http://www.epicwaves.com A Surfers Photographic Travel Blog Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:51:51 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Hi All, Thank you very much for all of your comments, we love logging on and reading your words. It helps us feel connected to home. We have just travelled today from Lake Como, Italy through to Switzerland and we are now staying in Austria tonight. Thats the latest on our location. The ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/26/500-photos-uploaded Venice! Wow! It has to be seen to be believed! The sheer size of the city surprised me. I knew about the canals but so many weaving in and out over such a bit area, incredible and I had no idea. We rode the public boats under the bridges, alongside ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/22/venice-rocks-the-boat Sadly we depart our ‘toscano retreat’ We travel today to Oriago, a 15 minute ride out of Venice.  We travel mainly the ‘autostrada’ (motorways) all the way. http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/21/autostrada-outta-here We pack a picnic lunch for our driving tour of Tuscany. I feel as though we are on a movie set as the country is that beautiful.  The hills are rolling and green with grapevines and olive groves as far as the eye can see.  The roads are narrow and ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/20/wild-boars-run-amuck The tourist information in Pistoia has been incredibly helpful. Pistoia is a medieval town, complete with stone wall encasing the centre and full of narrow streets and large Italian piazza. WE arrange accommodation through the tourist information at an ‘agriturismo’ (tourist farm accommodation) stay. We have found the ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/19/wine-pesto-olives-and-lights-of-florence Sorry all for the lack of information on where in the world we are. It has been hard to locate internet in Spain and France. We spent a week in Spain at a place on the coast called Miami Platja, it was great weather, the beach was fantastic aswell. We ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/18/inexplicably-unbelievable As we approach the breakfast room Elsa and Luke are sharing cappuccino and the day’s text. Ciao! After our breakfast we exchange gifts.  Elsa insists we take two bottles of the gorgeous Umbrian wine she has chosen for us to have with her meals.  With Luke translating (he speaks better ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/17/more-tears-more-hugs-oh-dear After breakfast we plan to catch the train to Rome, a one hour journey.  At breakfast Elsa, translated by Paula, her pretty married daughter invites me to go in the field ministry with her.  I am disappointed that this won’t work out today.  The group for field service is meeting ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/16/what-lions-what-christians We have breakfast together with Guiglio, Lisa and Josh Campara  before they leave to stay at Bethel in Rome.  Its been wonderful catching up with them on the other side of the world!  We intend to visit Marmore falls, an incredible waterfall switched on and off at  certain times of ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/15/flick-the-switch It’s a four hour drive to Terni in Umbria to the Hotel Fontegaia owned by a special sister, Elsa and her 4 beautiful adult children, two of whom are married, who all live there with their 94 year old grandmother. One son, Marco, is a regular pioneer and has joined the ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/14/we-feel-the-pain We wake early this morning for our exciting day exploring ‘Cinque Terre’, (five towns). The Mediterranean is glistening as we walk easily from Riomaggiore to Manarola (1k). A marvellous paved walkway lulls us into a false sense of security thinking the path between all 5 towns will be like this.  ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/13/did-someone-jack-this-road-up Our destination today is Cique Terra. We travel the coast road via Monaco and Monte Carlo. Talk about your rich and famous!! There are yachts moored here bigger than our house! I drive the last couple of hours from Genoa to La Spezia and along windy roads to Riomaggiore, ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/12/calf-muscle-workout We leave our lovely villa (where did that week go???) with it’s majestic mountain views and all the comforts of home. The villa’s white rendered walls, wrought iron window bars, stone paved courtyard and two storey design made us feel we had really tasted Spain. We drive north leaving the ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/11/french-fries-anyone We took the train to Barcelona today, a very comfortable trip of 1 ½ hrs each way.  We met up with Geoff and Piriot Ring (from Wauchope congregation and staying indefinitely in Barcelona) at the central train station. We had a lovely day with them seeing the sights of Barcelona. ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/10/gaudi-or-gaudy Justin has an arrangement for field service with a pioneer, Matt, who has moved here with his lively wife Elke from Norwich, England. They go back to England for one week a month to window clean and work like mad. They then spend the next three weeks in Tarragona in ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/08/out-on-the-work The plan was to look at some of the local shops but they are very limited so it was a much better option to lie on the beach and swim in the Mediterranean.  It was lovely, cool but crystal clear.  It’s a warm day. We met the English congregation back ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/08/the-mediterranean-beckons Before going to Tarragona yesterday we found the local Miami Platja Kingdom Hall via the information centre, a helpful lady in a shop and Justin’s handy Spanish. A team of electricians from Barcelona were working there and were able to tell us that the local Spanish congregation meets for field ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/07/spanglish-comes-in-handy Today we take a trip to Tarragona, 35 minutes north of us towards Barcelona and the first Roman settlement in Spain, built in 2 BC. The ancient walled city exists inside the sprawling, more modern city. Augustus lived and ruled from here. We walked around the remains of a Colosseum, temple ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/06/turquoise-mediterranean We have a day of R & R today after the days of driving. http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/05/no-news-day It is approximately a 3 hour drive to our villa in Spain in Miami Platja (said playa) south of Barcelona. It amazes us that crossing an invisible line that is a border creates such changes in culture, architecture, language, landscape and unbelievable even weather it seems. France is old but ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/04/under-construction 1203We have a long drive today. We want to see the bridge in Millau, it’s a bit of a detour and more back roads but we’re sure seeing the country! This is real France; farms on rolling hills and beautiful villages with people dining outside. The Millau bridge is ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/03/millau-bridge It’s a very wet morning; however this clears by lunchtime to a sunny 25C day.  We are heading west to Dordogne.  We have four days to arrive at our villa in Spain so we are pacing our journey south through France. The scenery today is a complete contrast to yesterday’s ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/02/beautiful-views-hefty-tolls We leave our apartment at 7.30am. It’s a rather arduous trip to pick up our car on the northern outskirts of Paris.  Down our 91 stairs with our luggage for the last time, up and down many flights of stairs at various ‘gare’, metro stations and we finally catch two ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/10/01/dodgem-cars-paris-style We take a lovely 35 minute walk down the Rue De Pyranees to the meeting with the Paris East English congregation. Along the way we pass the Sunday market. There are beautiful fresh fruit, vegetables, seafood, patisserie items and of course ‘la fromage’ in great quantities and temptingly ‘tres affordable’! It ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/09/30/au-revoir-paris Well I've been busy snapping away on holidays, and theres loads to see. The photos are now available by clicking on the gallery tab above. This is a little time lapse clip I took at Mahon Falls, its taken over a five minute period but only runs for 5 seconds. It ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/09/29/200-photos-stop-motion-clip It’s a fine but cloudy day today. We head early to Rue Cler, a popular Parisian market. The market is where the locals mainly purchase their fresh food such as seafood, fruit and vegetables, cheese, breads and pizza. It really is a gourmet delight. We brought some fresh handmade spinach ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/09/29/paris-street-life It is a very wet day today so we head out late after an early lunch. Our destination is the Palais De Versailles. The trip requires three train changes and one and half hours in time. It takes a little extra time for us since we hopped quickly ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/09/28/palais-de-versailles My back is so sore after yesterday! There is the Apple Expo 2007 on at the Port de Versailles, so being a showery day, Mark and Justin are keen to go to this, eager to look at the latest gadgets. Seemingly they are very impressed. I enjoy a little walk ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/09/27/apples-baguettes We woke this morning to drizzle and rain but as the morning wore on blue sky broke through so we decide to take this opportunity to ascend the Eiffel tower. Two trains get us there to Gare (station) Trocadero.  Naturally, there is a queue, no tourist to Paris misses this ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/09/26/art-kings-and-revolutionaries We woke to a lovely sunny day albeit with a cool breeze.  Our first stop on the Metro is the Champs Elysee with the Arc Du Triomphe towering at one end.  The walk of many blocks is interesting all the way with autumn trees ling the road. Expensive designer stores ... http://www.epicwaves.com/article/2007/09/25/wish-you-were-here