

Right I really better tie this up, enjoy all the new photo's. We've tried to include a few more of us for all the people that complain there aren't enough - although why you would want to look at our, ok my ugly mug is beyond me. Right everyone, Cheerio ta ta, Much Love as always  - PS I hope Di, Mel, Kim and whoever else was going enjoy(ed / s) the Hen party in Paris, don't wreck the place before I've seen it xxx

The last month or so has been really busy with the usual revision sessions, coursework marking and general stress that tend to come with May as a teacher. Fortunately it's about that time that things start to calm down, so today we headed out for the day to Waddesdon Manor, which is a National Trust property in Aylesbury. We hadn't realised until we arrived, but Waddesdon was having a Feast festival this weekend featuring a range of food outlets, craft events and entertainers. The weather was glorious with blue skies and sunshine and there were plenty of people about enjoying the festivities. Arriving shortly after opening we managed to get tickets for the house, although they do recommend booking in advance which a lot of people seemed to have done. The house was previously owned by the Rothschild family before being gifted to the National Trust, it remains under management by the Rothschild foundation however and there is a supplement of £4.50 (£5 gift aid) for National Trust members. The house is contains an extensive collection of fine furniture and decorative arts. It is set over three floor and there is a huge amount to see, including an impresive ornate clockwork Elephant automaton. 

The front gardens looked fantastic setup for the feast with long tables running down the middle of the garden and a large number of food, drink and craft stalls lined the sides. There was bunting, flowers and performers dotted through the spaces and lots of room for lounging on the grass. We tried food from a few places including a pizza that took 90 seconds to cook (superb!), a duck wrap and some triple cooked fries. The food we had was amazing but there were so many other places I would have loved to try. We watched some of acrobats performing using huge jenga blocks and even spotted the red arrows and a couple of other RAF planes fly by on the way to an airshow we assumed! I was very excited when I saw the red arrows, I don' think I've seen them since I was a kid but sadly they were abit too quick for me to get a picture.

Headed home late afternoon after a pretty long day out. Dani dropped by one of the stalls on the way out and picked up a fancy new jug/varse which is now sitting on the table holding some flowers she received from one of her year 11 students yesterday. We had a fantastic day and highly recommend the place for a visit - aparently they have a similar market layout at Christmas so one to bear in mind for the winter too! Enjoy the photos.