Hockley Heights Gazette

Well it all started in Wickford. The first leg of the trip was from Wickford to the old port town Dover now one of the most used ports in the world!!! After waiting a while to get the car onto the ferry we entered the very posh club lounge. It was only an extra couple of pounds but well worth it. The trip over the English Chanel was smooth and comfortable. Then we were welcomed into France by a glowing sun. One game of car bingo later we found ourself in a small country town called Guisy. We stayed in a ranch place with two dogs, two donkeys (very noisy) and some chickens. That place was nice but the breakfast consists of only bread and spreads!!! The next day we drove mainly on toll ways (an expensive but efficient way of traveling) to Normandy. That night we slept at a camping ground despite the threatening clouds. We went out for dinner at a restaurant on the beach. Fantatsique! That night it bucketed down, but we survived. Again the next day we spent most of our time on toll ways until we turned of and got lost on tiny country roads!!! We were getting more and more frantic as we went through tiny towns looking for a b&b that we were going to spend two nights in but we couldn't find it! on our journey we saw a boy who was wearing shabby clothes that looked like he had never seen a kettle let alone a car!!! Eventually we found the B&B and it was very nice. That night we went out to the only pub in the village only to find that everyone in there was English, pretty much everyone in the village was English. The food was nice though so I can't complain. So much for the French country-side experience. But that's the experience for you. After a good sleep, slow start and bread, cheese and spread for breakfast again we went out exploring the closest town for places to eat lunch. Shortly after going to places and being rejected we found out that French people don't eat lunch at lunch time but about an hour earlier!!! The classic reject was "we are closed we are full we are open" that sounded a bit suspicious so my conclusion was that they knew we weren't French. We ended up eating microwaved stuff in a park. We had an Australian bbq that night. In the morning we left early to go to a camping site in the French alps. That was a really awesome view!!! While setting up camp Jackson and I managed to break around 5 pegs!!! Oops. In the morning when we were packing up an autistic boy looked into our tent and Jackson didn't notice. The next day was a major part of our trip because we traveled from France to Italy. Most of that day we were on the toll way going through tunnels through the French alps. That was quite an experience. Once we were in Italy we stayed at a place just inside the border, if we could find it. After a long day driving the last thing you want to do is to get lost. But knowing us it was bound to happen but we found the place and it's was a beautiful working orchard. I think the highlight of this place was it's location and it's swimming pool. It was so nice to swim in a pool again, while it's hot. That night after heaving the heavy suitcases up a flight of stairs to our rooms we traveled a short way into Asti a reasonable size town with lots of shops and restaurants. Of course our first night in Italy we just had to have a pizza and it was delicious. That night wasn't as good as it could have been because I didn't sleep much because of the sudden temperature change. We got some free fruit from our host Marissa. Then we traveled, via an amazing stay in the hills of Tuscany, to Lake Bracciano on the edge of Rome. On our way from Luccio to Lake Bracciano we stopped of at Pisa to witness the leaning tower. My dad was very proud of himself when he parked about 200m away from the leaning tower. But I was amazed to find that the leaning tower wasn't the only thing in that area, there was also a baptistry, cathedral and something similar to a university. All of these building were amazing and the detail was so precise. Our first day in Rome was amazing in fact both of our days in Rome were mind boggling this blog won't do any justice to the Colosseum, iImperial walk, huge white building, Roman ruins, Vatican City, Pope's house and St. Peter's church. All of those were so indescribably awesome but the view of Rome from the Cupola was so extreme. The Colosseum was big but St. Peter's church is gargantuan. And the way the light shone through was eerie but good. If I went into detail on these amazing structures when I finish it'll be the year 2094 my 100th birthday. After Rome we moved on through to the mountainous country of Switzerland. Our first drive in Switzerland was spent driving over mountains and through clouds. Yes, we got lost again but found our camp ground eventually and because of incident earlier we bought some new swiss pegs (large nails) before having a quick dip in the lake which was half in Italy and half in Switzerland. That night we ate in a pub at the camp ground, mum and dad had a mug of beer. In the morning we packed up after Jackson and I had another dip in the lake. This next night was the one night that dad had not planned accommodation for and it was havoc. After we looked in about four hotels we settled for a luxury hotel in Leistal. And after doing this in Belgium we did it again in Switzerland, we ate Chinese for dinner. It was good. Since we arrived in Switzerland I've been bugging dad for a swiss army knife and in the morning I got one. It was so cool, and amazingly cheap. Anyway it was that day when we crossed over from Switzerland to Luxembourg. Luxembourg was really nice and reasonably modern. The place we stayed in was really nice mainly because of the xbox. The next day we went into the nearest town and went into a photograph museum and a war museum they were good but made me slightly sleepy. The next day we went from Luxembourg, through Belgium and back into France which was weird going through three countries in one day. Then we spent our last night in an expensive hotel called Le Blanche Cheval (The White Horse) the reason this place was so expensive was because of it's posh restaurant. It was my first experience of a posh restaurant I found it funny when the waitress brought in the starters for mum and dad on a huge plate but the food only took up an eighth of it. I did like the idea of sorbet in between courses though. The main course was great but when the cart of different cheese came out it put me off cheese on biscuits for a while!!! All the way through this trip we have noticed that there were toilets that were just holes in the ground at the start we thought that it was just a one off thing but then I realised that they were quite common and that was the scariest thing on the trip. In the morning we made our way back to Calais and did some shopping in a super store which is where we stocked up on chocolate!!! Yum. Not so long after that we were back in the club lounge drinking our complementary drinks. Our sixteen day traveling extravaganza was finished.