Where It All Began

Back in 2012, I went on my first overseas trip to Europe with Dad and Poppa. It started pretty rough when we got to Singapore and found out our plane to Frankfurt was cancelled. They put us on a British Airways plane instead and they lost our bags. Dad got pretty smelly because he didn’t have a change of clothes for nearly 2 days. Yuck.

After Frankfurt we went to the Netherlands to visit some of Dad's friends. They were nice. They own lots of bikes! There are bikes everywhere in the Netherlands. When Dad and Poppa went out in Amsterdam they left me home. 

We went off to Paris and the train got up to 330kmph. That was fun. I got to sit in First Class instead of being stuck in the suit case. It was cool. On the train, Poppa lost his wallet. 

In Paris I loved the Eiffel Tower and the Champs Elysee. I wasn’t allowed to buy anything though. Montmartre was good. Poppa seemed to enjoy people watching the most. We even got to see the Mona Lisa on a whirlwind run through the Louvre. It felt like an episode of The Amazing Race.

Next we went to Grenoble, so Dad and Poppa could ride their bikes up some hill called  Alpe D’Huez. They said it is one of the most famous mountain climbs in the world and is used in the Tour de France. I stayed in the hotel. Lucky, because Poppa crashed the car into a gutter and broke the wheel. Whoops!

After this we went off to Stresa in Northern Italy.  It was beautiful. There was a big lake and we went up Mottarone in a cable car.  I could see all around, there were lakes everywhere.

We got a motor home next and went to watch the famous cycling race, the Giro d’ Italia. On the first day Poppa and Dad argued a lot, I think we got lost! But we ended up in La Spezia. We got to see Cinque Terra, Savona, Sestri Levante and Asti.  We then headed to Lake Como. It rained a lot there, so Dad and Poppa drank lots of coffee.

We headed back to Milan. Milan is pretty special to Dad. We dropped off the motor home and headed to Rome. I loved throwing coins in the Trevi fountain. There are lots of fallen down old buildings in Rome. I loved the gelato. Yum.

Next we flew to London, I felt sick on the flight. London was scary for me. Dad took me to sit on the back of a big lion in Trafalgar Square and then when I was outside where the PM lives a guard had a big sword, which worried me a little. 

Our last stop was Hong Kong. Poppa got lost when he went shopping by himself  and Dad left everything to the last minute. I did like the double decker trams on Hong Kong Island. 

It was great to get home to Sebastian and Milana, but that was the trip I became Boris the Travelling Teddy Bear.