Bergman Travel Diary

Kjell's little... Easter, 2010 By Matt & Kerry Bergman Book Preview

We woke up to a sunshiny day today. Another beautiful Spring day. After a morning of relaxing in the front garden on a picnic blanket and playing badminton we headed out for some country air - Destination: Matt's workmate Bob's farm in the country around Midhurst. We had a wonderful time strolling around the 10 acre farm, photographing all sorts of paraphenalia and animals. The boys fed the pigs, chickens and ducks as they ran around with Bob & Margaret's many beautiful adopted dogs. They laughed as they ran around, just being children... fantastic to watch! Storm ran around with the other dogs, acting like a pup until she remembered that her hips weren't up to it. She then decided to have a swim in the duck's pond, only to discover that she couldn't get out... Daddy to the rescue :-) Boy, does she smell now! We went for a drive to a nearby stream and waterfall, where the boys and Storm waded in the shallow, clear water. Next we headed back to the farm...

We have had little luck getting internet successfully working while we have been away. We are currently sitting in McDonalds but connection is very limited. We leave from Calais (Storm had to have her injections here before we can go back again... so we wait) in the morning and will be back in the UK with our regular internet connection tomorrow some time. Can't wait to update you all on our latest adventures. Once again we find that Calais has very little to offer. Unless you like noisy ferry's waiting to leave to UK and then coming in. They run all night long and are louder than a thunder storm. We looked up things to see and to while in Calais, only to find that we have already visited the ver limited number of worthwhile things to see. It is difficult to imagine that this cold, blustery town could possibly be busstling with people in the summer months. Why? We will be glad to see the back of it again. If it were not for Storm needed her injections to go back to the UK we ...

Last time we were blessed enough to visit the beautiful city of Paris we felt there was still so much we could have done. Well, today we did it! Without having the roof box attached to our roof (like we did last year) we found we were able to park inside the underground parking lot across from Notre Dame. The most it would cost us would be €22.50 for the day in parking… and there would be no need to return to the car every 2 hours like we did when we parked outdoors last year. Whew! We went for a nice photographic walk around the outside of Notre Dame and were just deciding what to do next when Matt suggested we hire bikes for the day. Fabulous idea! Back in Australia, a few years ago, we had watched an episode of ‘Getaway’ that showed how you could hire bikes around Paris, leaving them when not needed at designated parking spots, and taking a new one whenever you desire. We had seen them last year when we visited but gave it a miss. Not this time! The bikes were a fairly simple thi...

Disneyland, Paris! What can we say but WOW!!! We arrived at the caravan park nice and early after a 6:30 wake up, determined to make the most of the day and possibly make it to Disneyland today instead of tomorrow (as originally planned). We arrived at Caravanning 4 Des Vents, a camping ground just 20 minutes’ drive from Disneyland, at 8:00, only to find that reception didn’t open until 09:00. Never mind! At least we would be ready when they opened for the day. With some spare time and a PSP handy we found that the caravan park had free Wi Fi internet… so we decided to phone Matt’s mum to let her know where we were. We were very impressed with the quality of Skype on the PSP. It was just like using any other phone… so cool! Once reception opened at 09:00 we checked in and, realising that we still had enough time, bought our Disneyland, Paris tickets as well. Our tickets set us back €190. OUCH!!! We were sure we wouldn’t be disappointed though (and we had saved up for this, so we were p...

The trip from Germany to France was a very simple one. We drove around 800km today, with stops in between for stretches, food and toilets. The toilet facilities along the German motor ways are very good. You pay €0.50 to use them, but they are extremely clean ... even automatically cleaning themselves with a special turn-around seat and spray when you flush. Very hygienic! If you then buy refreshments from the service station eatery you get your €0.50 credited off your total. A great system, once you understand it! Once we hit the French motor ways it was back to the land of tolls, tolls and yes, more tolls! Besides the obvious broken down border crossing stations you pass as you enter into France, you know you have changed countries well and truly when you come to the first toll booth...mmm. Within a few kilometres of France you are up for your first toll of €6.50, followed a little later on in the day by another toll of €20.20, followed by two more, consisting of €5.50 and €...

We all got out of bed nice and early today so that we could go and have a look around Edersee, about one hours’ drive from Wollrode. After a lovely breakfast of bread rolls with various toppings, hot chocolate for the boys and coffee for the adults, we headed off in the cars. What a day! The sun was shining magnificently all day long... not what we had expected! We found a park around the Lake/Dam and went for a wander around. There was a group of kindergarten children enjoying the warm day as well. It seemed that they went everywhere we went... cute, but at times very annoying (when trying to take piccy’s anyway)... nice to see them enjoying the sun though. After our walk around the lake we headed towards the nearby wildlife park where we enjoyed the wildlife. We set up a nice family shoot for Kerstin, Stefan and Kjell, overlooking the water and mountains. Can’t wait to see how they come up. As we wandered around we saw a herd of deer hiding amongst the forest trees... it looked li...