Monday, 3 February 2025

Europe 2025 | It's a Wrap

After some 51 nights away from home, we are finally heading back to the comfort of our own home (with our own showers and own beds) - and more importantly for the kids - their own rooms!

We travelled over 42,150km via plane, train, automobile (and boat, ferry, sledge and tram!).

And as a final wrap:

- 12 Flights - 39,730km

- 17 Train Trips - 1,777km (including 2 of the worlds best scenic train rides) 

- Ferry / Boats in 4 countries - ~`150km (including canals, rivers, fjords and lagoons)

- Trams, Trains and Buses in 8 countries (including heritage trams from the early 1900s)

- Taxi's, Uber's and for a terrifying couple of days a hire car in Italy.

- Walking some 500+kms

- Sledging some 15km (which left dad feeling like he'd walked 500km)

- 18 Different Hotels across some 24 cities and 12 countries (26/14 including layovers)

- 160 kgs of luggage

- 1700 + photos and videos  

- Too many churches, but so much history and learning

- Too much washing

- Endless eating

- Priceless memories!

Claire did well to summarise the trip in post cards (Keira did a lot of painting too but they might need to be added a bit later!)

















And Keira summed up the holiday in a series of watercolours... all of which we haven't yet seen...but here's the initial ones.


























And since this is a wrap up, links to all the posts & dates of the trip for simplicity.

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Europe 2025 | Semarang, Indonesia

For our last, but definitely not least, stop on our trip was to Semarang, to spend some time with the family here, celebrate Chinese New Year, and most importantly, to celebrate Oma's 70th Birthday!  We were in town for about a week, and enjoyed non-stop heavy downpours each and every day (admittedly, it seemed to rain the hardest just as we were getting into or out of the car!  Alas, dad had his first ever car accident (not the place to do so) when a rouge motorcyle crashed into him as he pulled into a driveway...  The biker drove away pretty quickly, and everyone was okay so we suppose it was the best possible outcome.

We arrived in the afternoon of Chinese New Year Eve, so first things first we headed to a big family dinner at one of our favourites, Ikan Bakar Cianjur, and a visit to our family's new home (well Siannie / Ayen / Shelda / Dylan's new home).  The girls were happy to collect their ang pau (red packets) and enjoy the food - especially the rice which they'd all been missing for quite some time!

The next day, Chinese New Year was Oma's 70th, so we got ready early and went to meet her at Petemesan (or Temesan) to wish her happy birthday!



For the evening, we had a birthday dinner planned, where there the theme for dressing was oriental (hence dad's minor cultural appropriation - ie shirt).  We took some (well a lot) of photos in the hotel lobby before leaving (it didn't help that it was really pouring and the valet took almost an hour to bring the car - meaning Oma was late to her own birthday celebration!










It was then time for the main event (with photographer), lots of amazing food and tie with the family.



















And finally - a sampling of the food...


After all the celebrations, the next day was a bit more relaxing, with a bit of shopping in the morning, followed by we lunch at Rumah Makan Permata, a favourite (particularly for Keira), as they serve the infamous fried pidgeon which she was craving.


And we discovered that Miniso currently has a whole range of Zanmang Loopy (a pink beaver)... which dad resisted as best he could.


We spent some time enjoying time with Oma in Petemesan.




Enjoyed a feast back at Siannie & Ayen's home!


A bit of batik shopping (well a lot, but just not many photos).


Finally (in Claire's mind we waited too long) we tried KFC - which we'd avoided for the majority of the trip!


And otherwise enjoyed lots of nice lunch and dinner and way too much food!



We visited a lot of supermarkets, looking desperately for Kue Lapis Legit (specifically Morisca) which is our favourite cake from Indonesia, but it has become impossible to find it seems!


And just like that, its time to head home, which means dad and mum have the fun of trying to figure out how to get all our things home... but before we go, we had to say goodbye to everyone, and a special farewell to Moi...


And so from here, we have a very short flight to Jakarta, followed by an 8 1/2 hour layover, and another 7 hour flight, and we'll be home!

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