30 ans 31st May

30 May dawned in Nelson as a perfect winter’s day with a cloudless blue sky, fresh snow glistening on the ranges and our first frost of the year. Bags were already packed so it was just a case of last minute lockup, final goodbyes and Executive Limousine’s Mercedes Benz S320 and chauffeur John were ready to whisk us to the airport` then

It seems an appropriate opportunity here and now to pop in an ad for this excellent service which you may at some stage have occasion to use.

For that special occasion or to treat your special person to Executive Class pick-up and delivery anywhere……… phone Executive Limousines.

Auckland was looking gorgeous under clear blue skies and we filled the time prior to checking in at International Departures by reading in the sun. It occurred to me that we’d be unlikely to sit again, on this trip, at an airpost where we could gaze into a totally clear blue sky; no pollution, no clouds and no stack of planes circling.

Our first trip travelling on Emirates airlines the 380 Airbus and both the airline and the craft are just great! Everything from the eyecatching hostess gear to a smooth as butter flight, extra leg space and great service on board including a complimentary flight socks and toothpaste and toothbrush!! Departing Auckland at 6.00 pm the flight to Sydney is just a nice time frame to enjoy dinner and a movie. But boarding again at 10.00 pm NZ time heading for Dubai knowing that we would eventually arrive in Dubai at 5.15 a.m. Dubai time, translated into a 13 hour night which felt a little daunting. However, with Fred on the aisle seat and me in the middle we were lucky enough to have a tiny, pleasant and couteously travel savvy Swiss girl in the window seat. We managed to get some reasonable periods of sleep and Fred churned through a few movies while I listened to some great music.

Dubai 5.10 am was 31 degrees celsius and the sun just rising to give a bold red glow through the thick haze. The terminal with 235 gates was seething and the masses of shops crammed with shoppers buying anything and everything.

Prettypleased to eventually touch down in Rome.Immigration pathetic with 2 staff processing about 500 people but once through baggage and customs a cinch and on the train into the City. Having recieved excellent instructions from our B & B hostess we easily found our way to B&B Smart and were kindly welcomed and shown our more than adequate accomodation. A shower was first up, then a walk in the local vicinity to view Santa Maggiore a renowned basilica then to a beaut little Pizzeria we'd spotted earlier. Yes Emily, these real Italian pizzas are on a different level to what we're used to........... delisio!!!

Home now and crashing into bed! Photos next time I hope Ciao for now

This is us from 5 June

http://www.tv-en.peugeot.com/News/Peugeot-5008-video.html

Much discussion between participating hirers/travellers before clinching the deal for this beauty.

Amazing

A view from space of 24 hours of flights condensed into a couple of minutes.

See the change of day to night round the earth and the flow of traffic from North America overnight to Europe and vice versa.

We're joining this on Sunday!

Olwyn and Fred; Where and When

Click on map for a clearer view

Nelson Coes from Home to Rome

If you want to put our travel time in perspective think;

....... our limo picks us up for the airport at 10.45 Sunday morning
....... 39 hours later, at 1.45 Tuesday morning we land in Rome & hope to be at our hotel by 3.45

Hopefully by the time you folk are getting up Tuesday morning we will have showered, eaten Roman pizza and maybe will be falling into bed!

I doubt I'll be publishing any new posts that day!

Olwyn and Freds Calendar Itinerary

I put our itinerary on to a calendar a while back and now and again, as we've finalised plans and bookings for various places, I've popped a bit of information on to the calendar.

Not comprehensive or definitive, but a bit of an overview.

Click to open

Radicondoli Tuscany

Radicondoli Tuscany Panorama

St Pardoux la Riviere

St Pardoux la Riviere

St Remy de Provence picture

Monday in AKL and only 2 sleeps to go!
Packing almost completed and as ready as we can be to set out for the great blue yonder.
With 26 hours flying plus 5+ hours in transit we have had to chide Mary for thinking that 13 hours was a long way! Teabags and coffee in the packing along with the souvenirs.
Ciao

Travel detail

Well we may not have every single train journey booked and signed off for Europe, but at least we have a limo transfer to and from home and Nelson airport.

Thanks John, you're just too kind.

Last haircut today before trip; next time in France! (I've taken a phone photo so I can show the hairdresser if my non existent French fails. That was Fred but never completed so I will post for him because I have had a 1.5 buzz. Hope it will get me home but my "barber" says hair grows 12 cm's a month so we shall see. Bruce

Happy Birthday Mary!! Hope you're going out somewhere very special for dinner. Wish we could pop in and share the celebration but we'll just have to double the fun for your anniversary next month!

12 sleeps now; last haircut today next time in France!

Bruce here 1800 hours Tuesday 18 May
Getting things done. 2 cars serviced so that they don't fade away!
Euro's sorted but just before the nest rate in 5 years!!!
All ready to go except waiting to try on some "new" shorts.
Still some business to complete but we will get there in time.
News time!

Would you believe I have found the world of blogging thanks to some good tuition from Olwyn so watch this space and we will see what we can post over the next 2 months as we explore the European World.

Buonanotte

Ciao First time Fred

Olwyn again (do I always have so much to say.............?). But just thinking it must be time someone else added a photo cos I'm not quite sure why Eddie and Claire are following us up the page! Love them as I do, I don't know that I need to have them follow me through Europe (and Em, Paddy and Anna may be a bit concerned!)

Great to see you here James. I knew a blogsite called "coeconnection" would light up; yeehah!! A lot for us newbies to learn but we'll give it a go! I think I've jlearnt just now that it's pretty silly to comment on the comment ............ where does the comment go?

I'll try to repeat my comment now, in, "create post" which must share better I hope.

Time out from trip planning for us today. The rain has been persssssisting down all day and with an early morning suggestion from Dan that this could be a good day to christen Yasmina's new Monopoly board game we thought......perrrrrrrrrrfect; and it was.

When did you last kick back and settle in to an afternoon challenge of Monopoly? I think for me it may have been 40+ years ago (aaaaagh). Did you know that nowadays the locations are in NZ and the dollar values are in the hundreds of thousands! Great day, great game. Fred managed to call and visit Yasmina's Waiheke Island every round (plus Chance and Community Chest and very often Jail) and Yasmina seemed to have a continuing need to stop and buy carrots every round at Fred's Ohakune property. Capitalist Olwyn was quick to build apartments (not just mere houses these days!) with the subsequent opportunity to collect big fat rents, but all in all lots of fun for all and let's hope we can do this more often!@

Curried crockpot chicken with rice and green beans are calling and then it's back to prioritising places to go and sights to see ......... I think I'll look at Provence and Cote de Azure tonight... ooo ooo ooooooh

AKL Coe's here
Getting on for 6 and must go and open the wine soon and watch the news. Chicken tonight!
Had a big storm through today but sounds mild compared to the one in NSN.
12 sleeps to go for us and have started getting the packing together. Oh the drama of how many shirts to take! Itinerary completed and will send a copy to all those affected or who may want to find or contact us. Money sorted - less to leave to the children!
Mary has booked an Alfa for their stay which should be cool compared to our mini MPV!

16 more sleeps for the Nelson Coes!

Lots of good preparation done here today with Fred on to his packing! Have got the teabags in Bruce and on Emily's suggestion I've popped a bit of laundry detergent in in case we need and see a laundry opportunity without tracking down a laundromat.

I've been finalising some bookings for downstairs and have spent a long time sorting out the use of my webmail which on previous trips has caused me considerable stress and frustration - not exactly sure I have all the problems solved, but I'm a little further down the track I think.

Very excited to find it's easy (at least here at home on our own PC) to download photos directly from the camera to the blogsite, though I'm just going to experiment right now with trying to get the pic placed in a more appropriate place on the page.

Bruce again - one of the weary (well we will be by the time it is all over) travellers.

Have just read Olwyn's initial notes. I am sure that we are going to have a good time. And the weather in Tuscany is improving every day!

Bruce Here

Have just signed in to see how it all works.

Will practice more tomorrow

Will try and find a pre 1970 photo to add

A 2nd Look

Just back for a quick 2nd look at how this works

Wow........I've set up a blog!

So now, what do I say?

Maybe I tell you why I've set this up!

This blog is to share with family and friends (and anyone else who happens to be interested in a blog called "Coe Connection"), some of the comings and goings, trials and tribulations, highs and lows and general hilarity that will go with a trip where 3 brothers and wives, plus a couple of their adult children, converge from New Zealand and California USA, to Italy for a 25th wedding anniversary/holiday(vacation)/trip.

I have no idea how often we'll be able to update this but I hope it's reasonably regularly and I hope that everyone in the group will add contributions.

That's it for now - time to go read the "help" page to see what else we can do here, while I wait and listen for the predicted storm to hit Nelson (we've battened down the hatches so will enjoy listening to the rain on the roof as long as the wind stays moderate!)