With reluctance we said goodbye to Kees, Rem, Sem & Flyn (hopefully we will see them in Oz in the near future) and set off for Bruges in Belgium. We had 4 trains to catch to get across Holland and into Belgium and in 2 cases we only had 6 minutes in between!! Also we had to find the station number and just made it by the skin of our teeth ( I have never run so much with backpacks to catch trains!) Bruges is a very attractive ancient city with cobbled street...

A long day's travel from Bordeaux as we had three train changes: Paris where we had to change stations, going from Gare Montparnasse in the south to Gare de Nord across the other side of Paris. We left a bag at the apartment we were coming back to (Diana & Norman McLeod's) and managed to get our connection with five minutes to spare; on to Amsterdam where we had to change to the Arnhem train, all on our Eurail ticket. We were met on the station platform by ...

We know the name as a wine growing area but Bordeaux is a large city on the Garonne River. The main part of the city has been rebuilt on classical lines in the 1800's with beautiful four to five storey buildings with large roof spaces and attic levels. There are wonderful public spaces, squares and long walking/shopping streets. We stayed in a good hotel opposite the station as we wanted to be on the train early next morning. Outside our hotel were a number of tr...

Lozie met us on foot at the station and we walked the walking (& shopping)street to Russ & Lozie's apartment on the third floor in a traditional French inner city block at least 200 years old. Good exercise carrying our three bags up the 60 stairs to the top. They have a great position but the apartment is quite small and they are thinking of moving so as to accommodate all the hordes that have promised to arrive from Aus in the summer! We had a walk aro...

From Turin to Chambrey we travelled through the alps on a fast train, first class this time. Our first two trips we travelled second class as we did not realise our Eurail Pass was first class. The alps were still in snow and we stopped at a number of village stations where tourists had been having vacations in the snow. It was very beautiful. Avignon station is opposite the city wall at the end of the main street. We found accommodation in a fairly ordinary ho...