Mat and Ren
 Amsterdam, Brussels, Prades, Barcelona and Madrid Had a fantastic time through Europe! Loved Amsterdam for all the bikes... it`s such a flat city and EVERYONE seems to ride their bikes. Bikes everywhere. After our bike riding in Sweden I had bike envy and wish Australia was so bike friendly with bike lanes everywhere. Think we might move to Amsterdam! It feels a little like Venice actually with all the water and canals. We visited the Anne Frank House which was very moving... the book all came back to me. Got teary in some parts and it was humbling to be reminded of what some people have been through in this part of the world. They also had a great section to make you think about freedom of speech and people`s rights- with many scenarios to show how it`s not so black and white to decide how far freedom of speech should go. Afterwards we wandered through the city... past the red light district and I felt like such a prude! Couldn`t even look at the women in the windows- icky. The next day we visited the Van Gogh museum. Some great paintings but also interesting insights to the man and his life. He was an avid letter writer and they have many of them there. Brussels was lovely. The main square is stunning and it was nice to share it with Mat cause I`ve been before but he hadn`t. We visited the Museum of Ancient and Modern Art and saw lots of Rubens paintings but hardly any by Magritte... which is what we went there for! They are opening a whole section on Magritte next year so all is works are in storage- then out of the 6 paintings of his on display, 3 were off on tour! A bit sad so I consoled myself with Belgium waffles and chocolate. Yummo!! We also checked out some Tin Tin and Smurfs stuff- they make cool cartoons in this area of the world. We then went to Prades which is a small town in the south of France. It was a random pick so we could visit one of France`s "Most Beautiful Towns", Eus, which is nearby. It was sort of like the town from "Chocolat" and very gorgeous... maybe we`ll move there! We went on a few walks to Eus and an old Abbey nearby. The Abbey even had a Gregorian chant concert on so we listened to some of that- talk about lucky! :) One day we also visited Villefranche which is an old medieval city with city walls and cobbled streets. It was also stunning but had more tourists so not quite as peaceful. Kirilee will be pleased to know I bought a new hat there! It`s the same as my old one though just with a wider brim! I guess when you find something you love... On to Spain we visited Barcelona and checked out all the surrealist architecture. Lots of stuff designed by a man called Gaudi. They are a bit like theme park buildings on the street alongside the normal stuff. In Madrid we got arty again and spent one day visiting three art galleries! Started with the really old stuff and finished with some spun out modern stuff. Saw lots of Rubens, Botticelli, Van Gogh, Dali, Monet, Renoir... I felt getting a paintbrush and canvas by the end of the day! Very inspiring. In a bid not to get more euros from the ATM at the end of the trip we lived on bread and cheese for the last few days but had a splurge on hot chocolates on our last day. It was basically melted chocolate with dipping doughnuts- yum yum! Europe was very hot which meant we got in the whole siesta thing... the only way to cope with the early arvo heat. And we`ve also decided that the heat may not be our thing, so along with other reasons we`ve decided to move to Melbourne when get back to Oz. Yah! Feeling really excited about it, so it makes up for thinking about being home soon and having to get work!
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Diary Photos
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