Great Friends Come together in PA in December, 2006

Many a good friend were heartily greeted over the Christmas month. Here are a few photos from these good gatherings.

Daphne and Zoe

Jocelyn and Zoe at Westtown Lake

Craig, Jolie, her daughter Adalena, dog fiver and Zoe going for a walk in the Laurels

Adalena, Zoe and Jolie

It had been five years since these good friends from high school (Westtown) had gotten together. Lissa set out on her first solo voyage since giving birth a couple of years ago, flying over to visit from LA. We were joined by Sarah Hart who came down from New York to meet us at MJ’s house. The reunion was short but sweet, a night of laughter and stories, each of us wowed by each of us. Thanks girls for making that effort and for your tremendous selves and friendships.

Lissa, Sarah Hart and MJ, with Sarah's sister Beccah

Christmas in PA, 2006

The Lights at Longwood

Cody and Dylan excited on Christmas morning

Zoe and Danny just before Christmas dinner

The big spread for xmas dinner: Standing Rib Roast, Pop-overs (yorkshire puddings), wild rice, scalloped potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, pecan salad, and chocolate mousse

Cubby opening his gifts as Cody, Dylan and Craig look on

Ewald, Lynne, Rick and Beth by the Christmas Tree

There’s nothing like a real wintry Christmas with all the trimmings and traditions from your childhood, so Zoë really got into the spirit this year, spending the first Christmas with friends and family in America for five years. The lead-up to xmas was a lot of caroling, we must have sung songs about 6 or 7 times here and there, and a lot of xmas lights and displays in the area. As mentioned before, it seems to be the only possible positive outcome to the development of such a beautiful, formerly rural area: the glitzy and cheery lights strung under eaves and all about the yards. We also went to look at the lights at Longwood Gardens with Beth, Cody and Dylan. This world renowned garden puts on a dazzling display of lights, decorated trees, living wreaths (of orchids, cacti or other exotic plants), some music and an ice skating show that we really enjoyed. We went caroling at a Quaker nursing home in West Chester with my dad and musician friends who have been making the xmas rounds for about 20 years. We were also in town for the old fashioned Christmas parade that same night, Craig getting his first taste of a small town American parade with high school marching bands and grandfathers in fancy antique cars. We even visited the gigantic tree, skating rink and nearby window displays at Rockefeller Center in New York. We were deep into Christmas cheer by the time the actual day rolled around.

Our great friend from Australia, Jocelyn, came down to spend the holidays with us from Boston where she is currently working and living. It was really great to share Christmas together and she got to take the Zoë-background tour as well.

On Christmas eve, we went over to show Jocelyn the site where we hope to get married next September. We were trying to visualize it and think things through when a minister arrived at this small chapel deep in the woods, declared us all Christmas elves sent from the sky (I think it was ‘cause both Jocelyn and Craig are redheads) and we set about helping her prepare for a Christmas mass. So, we had a big sing along type of xmas mass in a delightfully unintended way. Then we went round to friends Robbie and Mary’s for a xmas eve dinner.

We awoke at 7:30 on Christmas morning and went downstairs to watch Zoë’s nephews, Cody and Dylan open their stockings and presents. We all exchanged some gifts and had a big breakfast where Jocelyn joined us as well. The day was a bit grey and rainy, so we spent in indoors, getting ready for the big feast. There was a brief family drama where it appeared that Zoë’s grandmother, Danny, wouldn’t make it down to Beth’s house for xmas dinner. She has some erratic sleeping patterns and had apparently been up all night on Christmas eve. So, Zoë, Craig and Jocelyn walked through the woods to her house to sing her every Christmas carol we knew. We sang them all, (except Rudolph which Danny quickly told us she did not like), humming when we didn’t know the words. This was a particularly fun part of the day. The family was joined by Zoë’s dad, Cubby, and Eileen and Ewald, totaling 13 people who came over to Beth’s house that night, and we feasted with merriment.

NYC, Boston and upstate NY: 7-12 Nov, 2007

A lot of Zoe's friends are based in New York City. These friends as well as the famous Christmas decorations drew us to NYC for a couple of days. It was great to catch up with Zoe's friends and get a taste of what it would be like to live in what seems to be the center of the world at this point in time.

It was a stressful mission, navigating the New York highways and aggressive traffic. Even more stressful when we left and realised our gas/petrol tank was close to empty and we were stuck on the complicated highway system.


Craig and Zoe in front of the massive Rockefeller Christmas Tree


From NYC we drove up to Boston to visit Jocelyn, our good friend from Melbourne, who is now working at Harvard. She is the tutor at one of the undergraduate dormitories. Her dorm is where the majority of the Harvard football and swim team is. So we got to experience life as a Harvard student and the wild Harvard jock parties.

The weather was perfect for our lovely hike around to Waldon Pond. So still.



After Jocelyn's tour of Harvard, we left her with her workmate Guenther to solve the world's health problems with econometrics, while we headed to upstate New York to visit our friends from Japan: Greg , Heejung and their son Kaelem. Being the naturalists that they are, they took us on a hike around their local pond soon after we after arrived, even though it was dark. Then another hike through State Forest the next day before we drove back to Pennsylvania.

US Trip, visiting PA: Nov. 28-Dec.28, 2006

The month long visit back to Zoe's home in Pennsylvania (PA) and some other parts of the US fullfills several objectives: to catch up with family and friends, to share Christmas together, to enjoy Chester County in the beautifully stark winter, and to plan our wedding next September. It has been five years since we were here over wintertime and the holidays. I forgot how elegant the bare winter tree limbs and sparse landscape can be. I didn't forget of course how lovely all of the people are and it's been nice to spend time with everyone. Wedding planning has been something of a stress, but we have suddenly become very knowledgeable about this area and are making progress. Christmas spirit is alive and kicking here, we've sung carols already about four times and watched the elaborate light displays (the only conceivable positive result of the development and suburbanizing of the once open and beautiful countryside here). Below are some pictures from our (ongoing) trip.

Brunch after Quaker meeting with
(L-R) Jack, Eileen, Cubby, Paula, Z & C

Zoe and her sister Beth

Zoe's nephews Cody (12) and Dylan (9)

Outside Zoe's sisters, Willow and Rainy's cafe with Unlce Joe


Zoe and her dad


A spring house in Winter, a common sight in PA which some wedding guests may see next year.

UK: 25-28 November, 2006

We caught the ferry from Boulougne to the white cliffs of Dover. The sea was rough enough to make Zoe turn green and relieved to reach stable ground. We then cruised through the UK highway network to back it back to Southerness, Scotland. We spent a couple of days packing and sorting our possessions that seem to accumulate even after just a few months. Then trained to down to Manchester where we couchsurfed for a night before flying to the U.S. of A.

France: November 23-25

After Spain we spent the next 2 days driving through France, staying at B&Bs. The French B&Bs are no ordinary B&Bs, though. Most of them are in beautiful old chateaus set amongst rural and natural beauty. Again French food didn't let us down. The set menu the hotel around the corner from the first B&B was amazing. Lucky we were coming down from our cheese overdose, so could enjoy their huge selection. The 2nd B&B was more remote so we opted to stay in and eat dinner with our hosts. Real French home style country tucker. Most of the meal was fresh from the farm. Some other guests were there, who were also farmers. So we spent most of the time trying to understand their conversations about crops this year.

B&B on 23rd Nov

B&B on 24th Nov

Spain and Portugal: November 18-23, 2006

From Carcassone, we drove to Burgos of Castilla y Leon in the center of Spain. After 13 consecutive days of couch surfing, we decided to take a break for a night, so found a cheap pension in the center of Burgos. Right around the corner of our pension was a fun autumn harvest festival. Free wine, roasted chestnuts, traditional music, dancing and a little rain. We found a cool tasty tapas bar. The food was too good that we forgot about our digital video camera. Didn't realise we'd left it there til the next morning. After a few hours of knocking on their door we were lucky to find our camera still there.

Chestnuts being roasted at the Autumn harvest festival we stumbled upon on our arrival in Spain

We continued onto Ourense in north western Spain. Hisane, our good friend in Japan, had heard of a successful Japanese style hotspring that had been set up in Ourense. It was inspiring to see how successful routenburos (Japanese outdoor baths) can be even outside of Japan.

The hotspring was close to the Spainese Portuguese border, so we popped across to Portugal and couchsurfed in a cute little ancient town called Valencia. Near by was a large national park, where we spent the day driving and hiking around.

Along our hike in the national park in northern Portugal


The old town we stayed in was on the ancient but still practiced pilgrimage root

Gossip on the streets


This arch way and the maze of one-way streets certainly kept it interesting each time we drove in and out of the town we were staying at

After Valencia it was time to turn around and head back. Back all the way to Scotland. We made it past Leon in central Spain. We stayed at a Casa Rural, the Spainish equivalent of a B&B. But rather than just a room, we had a whole 3 storey house to ourselves. With the early nightfall, lack of signs and our limited Spainish, it was a nightmare trying to navigate the small country roads. After an hour or so searching and knocking on the door of the wrong house, we had to phone and ask our hosts to come and meet us at a local bar. After settling in we made our way to another local bar for a feast of Spainish tortillas, olives, meats and too much wine.

Outside the whole house we rented in rural Spain. A nightmare to find, but a real luxury

Zoe nesting in our home of 1 night

The next day we drove along the picturesque northern coast of Spain and stayed at a pension in Bilbao.

Art Museum in Bilbao

Avignon and Carcassone: November 16-18, 2006

On the road from Antibes to Avignon

Carcassone Castle

From Antibes we headed to Avignon for lunch and then onto Carcassone for a couple of days. Carcassone is small town surrounding a pretty amazing medieval castle that was impressive to stroll around both at day and night. Again we were lucky enough to couchsurf here and have Owen and his friends show us around. In return we offerred to cook them dinner. Since we were in France we bought French ingredients (duck fillet, herbs of Provence) and then realised what we had got ourselves into: attempting to cook French food for the first time to French people. Amazingly enough, we pulled it off. French duck is where it is at!

Southern France: November 12-16, 2006

We had extended our stays at pretty much everywhere we had visited, so were starting to feel a little pushed for time. So from Rome we decided to cover a decent amount of ground and drive to Southern France in a day. But covering that much ground and trying to keep up with the rest of the speeding Italian traffic proved too much for our old Scottish lassy of a vehicle. Just 20 odd k's from Antibes (where we had organised to couch surf again) we pulled up into the highway service area to see smoke coming out of our back right wheel. After letting it cool down we decided to push on nice and slowly. We made it to Antibes where our helpful couchsurfing host (Bernard) helped us get the car to the mechanic on what turned out to be the final thread of its brake pad. It took longer and cost more to fix than we had anticipated. But hey, on the coast of Southern France was a pretty damn good place to be stranded. The Mediterranean waters only change a couple of degrees Celsius in temperature from summer to winter. So the warm waters keep the air warm even in the middle of November. Warm enough for us to lounge on the beach.

Zoe and our gracious Couchsurfing Host, Bernard, at breakfast in his garden

Once again couch surfing was a god send for us. Not only did Bernard help us with our car problems, he also showed us around the beautiful country towns in the neighbouring mountains. He generously let us stay in his spare apartment not far from the beach.

We also took a day trip to Cannes, where the International Film Festival is held, and a boat trip across to the islands from Cannes for some hiking and yet more amazing French food picnicking. Unfortunately Zoe overdosed on cheese.

Rome: November 9-12, 2006

From Couching Surfing in Tuscany we moved to Couch Surfing just outside Rome. This time we stayed with a family and they generously allowed us to stay in their spare spacious apartment in an idyllic rural location. They usually rent it out as a B&B, but since it was out of season, we could stay there for free. We were lucky. We caught the train into Rome for the 3 days there. Rome was a jaw-droppingly overwhelming city. 3 days was just enough time to scrape the surface. Everywhere we turned there was something amazing. Mind-boggling.

The highlights for us was the Colloseum; all the archeological remains and ruins in the city center; the Pantheon; Sistine Chapel and all the many churches. We have been impressed with all the churches throughout Europe. But the churches in Rome, were just on another scale. The most amazing being St. Peter's Basilica. We were not the only ones moved by it's immensity and beauty. We saw a lady fall to the floor and break down in tears, I guess because it was so moving for her.

CouchSurfing in Tuscany: November 5-9, 2006

We were delighted to discover both the beauties of Tuscany, small towns, medieval walled villages, the heady sights of Florence and the wonders of a new way to travel: CouchSurfing.

We had heard of CouchSurfing when traveling in Hawaii in May but had forgotten to actually try it out. www.couchsurfing.com is a site which connects the adventurous, trusting traveler with the adventurous, trusting host. It's almost like an exchange program, allowing travelers to experience local life, get the local low-down on food, places, language and culture, to stay somewhere for free and make new friends. Users upload a pretty detailed profile, including their interests, philosophies, travel experience and accommodation etc. We had a truly great time with all our CouchSurfing, it is an ingenious and yet sort of natural evolution of ideas. Very highly recommended to all!!

Many Thanks to our hosts in Tuscany: Lorenzo in Pistoia and Paolo in Grosetto!

We visited Lorenzo first, staying at his great apartment about 20 minutes outside of Florence. The keys got locked inside the car on our first night there, so we stayed a bit longer than expected. We went out and met Lorenzo's friends, shared a lot of dinners together. We spent a full day wandering through Florence, seeing Italian masterpieces at the Uffizi museum. We also went to a few hot springs in Tuscany, more research for our future onsen resort. We visited a few countryside villages, marveling at the narrow twisting streets and rows of vineyards. We stayed two nights with our host Paolo, a calm, quiet and excellent host. He took us to another quaint village and we walked nearby past some neat Truscan tombs and these trails that were lined by high cliffs. It was a fascinating trip into countryside I had been longing to see with my own eyes.