Luke 19:61

I had a wonderful birthday the other week - and as another year piles on, it makes you stop and take stock.

Illness has been having an impact and the constant stress of work has started to rear its head again.

I have a fantastic wife and a beautiful son. Do I need to die at my job?

I will spend the next few weeks taking stock of what assets I have and what others jobs might be available.

Time to move on, it would seem...

Karl has taken it upon himself to teach Papa some German, Mutti some French and Kathrin some English!!!  Never underestimate a four year old

 

Who the heck is John Coster-Mullen?

 

“The secret of the atomic bomb is how easy they are to make.”

 

A truck-driver in the US has spent over ten year piecing together every scrap of info on Little Boy that is in the public domain. The result is a self-published booklet that is said to have a mind-boggling amount of ACCURATE details on the precise construction of the Hiroshima nuclear weapon.

 

After a long period of ignoring it and hoping it will go away, Jane's nagging finally prompted me to go visit a doctor, about a lump on my buttock. It was probably originally a small scar from a dog bite when I was circa 10 years old. In any case, it had become an irritant and off I went. As expected, I was sent off to get it cut out. Walzed into the surgery late last night and 25 minutes later, I was exiting with 7 stitches and a large empty spot where a surprisingly large cyst had once been!!

The small lump on the outside turned out to be onion sized when removed. I did a double-take when I saw it and asked in surprise "Is THAT it"?!! Yes, was the casual reply. It was apparently one of the largest he has removed in recent times. Of course I ache where I have been cut open, but that is not a huge drama and I'll get the stitches removed in a few weeks.

Another day, another quasi-religious ceremony to distract the masses. When I was a kid in the late 60's, the ANZAC Day march was a dying thing. With the onset of nationalistic verve from politicians of every colour, it has grown into something very weird. A religious service, a nationalistic sports event and a parade for those trying to tie Australia into something of substance. As a youngster I found it enthralling and exciting. But for a great many years now, I am well and truly over it. Perhaps that means maturity and the awareness that there is so much more to life than tired old clichés and a parade.  

Amusingly and to my very great surprise, Karl has been demanding to learn the violin. Kathrin has been working with him on musical things for a while and Jane and I have had him battering at the piano ever since he could reach the keys, but he has made it clear that his interest lies with the violin. Jane carted him off to the local Suzuki Method teacher and he was enthralled and didn't want to leave.  Time to source a miniature violin and start him down the path. We shall see what comes of it!!!

Karl was very excited that Kathrin (new Au Pair) has arrived and decided that instead of going to French lessons, he would play steam trains. OK, so what if Kathrin came too? No - Jenny (Au Pair) too. No wait, we ALL had to go!! So into the transporter we go! Jenny, Karl, Kathrin, Mutti & Papa all descend upon Madame Adolph!! Karl then decided that he had to sit on Papa's lap and when they brought out a little candle for his birthday, he dived under the chair to hide and would not come out.  Of course, immeditely upon arrival at home, he is the exhausting extrovert again, with everybody working flat-out to keep up.

 

 

We have been having a great time at home, with good weather and lots of fun. However, I had to pop up to  Malaysia, which was a great success and down to Melbourne, which was in the midst of tennis mania and hot! A week or two later and I headed over to the cold (circa 6 degrees) of Seattle!  If I ever suggest I will go again, hit me over the head! I arrived back home to 40 degree heat and Jane and Jenny looking rather exhausted by it all. Karl of course was in great form! The instant he awoke, he had to show me his latest achievement. He ran to the bedroom door and pushed it shut. He then reached up and turned the handle and opened it!  We spent a full-on day playing and drawing.

Despite the jet-lag, I am home and once again feeling very, very happy.

A great wife, a magnificent son. 

 

ahh..  life is good!

 

Karl and Mutti decided today was Far Too Nice to spend at home!!

 

#1 mix of any leafy greens. Throw in a half blender full of random leaves of WHATEVER YOU LIKE

#2 any fruits you want for the rest.    creamy fruits work well.
   4 bananas and orange juice from 4 fresh oranges,  or maybe pears, depending on your taste
   also 1 mango and 2-3 bananas work well.

#3 fill up high with pure water.

 

blend at 30,000rpm in your vitamix blender.

mmmmm!!

This has been a busy and fun weekend. Karls' bedroom arrived, so we stayed up LATE assembling that. Karl thinks it is very cool indeed. Next a lovely little pool for the backyard, where Karl can go berserk as we do gardening etc. Most appropriate in the recent heat! Next, the new veggie-patch is taking shape and my attempt at making a picnic table (using merbau) for the backyard is now almost  ready! Lastly, Jane wanted a swing-chair for the back patio area - that will be finished today, I hope.

Whew! Busy, busy, busy!!

We survived the visit to the TAX man! I also got the starter-motor replaced on the car, Jane got her new glasses and visited Dr George to ensure all is well. So some things getting back into order.

 

Next, we have to start doing some very overdue Spring Cleaning to the house before Jane's Birthday and then Christmas is upon us. So much to do, people to contact and catch up with! We have decided to do some major re-arranging of Jane's study (she has A Plan), along with the general cleanup.

 

I also need to get a dozen bags of sand this weekend to bring Karl's sand-pit back to life for the Summer and generally freshen up the garden. Plenty to do around the place after so long away.

 

Along with everything, it's been a very busy time at work. Looks like I may have to fly Malaysia, the UK, then the USA too, so January/February is going to be another crazy period.

 

Karl has discovered Winnie The Pooh and we laze in bed each night reading a chapter!

 

It seems like only moments ago we were gallavanting around the Harz Mountains on steam trains.

 

 

I spent the week up in Brisbane, teaching a workshop. Sadly jet engine failures meant it took eight hours to get home from there! In the meantime, Jane has been working furiously on getting our household straightened out after the holidays and paperwork generally back up to date. The big news is the new washing machine arrived - a Miele which is excellent.

 

Also, Jane has the happy dilemma of sifting through FIVE very nice girls for the end-of-year Au Pair candidate. Kathrin is our definate choice for the bulk of the year and with this range to choose from, the follow-on should also be good. Sometimes it takes months to find someone yet this time there are many to choose from.

 

Plenty of odds-and-ends arrived in the post this week, including the 2-ton hoist. This meant Karl and I had an exciting morning heading to the Post Office, then playing in the park and then, drumroll... putting that together and then lifting the lathe (chinese CQ6125 aka 10"x22") off the trailer and moving it into the garage and onto its stand. First quick pass with a piece of steel - looks good!

  : 

A visit to the Tax agent next week should get this year sorted. The car will need to also visit Muller's as the starter-motor brushes are sticking and sometimes it will not turn the engine over until I crawl underneath and give the starter-motor a tap to jar the brushes free!

 

The PE175N now has its rear wheel rebuilt and reinstalled - and yes, nyloc nuts installed on the sprocket. No coming loose this time!

 

Jane & Karl walked down the road for Jeremiah's fourth birthday - nineteen children present! Karl had a huge time and was still flat-out at 10pm.

After I got home I realised I'd missed the truck-driver delivering the lathe. Bugger. Rang the shipping company (Toll Ipec). They suggested I pop down to their depot and get it myself. Terrific. Just pop down to Liverpool (ie the Heathcote rd turnoff) and get it... urgh..  So I did. Only to be met at the gate by VERY SERIOUS security guys. I can only assume they have a LOT of pilfering from truckies, as they seemed almost caricatures of the zealous security guard.

 

For example, he asked for some ID. Sure - my license. So I walk to the edge of the gatehouse and show it to him. Oh no - I have to go back to the fence thingy 2 meters along and hold it through the fence. If they hadn't been so serious, I would have assumed some comedy skit was in progress! Eventually handed a bright green vest to wear and then told to drive through to loading dock 26. This is exactly in front of us, say 10m away. Multiple men peering anxiously as I drive in. Thankfully, the guy at the loading dock understood my amused grin and was able to quickly identify the boxes I wanted, grab a forklift guy and throw them onto the trailer. Next, get things signed and photocopies. Photocopies? Yeah, to give the guy at the gate. We exchanged glances and I decided to say nothing. Exit shipping depot and resume the Real World !!

 

Now that I have the thing home.. hmmm... stripped open the crate, grabbed all the loose items, spare chuck, tools, fixed steady, slid off the rest etc. and carried them inside. GRRR.. I am still left with a hefty (maybe 190kg) of lathe sitting on the trailer!! I shall have to organise a delegation of the gymnasium guys to visit one lunch time and lift it into the garage.

 

 

After all the travel and the jet-lag and being thrown back into work immediately, this weekend could not come soon enough!  I spent the majority just pottering around the house, fixing things, cleaning-up, making some shelves in the garage, folding and packing all the stuff we brought home, etc. Nothing exciting - just a quiet, peaceful few days. A very nice and much needed breather. The next 2 or 3 months seem to be jam-packed with work.

 

Spoke to Jane - they'd gone to Nuremburg down in Bavaria to catch up with Diana. A good thing. Karl of course was rapt to discover the Transport Museum and its large model railway! Interestingly, Jane says that some things in the city seemed slightly ah.. inward-looking to a glorious past. Think the Hitler rallies there back in the 30's!  Bavaria has always been a little urm, "special"... Clearly the massive bombing raids in 1945 didn't stop them rebuilding.

 

Interestingly in that vein, Kristallnacht tonight. I wonder who remembers, or cares, what it meant?

What a week! jet-lag overrides everything. The first weekend was spent attacking the garden and restoring the place to clean and orderly, instead of totally wild! Had to go into work on Monday to set things up and I was in a real mess. TOTALLY jet-lagged.

 

It's hard to remember the first few days of the week. However, all the students in the class I gave proceeded to grant me fabulous review scores today, so I must have been doing a better job than I thought! Most of the week has been spent in the half-zonked state of someone waking up at 2am rather than 7am... 

 

Hardly saw or spoke to anybody this week - or if I did, I don't remember. I do recall that I bumped into Miss B in the Corridors of Power - she successfully completed the full 90km 'Gong (bicycle) Ride last weekend and was clearly chuffed! Always good to see Miss B with such a great big smile.

 

I also finally got some money back from Finance! My trip to Singapore a few months back somehow dropped into their recycle bin, so my expenses were not paid! Ramesh filled out the appropriate forms in triplicate and forced the issue. Only a few thousand dollars, for a few months... thanks guys! They seem rather adept at losing all the expenses paperwork of random people.

 

It was also Sari's birthday last weekend, so I sent an SMS (albeit a day late, as I was asleep rather than alert after flying into Sydney). To my surprise she called today and it was interesting to contemplate that her son is now a strapping 13 year old football player!  Life zips past... 

 

I ordered the long planned LATHE too (chinese CQ6125 aka 10"x22"), after postponing this for about a year. I hope the truck (from Adelaide) arrives next week. For the weekend, I plan to SLEEP IN :-) I have a short week coming, (just a few days on-site with a customer) which is very good - as Jane and Karl arrive on Wednesday morning! Woohoo !!!!

 

Jane also confirms that we have Jenny coming in January for a few weeks, which is great news. Kathrin can't come until late February, so this works out well for everybody.

whew! The usual dramas flying across the planet. Jane had me loaded down to the limits with stuff to bring home! I even wore three jackets rather than try to get them into the suitcase, which was bursting at the seams. The lovely Lufthansa woman in Hannover turned a blind eye to my overweight baggage and the little back-pack, With about 15kg of books in it, it wasn't easy to appear to have a light carry-on bag casually slung over the shoulder!!!  Got to Heathrow and I discovered T3 terminal was freezing and a dump. Great - so I was stuck there for hours. Ah well..  To amuse myself, I contemplated how to stagger around the stupid little Abu Dhabi airport transit terminal (yes a new large terminal is now being built) with my heavy back-pack and THREE coats, despite the heat of the desert! ha!

 

Finally got the flight to Sydney (packed) and fell off the plane expecting high temperatures´- but no! It was cool and overcast! Perfect for my multi-jacket outfit.  The day before had been 37 degrees, apparently. Whew! Got out of the taxi at home to see a jungle! The grass has clearly enjoyed the fine weather whilst I was away! Spent the day mowing and washing and unpacking the suitcase and generally wading through letters, doing a bit of shopping, etc.

 

Still can't bring myself to look at the calendar and see how much work they've got me booked in for! Will leave that for a day (gulp!).

 

Good news from Jane - after I left Hannover, she met with Kathrin, a potential new Au Pair. She sounds very good and Jane says face-to-face confirmed that. Also, Jane has located a possible fence-builder and she will meet him in Tangermünde next week and hopefully get the property fencing done. YAY!

 

Now to step back into the madness...  I will be happy to see Jane & Karl home in a week or so, but this next week should be hectic enough, getting back into work, so perhaps best we are not all at home and jet-lagged simultaneously!

 

A pretty good holiday, with my fabulous wife and magnificent little boy! Wernigerode has captured both of us - we could live there. hmm.. time to see how the shares and savings stack up, methinks!

Popped into Janes's step-father and partner Margaret in Magdeburg, for a lightning visit and quick tour of a few things. That was good - but too brief. The cathedral in Magdeburg is enormous and has been cleaned up compared to what I recall from 1993. Looks very good indeed.

 

Dead bored in Tangermünde, but I survived. We wandered the town and it drives me crazy to see a place with tourist potential closed all weekend. It's just so provincial and inward looking. In some ways, they are moving ahead and plenty of work is being done down on the river and at the old castle, but the rest of the town seems dead. Anyway... we also visited a few people and had a quick look at the state of the property we have in one of the back streets. Overgrown and in need of a good fence to be constructed. Jane will have to try to find someone to get that done. Of course, if I was there, a few days work would see it knocked over and a gate and fence done, but without someone local, it's a tough thing to organise any kind of ad-hoc work without getting ripped-off.   Next two final days in Hamburg, before we head back to Hannover and I pack my bags and fly home on the 30th.

 

Hamburg is an odd city. Some is incredibly beautiful, but other parts are very ordinary. Our hotel for example...  Nevertheless, the reason we are here is a monster model train exhibition! Karl enjoyed himself hugely!  Quite outstanding. I've never seen or heard of anything like it. Huge, very well done with mind-blowing detail. We also caught up with our old Au Pair, Jule. Sadly, her sponging father was there too, fullfilling our worst fears. He was fishing for another trip to Australia and free accomodation. Not a chance, pal !!!  He is detestable. Jule is lovely, but we were unable to really talk, with him present!

 

One great thing in Hamburg was that Jane bumped into a long-lost friend from her Chemnitz University days!!!!  We swapped details and left them feeling very chuffed :-) Hamburg is a wealthy city and all the Beautiful People wander around. I was aghast at some of the insane prices for flash german clothing. Sure, some was nice - but 800 euro for a mans coat?! A few saving graces are the river areas and some of the churches and the stunning Rathaus. The Rathaus in Hamburg is the local parliament and must have cost an absolute fortune back in the 1800's. Very, very impressive. Mind you, a tip for travellers - underneath most of the major city Rathauses are the Ratskeller, or restaurant. Always excellent and usually good pricing. Hamburg's Rathaus certainly met the bar! Stunning setting, excellent food and quite well priced. We topped that that next night in the SchifferBörse restaurant. Absolutely melt-in-the-mouth food, wonderful old-world nautical setting and great prices. Exceptional. Another interesting thing is the St Michealis church. I climbed the tower and curiously, where it opens up and gets rather ah... airy, I suddenly had an urge to throw myself backwards. Quite odd. Still, I made it to the top and the excellent views of the city.

 

Karl didn't want to leave Hamburg! He clearly enjoyed himself there and at many of the places we have been to. Spent plenty of time strutting around on the trains as we criss-crossed Germany, talking to people, whilst wearing the gorgeous little Train Conductors uniform (cap, bag, hand-punch, etc) that Jane had purchased for him in Wernigerode.

 

Right, now to pack and try to fit all the stuff that we got for Karl into my suitcase !  (Jane & Karl stay in Germany until the 10th). 

Whew! A fabulous week or two in the beautiful Harz Mountains. We are staying in a very nice Pensione, which equates to a huge (three storey) and lovely house about 10 minutes walk from town in Wernigerode. Karl makes a racket climbing the stairs occasionally, but the place has 20cm thick walls everywhere and you are in total silence even if a rock-concert was happening outside. Many, many of these magnificient houses throughout the town. Makes the simple, cheap and tacky dumps we get in Sydney look laughable. We clearly get ripped off blind by the property market in Australia.

 

So let me think...  what have we done recently...  BrockenBahn up to the mountain top is one of the great steam-train trips on the planet. Once up there, crisp clear skies and fabulous views of wilderness. Wild indeed - the Soviets had a super-sensitive listening post on the peak, so nothing could get up there to disturb the native wildlife. We visited the BrockenHaus which is a museum covering the history of the place and the national park.

Trivia - a stop along the way up (Steinerne Renne), in the midst of this VERY steep mountain area was apparently a V2 rocket parts factory in WW-II. I bet that wasn't found too easily, let me tell you! [The huge underground V2 plant was on the other side of the Harz, a few kilometres north of Nordhausen]. A way cool thing is the steam train leaves the Wernigerode-Westerntor station and crosses diagonally straight through the big main street intersection. Brilliant photo-shoot with medieval towers in the background and a swag of cardigan wearing British types set up cameras to capture it all!!

 

Aside on steam trains. The main street near the Rathaus has the HBS shop where you get the Harz steam train tickets and tourist info, etc. They also have an excellent model railway in the window, that you trigger by touching the window from outside on the street. Guess where Karl and I have spent HOURS each day.. He thinks it's the coolest invention on the planet. I am going insane sitting there while he chatters happily and constantly to every other child, their parents and anybody passing that he can rope-in :-)

 

Next, to Quedlinberg to ride more steam on the SelketalBahn out to Alexisbad. Another great steam journey and more superb and beautiful scenery. I'd like to go back there and explore more. We then visited the castle and cathedral in Quedlinberg. Very impressed. It also jogged my memory why I knew the name Quedlinberg. Lots of NAZI stuff happened up on that hilltop. The actual town was fabulous. Tons of terrific Fachwerk houses dating back into the 1400's. Our building licencing board would probably knock them back - yet they have lasted rather longer than the average Housing Commission thing in Sydney!

 

Then back to Wernigerode for a visit to the absolutely stunning Schloß Wernigerode. Took the BimmelBahn up to the Schloß and then walked backed down. Quite a nice little place to live! Oh and also in Wernigerode we visited an excellent Harz Museum which had lots of fascinating info on the mining going back to the middle ages, history of everything, detailed info on Fachwerk construction, trains, etc. etc. Quite a good thing to visit. Oh and the next day Jane and Karl spent time in the impressive Lustgarten (formal gardens of the Schloß) while I got to venture back into the Schloß for a full two-hour tour without Karl trying to sit on or knock over some insanely rare and expensive item! Amusing note on the Schloß is that in 1929 the Count hit bankruptcy and the bloody bank sold a huge amount of priceless books (ancient stuff worth squillions) without telling him! Typical - banks clearly haven't changed!! The whole place got taken over after WW-II by the Yanks, then the Russians and finally the DDR, so the whole family then cleared-off to the west to their other estates.

 

A very cool kids thing was a show in the local Wernigerode civic centre/hall that had the BRILLIANT kids puppets that everybody in Germany knows for the past 40 years. "Pittiplatsch und seine Freunde". I have seen some of these characters (time to sleep, so a short episode on TV marks 7pm for the littlies). Absolutely fabulous. I only wish Australian heartless and empty TV had similar. In any case, the original creator still travels around and gives shows with all the main characters. (he's in his eighties!). The whole auditorium was PACKED. Quite a nice experience and every child and parent was smiling. Of course, with the merger of the two Germanies, some swine did some fast talking and got the rights to the lot for a song. Yep, the original people get a pittance. In the west we pay millions for The Wiggles and these guys got nothing.

 

 

The next day we visited another hidden gem!  An aircraft and technical museum just up the road. Full of fantastic aeroplanes, including MIG 21 and 23's, F80, F86, F104, DeHavilland Venom, a Hawker Hunter, a Suchoi Su-22 and a half-dozen others that slip my mind right at this instant, along with another dozen helicopters and old cars, and other domestic aeroplanes, including an ME-108 (actually the Nord 1101 derivative). Quite astounding. Unlike the stupid fence-off world in Australia, in this place I can happily crawl around, under, and sometimes inside every 'plane! Downstairs, underneath (utterly unmarked, no signs) was a huge collection of old technology. Not just planes, but TV's (including some of the earliest TV ever screened, played on an ancient TV set! some dopey NAZI made a fool of himself in one of the first TV interviews ever done. If only I could have understood it all!) along with record players, radios, computers, everything and anything. There was even a complete and functional telephone exchange (clacking relays and lights) that had Karl and I playing for ages, using all sorts of ancient 'phones, and calling each other. Way Cool!

 

Next - THALE. SchwebeBahn (cable-car) to the mountain top to see the Hexentanzplatz,some ancient witches dancing place. Big on witches this area! OH! and the funniest thing I've seen in years! We rode this quite scary cable car up a VERY steep mountain side and looking down, I saw half-way up a walking track and... what the hey?! ... a couple pushing a pram!!  We got the top and wandered around for an hour or so and visited a wonderful zoo-park with all sorts of Harz Mountains animals. (including wolves and bears!). And as we headed down to see the Walpurgis Halle (a mythology place) on the mountain, we saw.. aha! the pram pushers had arrived!.   We actually walked DOWN this track back to the bottom and I can tell you, this was a VERY rough and stoney track for 75% of the walk. I mean break-your-ankles rocks everywhere. NOT for the stilletto wearing tourist. I still shake my head to think these people got a pram up that!  Perhaps some new Extreme Sport?

We then headed over the valley and took the Sessellift (chair-lift) up another mountain to visit the Roßtrappe, which is another outstanding view into a huge and deep valley. The actual Roßtrappe thingy is a huge horse-shoe looking thing in the rocks up the top. Some mythological horse galloping over the mountains etc.

 

Karl liked both the cable-car and the chair-lift, but was totally hooked on the playground - the functional hydraulic back-hoe that they could play with was brilliant. Best toy in a playground I have seen in years. Actually, the entire playground experience in Germany is How It Used To Be. all the great things that have been removed by the Do-Gooders in Australian parks still remain in Germany! Kids all having a ball on "dangerous" rides that I used to love and no longer see in Sydney. It would seem German parents still know about having fun and being responsible for their kids.

 

Next - RÜBELAND and the Baumann's Holle (caves). That was an interesting trip to a heavily mining-oriented part of the mountains. The caves were OK, but didn't sweep me away. Good but not as big or impressive as some we have seen in Australia. However, up the road about 2km was something I would love to do -  a Besucherbergwerk or  mining tour. They stick you into the little mine train and take you deep underground. Alas, we arrived to find that by law, no child under 5 is allowed. Probably true, as we were told by people afterward that this is a LOUD and somewhat unnerving experience with real mining in a real mine deep, deep underground. So we shall have to revisit when Karl is older. Karl is already telling people that he will go there once he is five.

 

Upon return to Wernigerode late that evening, Jane and Karl headed into the swimming centre. Hesseröder Ferienpark. One of those absolutely brilliant swimming centres with every kind of pool and ride and slippery-dip you can ask for.

 

We also slipped in a visit to the Wernigerode steam-engine workshops today! Yes, they still maintain and create parts for all these ancient steam engines. (One I saw dated with a makers plate of 1914). Interesting to snoop around (after all, the guide was happily talking in German, so I was not exactly listening!). Plenty of interesting parts and machinery for me to ogle :-)

 

Feeling pretty good. Jane and Karl are in their element. I think we head east to Tangermünde on the Elbe river next!

Eastern Germany is interesting and beautiful and sometimes puzzling. We headed off into the fabulous Hartz Mountains region. But by train, you´d swear you´re entering a dead industrial zone. You get out of the train, head into a town and discover FANTASTIC places!  Wernigerode is an incredibly beautiful medieval town, with a magnificient collection of fachwerk houses dating back to the 1400´s, a brilliant town-hall (Rathous) and above it all, a Schloss (castle) that is breathtaking. Even Jane was taken with the Schloss enough to say she could reside there :-) The whole town is excellent. BUT to top it off, you are in steam-train heaven! All the surrounding mountain areas are accessed via 1-metre guage steam trains dating back to turn-of-the-century. Absolutely brilliant. We took one up to Brocken, which is a mountain peak where the Russians had a listening-post during the Cold War. Incredible scenery and one of the great steam-train rides of the world.  We also took another steam train to a place called Axelbad. Upon return, we stopped off in Quedlinburg. I´d heard of this place. Another crap looking dump (at the railway station). We get out, walk a half kilometre into town and WOW! another incredibly interesting and beautiful medieval town. The fortress and church on the hilltop again breath-taking. Truly an amazing experience. The curious thing is that the whole region is targetted at Germans only. It´s nearly impossible to find anything in English. The other oddity is the lack of cohesive tourist info. There is SO much to see here, but you have to ask around, check with locals, attend Information Centres and generally nut it all out yourself. Jane, being the ideal person for this, makes it all an amazing experience. The average tourist would not know or be able to find info on many of the cool things hidden away in all the towns in this region.