The final chapter

I am writing this in San Francisco airport, sitting at the gate waiting to board our flight home. We had a lovely day and a half with the South City crowd - good food, lots of laughs and a chance to catch up on all the family news. The boys liked meeting their cousins and Campbell and Luka hit it off well. We managed to fit in a quick local shopping trip. I found some great halloween items and Jason bought $35 nikes and a bunch of t shirts.I think we spent more in half an hour than we had the whole time at Disney. We also took a quick trip to Burlingame, where the boys all had a play at a playground and wolfed down Baskin and Robbins. I have developed a cold in the last few hours and am not looking forward to the long flight home coughing and sneezing. I AM looking forward to getting home. We had a great time on the trip but it was a little long and living out of a suitcase has worn thin. This will be my last post- I hope you have enjoyed coming along on our holiday with us.

WHat do you want to do one last time?

Given we are unlikely to be here ever again, I asked the boys to tell me two "must do's" and then planned our day around this. We hit most of the list, including a quick stop at the water park where I handed the boys over to Jason and spent an hour floating around the lazy river. Splash Mountain, Flynn's choice,, was closed and I have no doubt that this will trigger repeated requests to return to WDW. We also managed to get 7 of the 8 Kim possible missions completed. I drew the line at 5 pm and China will remain forever plagued by villains. The bags are packed for our 4 am pick up tomorrow (yes 4am). I am looking forward to a quick visit with my family in San Francisco before we fly home. The boys had one last swim and were delighted to see a rabbit drinking someone's cocktail. The things they think are highlights crack me up.

Disney or die

I missed a day on Monday so will cover that one in a quick summary. We all went to Hollywood Studios in the morning. Jason and I stayed for a few rides and then we left to boys with the rest of the group and had a nice quiet lunch together at Le Cellier in "Canada". It was good to have a little break from the boys. We spent the evening shopping at downtown Disney. My boys have clearly inherited the shopping gene from me as at 9.45 they were still begging for one more shop. They have been pretty careful with their money and have only spent about $150 each of their money. The Lego store almost broke Campbell but we managed to get out with only a $30 spend.
Yesterday we dropped the Starretts off at Animal Kingdom and the five of us continued on to the "Winter Summerland" mini golf course. This was pretty fun although Flynn started off hitting the balls so hard they were flying into the air. Having completed a few holes without killing anyone, he settled in and proceeded to get three hole in ones in a row. The course had a satisfying amount of moving parts that really delighted the boys and it was hard to drag them away. We had lunch and a swim back at the resort to give everyone time to rest up for Mickey's not so scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom. We then trecked over to Animal Kingdom Lodge to have an early dinner at Boma. This was an African buffett style restaurant that gets great online reviews. I doubt the authenticy of the "african food" given the sugar and salt content but it was fun to try something a little different. After a quick look around the resort we hopped on the bus to go to the halloween party. We didn't dress up and the boys were a little sorry about this when they saw all the costumes. There were some pretty good ones. The boys were given trick or treat bags and off they went to the treat stations. Needless to say we have quite a bit of candy to take home. We spent a long time waiting for the parade, which was just OK. We managed a quick ride on Peter Pan before we left. It is a very old fashioned ride but I remember it from when I was little and it has some nostalgia attached to it. Flynn sat in the pirate ship between Jason and I and really liked it but pretended to everyone that he didn't ( too lame a ride for a daredevil). We were lucky enough to get a bus as soon as we left the park and everybody crashed right away.

Magic Kingdom

We sat on our verandahs this morning and had coffee and a chat. It is very hot and humid, even at 6am. The boys put on their new "thing 1", "thing 2" and " thing3" shirts and they looked great. We took the bus to the Magic Kindom and rode on everything interesting and a few lame ones. I have nightmares about getting stuck in It's a Small World and having to listen to that song again and again. I am still amazed at the logistics skills of Disney. We rarely waited in line for rides, never waited for a toilet and the only thing holding up the food orders was our inability to decide. We did have a small advantage with the rides, as Annette is in a wheelchair. This gets us immediate access to some rides. We took a break after lunch and the boys swam in the resort pool. It is a pretty fabulous pool with a pirate ship water slide, a sandy bottom and some whirlpools that push you around the water. We ordered ice creams at the sundae shop and when Flynn's arrived it was as big as his head. He managed to get about half of it down and that finished his food intake for the day. We ended the day in Epcot, with the boys doing more Kim Possible missions.

Walt Disney world

We spent the morning having a wander around Universal, trying a few rides we did not get to the day before and looking at the shops. The boys found a soda shop that sold 100 different types of fizzy drink. .After much deliberation they ran with grape fanta, lime fanta and vanilla sprite. Jason and josh also purched crickets and worms to eat ( I belive the crickets were sour cream and onion flavour). They both love this kind of stuff. They day before they happily crunched through lollypops with scorpions in them. I am mystified that my son can happily eat scorpions and worms but cries if he has to eat cheese or ham. It was a nice slow morning for us. The boys have become champion packers and we were packed and ready for checkout in about 10 minutes. We arrived at the beach club at WDW at about 2.30 in the afternoon. We toured the resort, which is lovely, and I ended up with a happy birthday badge (don't ask) that said happy Halloween birthday. That led to every staff member we say saying happy birthday and a clapping ceremony with a free chef hat at the teppenyai place we had dinner at. I am going to hand on the badge for someone else to wear today. We are less than five minutes walk to Epcot and we wandered through the World Showcase before dinner. It was funny to see a mini version of Saint Marks Square in Disney. Their version of Italy has kind of the right look but is far to clean and tidy. It is also missing the smokers and the hawkers which was nice. The boys did a "Kim Possible" mission in Japan which was excellent. They give them a mobile phone which comes up with mission instructions and clues. They solver the clues, go to certain spots and various things happen ( a lantern glowed, a bonsai grew leaves etc). They all loved saving the world and intend to go back and do more missions in the other countries. we crashed at 9pm although the boys were desperately trying to stay awake to watch the disney shows on TV. Apparently they were deprived in Europe because there was no TV to watch....

Theme park overload

We are really enjoying the Hard Rock Hotel. There is music playing everywhere and I think I have known the whole playlist so far. Music memorabilia is the decor theme and we are having fun looking at all the crazy outfits. We splurged for club level and that includes use of the club lounge with free breakfast, snacks, hot snacks at dinner , inclding an open bar time and a desset buffet. Needless to say this saves on food costs although the selection is not extensive. Josh didn't like any of the dinner options so he went with oatmeal from the shop downstairs.
Harry Potter World was pretty spectacular although the ride itself made me feel a little sick. We tried frozen butter beer but avoided the pumpkin juice. We also managed to get away with no merchandise purchases by the boys although we might crumble today. We covered both theme parks in the day, skipping lots that did not interest us and concentrating on the thrill rides. To his great delight, Flynn was just tall enough for the Rip Ride Rokit, which I understand is the fastest, steepest roller coaster in the US. He admitted that it was "a little scary" but was raring to ride again. Josh and Jason and Flynn rode all the daredevil rides. Cambo and I spent some time on the bench.....but we did do a few scary ones.
We finished the afternoon with a swim in the pool. The water slide is "the longest in the world" (please - how do they know this?) and the boys went on it multiple times ("about 50", "10 gazillion" , " heaps").

Goodbye Italy

Transit day today. We were picked up by water taxi and had one last ride through the canals to get to the airport. We flew to Orlando via Frankfurt, where Josh duely ate a frankfurt.Our flight was filled with giants- there had to be at least 10 people who could barely stand up straight. We arrived at the Hard Rock Hotel at about 7.15 Orlando time and met up with the Starretts. The boys are pretty excited to be at the theme parks and can't wait to hit the parks.

A few thoughts on Venice:
It is very picturesque but kind of sad to see all the rotting buildings. There is a very interesting restoration project in place where they are coating a building with a special catalytic material that eats the salt and the pollution. Every one building restored like this will keep a whole block clean going forward. When I have time I will google to find out a bit more as the project looked interesting.
The whole place seems totally geared to the tourist trade. The shops all offer the same things although the quality does vary between shops.
St Marks square, like Rome, is overrun with Indians selling toys and Africans selling knock off handbags. Josh has taken to imitating the toy sellers. He takes a photo and then tries to sell it to us- "only five Euro- very cheap".
I am not sure whether our preparation was poor (ie we went to the wrong places) or whether Venice is just not for me, but I will not be back in a hurry.

Venice day 2

We started the day well with a free trip to Murano courtesy of the hotel. I would have loved to buy some glassware but stayed strong and we only bought a Christmas ornament. The day went downhill from there. We went to the post office to send some clothiers home ( too much shopping). Two hours later we emerged $65 poor and with half the things I wanted to send still in my bag. Some rubbish story about September 11 and 2 kg limits was the excuse but I have my doubts. The Italian postal service is a joke. We then spent another hour doing laundry. There were a few high points to the day though - the band in St Marks square played waltzing Matilda as we walked by and we and some other Aussies clapped and cheered. We bought a few nice things to take home and had decent gelato.

Venice

When we arrived at the train station it was a little chaotic. It turns out there is a train and plane strike for all departures after 9am. Luckily our train was early enough and we were able to get to Venice. I was impressed with the eurostar train- food and drink service, comfy seats with tray tables and very clean and tidy. Once in Venice we took a water taxi to the hotel. Getting off with the suitcases was a bit tricky but we managed with no incidents. The hotel is lovely. We have a two bedroom suite with a sitting area and a dining room as well as two bathrooms. We are one block behind St Marks square which seemed like a good idea at the time but is actually too busy and crowded. So far I am not impressed with Venice. It just seems like shop after shop with small glass items. The streets are narrow like Rome and should be picturesque, but fighting through rude smoking crowds is off-putting. Our dinner was adequate but nothing special although we did meet a nice couple from Dublin at the table next to us. This trip seems to be dominated by the need to find a laundry and yet again we have to go out wandering the streets to look for one.

We spent another day wandering around Rome. Whatever street you end up on has something interesting to see so random wandering works fine. The relationship between cars, humans and scooters is ridiculous. Basically you walk out to cross the road and hope the cars swerve around you or stop. It is fraught with danger and I can't believe there are not more accidents. These Romans are crazy. We walked up to the Spanish Steps, which I proceeded to fall down, resulting in a fw scrapes and a slower pace for the rest of the day. We looked at the McDonalds menu and tried the pistachio mc flurry. Not bad. Two more gelato tastings allowed us to try a whole new range of flavors - cinnamon, bubblegum, oriental cream, basil, and a number of others. We found a very popular pizza shop for dinner where there was a line up of at least 20 people for a table. It was pretty good but very light on toppings. This is a quick post as we are about to go out the door to be picked up for our train to Venice.

Three coins in a fountain...

We walked the streets of Rome all day. They are narrow, crooked and paved with small black cobblestones which are four hundred years old. It is very picturesque but makes for difficult walking. With a backpack full of dirty clothes we walked to a "lavenderia" via the Trevi fountain. You can hear the water well before you get to the square and even at 9am it was teaming with people. We threw in our coins, took a fw photos and continued on to the laundry. The most difficult part of the day turned out to be working the payment system for the washing machine, but eventually we worked it out and with 35 minutes to kill, walked over to Santa Maria de constancionze, or "the bone church". This church has a crypt decorated with the bones of 4000 monks. It was sufficiently macabre to keep all the boys happy and we ducked back to move the clothes to the dryer. This time we had 45 minutes to kill. We decided to look through the Barberini house, which was the house of one of the Popes, turned into an art gallery. The house itself was spectacular and the art was a who's who of Italian painters but the boys were a little bored so we moved quickly. They did recognize a Hanz Holbein of Henry the 8th though. We picked up the laundry , had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe and then went back to the hotel for a regroup.Before dinner we wandered down to the Ghetto, the original Jewish quarter. We walked by the ruins of the building where Julius Caesar was stabbed. The history is everywhere and around every corner is something ancient still in use, or ignored and worked around. Two meters of column rise out of the pavement and you know that the rest of the building is somewhere underground. For dinner we tried a restaurant in the Ghetto. We ordered a bunch of entrees so we could try everything. It was ok but not spectacular. We are still waiting for great food, although we have had a few good snacks.We finished the day with an organized walking tour called "Dark Rome". Our guide, Massimo, walked us around the streets and told spooky stories about people and events. Although is was raining for the whole tour, we loved it. Josh gave it his seal of approval - "awesome" and we were all really pleased that we had made the effort (9 pm tour in the rain after a long day). At the end we bravely caught a bus back to the hotel and crashed in bed.

Rome

We had a quick flight to Rome and were picked up by a driver for the transfer to the hotel. The hotel can only be accessed by buzzing in at a set of giant wooden gates. Once inside there is a long stone tunnel that takes you to a courtyard with three flights of marble stairs up to reception. The building is very old and is a mix of beautiful bones and dodgy additions. We kind of like it although the air-conditioning does not cope with the size of the room. We are across the piazza from the Pantheon in the middle of a maze of small winding streets. We had a wander to get gelato and then again to get dinner at a small cage but we were pretty tired and needed some down time so not much exploring yet. Dinner was fun and we managed to sort everything out pretty well in Italian. Flynn had a very good veal and our other meals were decent. We walked over to Piazza Navona and looked at all the artwork. We may buy a photo if we think we can get it home safely. So far the tally is two damaged suitcases and we will need to get rid of one of them and buy a replacement. Flynn was chosen by a street performer to be part of his act. In Barcelona the boys bought hats with little bull horns on them. Flynn wears his religiously and gets constant comments about it which he quite likes. Lots of people come up and touch the horns and laugh. Anyway, the street performer had a Lille red towel and he made Flynn charge though it a few times and then charged him into a pole. Flynn was also called up to be in one of the shows on the boat, and is now on a bit of a mission to be chosen. It is 7am and the rest of team Starrett is still asleep.

Goodbye cruise hello italy

I have 15 minutes of free time at Barcelona airport so here is a quick post. We had a fantastic time on the cruse. I would not hesitate to recommend the Disney cruise line to anyone with kids. The boat was luxerious, the food was great, the service better and the activites kept us all entertained. We met some lovely people too. I am very glad we booked through a Disney specialist travel agent though. We had a good pre knowledge of how everything worked. Others on the cruise took the whole week to figure out what was what, didn't bring formal wear etc etc. Thanks Steve for helping my obsessive planning needs. Now for the next challenge....surviving a week in Italy with very little Italian. Wish me luck.

Napoli

Aha - free wi fi thanks to the international students' love of cheating the system. They all have the password writtena on scraps of paper and will show it to you if you ask to save you buying something at the shops free wi fi if you buy something). We docked at Naples today and took the train to Pompeii. I need to learn some stronger negative words in Italian as the had to beat off taxi drivers with a stick. They followed us for a full five minutes trying to sell us a taxi ride to Pompeii. The streets are very dirty and the roads hard to cross but we made it without too much trouble. We joined an English speakers guided tour and got a great tour of the site. Josh was very interested but I am not sure if the other two really understood what we were looking at. It is hard to believe that you are allowed to walk through and touch tomething that is two thousand years old when things at home that are 200 years old are behind glass. We bought a takeaway pizza on the way back to the boat and at it on the side if the road. It was good but not great although the price was hard to beat - 7 euro for two large pizzas. The boys are now playing dodgeball on the boat and Jason is napping. Tomorrow is a sea day and we are all a little relieved that there is no port adventure.

A few belated notes about Rome: we had an Australian priest showing us through the catacombs. He was from Melbourne and is going a few years in Rome as a Catacomb guide. St Peter's Basillica was very beautiful but way too crowded. I did tough the foot of the St Peter statue. We got to go down to the catacombs there and see the tombs of the popes - lots of nuns praying. It was an appropriate place to say a little prayer of thanks that our children were not as horrible as Johnny, jack and George. They then took us back upstairs and tried to get us to buy very expensive Vatican medallions and mosaics. i