Tuesday 19th May, France (Beaune)

We get up early to hire some bicycles and we do a 35km tour through the local vineyards stopping in for tastings of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir along the way. It is a spectacular day – 23 degrees, blue sky! At midday (after our third wine tasting) we buy a bottle of Chardonnay and have a picnic under a tree in the hills. It is a perfect way to celebrate being in France. After our boozy lunch we fall asleep and miss the wine class that we’ve organised with a local wine master! Instead, we make our way to the Chateau Du Pommard which is a stunning mansion for more wine tasting. As well as having the best red wines, it also boasts its own collection of Dali statues and is hosting a Dali exhibition. It’s hard to believe but we’ve got the whole place to ourselves!

Monday 18th May, France (Troyes to Beaune)

In the morning, we have a lovely drive to Beaune which is the home of Pinot Noir in France! I love a good Pinot (so much so, that my friends Carmen and Katie have labelled me a Pinotphile) so as you can imagine I am quite looking forward to this! We pass beautiful fields of yellow canola and lush and fertile countryside. As soon as we get to Beaune we fall in love with the town. It is much less touristy with a quaint boutique feel. We find a great little camp site and set up the tent (to pay for our decadant weekend in Champagne!) and after this we head out to explore the town further and have dinner. Tonight it’s escargot, beef bourignon, fromage and dessert! I will be leaving France 20 kilo’s heavier!

Saturday 16th- 17th May, France (Champagne)

It’s a reasonable start for champagne tasting at 9.30am and despite the lack of directions we finally find our tour group. Catherine is our guide and tells us all about Champagne. I have to say that after living with a marketer for the last 5 years I always thought that calling wine “Champagne” was just a way to make more money out of us but now I have an even greater appreciation for Champagne! Grant finally arrives and we visit a couple of Champagne houses with nice boozey lunch in between (and three glasses of champagne to match the dishes). After all this hard work it’s time for a power nap and dinner... unbeknownst to me (as I can’t read French let alone speak it!) I order veal liver for dinner. It is definitely a French dining experience!
The following day we all head out to roam the area surrounding Reims. It is very picturesque and we find a couple of quaint boutique champagne houses and a another restaurant for a long lunch! Sigh... it’s time to say good bye to Grant and Maria. We’ve had a great time with them but we have to continue down south. After Reims we drive to Troyes and spend the night there.

Friday 15th May, France (Paris to Reim - Champagne)

It’s a late start and its already time for lunch. Today I’m truly in heaven. For lunch it’s steak tartare and a glass of Pinot Noir... Shortly after, we pick up the Peugeot that we’ve leased for the next four months. It’s brand spanking new and has got a great little engine on it. There are a few hiccups with our new little sat nav, but after a detour through a major highway and the Arc De Triumphe (which shit scary being our first French driving experience) we eventually get to the Champes Elysse and drive up to Mont Martre to view the city at sunset. We find a little bistro with live jazz to enjoy a drink! C'est Magnifique!
Later in the evening we head to Charles De Gaulle to pick up Grant and Maria our friends from London who’ll be joining us for the weekend in Champagne only problem is that there is no Grant. He’s missed the flight! We eventually get to Champagne at 1am!

Thursday 14th May, UK to France (London to Paris)

I’ve only travelled a couple of times by train, but after the Eurostar I am sold on this method of travel (Sav). We arrive at Kings Cross train station just in the nick of time and the trip is incredibly easy. Once we hop on the train there’s time for a pastry, coffee and a nap and all of sudden we’re in gay Paris! We find our hotel and head into St Germain for a wonder around before embarking on a decadant long lunch. Richard has Blood Pudding and I have Foi Gras (amongst other things). It is lovely and I truly feel like I am in my element!

Sunday 10th May- 13th, UK (London)

We only arrived in Cairo at midnight and are up again at 5am to head to the airport. It’s another fun day of travel. When we get to London, Rich and Grant head out to see Chelsea thump Arsenal 4-1 at Emirates stadium. I embark on a little retail therapy with Maria which is topped off by dinner at a great Pakistani restaurant in London’s East end!
Most of our time in London is spent preparing for the next part of our journey in Europe. We’re both really looking forward to it! In between we get the chance to catch up with Trent and Marissa for dinner at St John Smithfield a great restaurant serving up a modern slant on traditional English food. We also catch up with Jules and Donna at their favourite celebrity hangout at Marylebone ; )
It’s great to be back in London if only for a brief time ..... Europe here we come!

Saturday 9th May, Syria to Jordan to Egypt (Damascus to Cairo)

We’re on a mission. We have to get to Jordan in time to catch our next flight to Cairo on the same night, so we have only one precious hour of power shopping! We’re outside the shopfront before it opens and all thoughts of practicalities and baggage allowance are quickly dismissed. Two coffees, one mirror (one by one and a half metres), bronze plate and bronze nautical instrument later we’re ready to leave Damascus. We’re another 20kgs heavier but with the aid of a kind local and his bike we manage to push our new goods back to the hotel and begin our journey to London.
Before coming to Syria, we have to admit that we had some slight reservations after being called a “Rogue State” (Bush quote) and part of the axis of evil. Nothing could be further from the truth. We found the people to be very friendly and extremely welcoming. Syria was an enriching experience for us and an absolute highlight.
We begin our convoluted journey from Damascus to Amman, (see May 5th) added to which our taxi driver take us out to dinner before dropping us off at the airport (his shout!).

Friday 8th May, Syria (Damascus)

We’ve saved up our souvenir shopping for our last day as we leave on Saturday. Unfortunately, we soon come to realise that Friday is the Muslim day of rest. Most of the city is closed and I (Sav) become increasingly frustrated at the thought of leaving empty handed after seeing so many amazing old trinkets and fine pieces of hand crafted furniture.

Thursday 7th May, Syria (Palmyra)

We jump on a bus headed west into the Syrian Desert towards Iraq. Until a few days ago we’d never heard of Palmyra but we discover one of the most spectacular ancient sites in all of the Middle East sprawled out in the middle of the desert. The ruins cover many kilometres and hundreds of columns emerge from the sand to give us picture of what this city was once like. We visit ancient tombs and temples and walk through old promenades. It takes hours to do this site justice and we finish off with visit to the citadel overlooking the city at sunset. We had no expectations and have been blown away by the grandeur of Palmyra. It truly rivals Petra.

Tuesday 5th May, Jordan to Syria (Damascus)

Taxi to border (stop at taxi headquarters, stop at random cafe’ for a coffee and hand our passports over to the guy serving coffee, apparently some type of translation is necessary although this doesn’t feel like an official translation service. Back in the car and drive to the border, speak to the border guards and passports checked, drive 500m back into Jordan, get out of our taxi and into another taxi to drive 500m back to the border?????, passports checked by 4 different people and entrance visa fee charged (even though we’re leaving) and back into the original taxi to drive 500m to the Syrian side of the border, get out and join queue to speak to immigration officials, sent to another queue to pay for visa, back to original queue, back out to parking lot to find license plate of car (car missing but eventually driver and car found stocking up on duty free), back to first queue passports stamped, drive 200m and have passports checked, drive 300m and have car and passports checked and ..... we’re in Syria. Then we drive for 30 minutes and the car pulls over and a guy on a moped (apparently the driver’s brother) gets in and our driver gets out and takes off on the moped. We arrive in Damascus 45 minutes later we’re we get transferred to another, decidedly more “local” taxi for the trip to our hotel! We spend the rest of the day wandering through the alley ways and markets of old Damascus city and come across a beautifully ornate mosque. We sit and watch in the corner as people pass by during their prayer time. An eventful day is capped off by a wonderful four course meal at an authentic Syrian restaurant.

Monday 4th May, Jordan (Jerash)

The visit to Jerash comes as an unexpected bonus. We get there early in the morning and the site is virtually empty, allowing us lots of freedom to explore the expansive roman ruins in relative peace. The rest of the day is spent trying to organise transport to and accommodation in Syria. We haven’t got a visa but have heard great things about Syria so we decide to try our luck at the border tomorrow. We head out into Amman and find a great local restaurant for a bon voyage meal with Benny and Janice (our Canadian mates for the last 3 weeks), Lindsay and Shonia (our kiwi friends) and Chris and Amy (from Qld). Sav does a great job at pointing and choosing (our Arabic stills needs a bit of work) and the food is rich with local flavours and spices - much better than the decor would indicate : )

Sunday 3rd May, Jordan (Petra to Amman)

Pretty unexciting day in and out of the mini bus moving from Petra to a wilderness reserve to Mt Ebbo (Where moses saw the promised land) to a souvenir shop and finally to Amman. Explored the downtown city area in the afternoon before heading out to a great steak dinner with friends from our tour group.

Saturday 2nd May, Jordan (Petra)

Petra lives up to the hype. Mum was here just a few months ago and we quickly understand why she described her time here so enthusiastically. We also appreciate the scale of the hiking involved that she warned us about. The entrance to the lost city is through a deep, narrow canyon. We walk through the crevice with cliff tops looming up to 80m on either side of the pathway which is just a few metres wide. There are very few indications (with the exception of our fellow tourists and the odd donkey) that we are about to enter the hidden city until we quite literally step out in front of the magnificent treasury. The city is carved straight into the sandstone and the majority of the site is made up of various tombs. Much like a hollywood set, the facade is magnificent but there’s not much behind. Having said that it’s not a disappointment and we trek up to the monastery to take in the panoramic views of the city and out across the desert to Israel. A Turkish bath and massage is definitely in order at the end of a long day but unfortunately we come to realise the Turkish bath and massage are probably best left to ....the Turkish maybe?

Friday 1st May, Jordan (Aquaba to Petra via Wadi Rum)

We love Jordon already. The best way to describe it is: similar to Egypt, but things work and it’s much cleaner. It’s an easy 90 minute drive from Aquaba to Wadi Rum, a beautiful desert where the sands have carved intricate patterns into the sandstone mountains over the millennia. Apart from tourists and a few of the local Bedouin tribes the place is exactly the same as the empty wilderness portrayed in the epic Lawrence of Arabia filmed back in the 60’s. To add a bit f middle eastern flair to the day our jeep breaks down in the middle of the desert ..... but we’re quickly rescued and on way up to the village of Petra where tomorrow we will visit one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world.