The Opening Bounce

What's in a Name?

Well, in this case of this blog, a bit of creative licence at least. There will be only one "Crusader" of note, but lots of Cathars and Canucks! more of that in a moment. In the meantime, if you're not from or haven't visited Downunderland and become a fan of the Best Game in the World I thought I better explain "opening bounce". It's the term used to describe the start of an Aussie Rules football match, and as I'm officially - according to my most oft-used passport - Australian, I thought I'd use a bit of Downunder jargon to kick off this post.

Crusaders

So, I'm just starting a blog for the upcoming trip that Dianne and will embark on in a couple of weeks. We're starting our holiday with a couple of weeks on our own in northern Italy, and then joining what was the catalyst and will be the core of this trip: a month-long bike tour roughly following this route:

The tour traces Richard the Lionheart's journey from Venice to where he (well, most of him anyway) is buried at Abbeye de Fontevraud southwest of Paris.

We don't expect to encounter any other crusaders, especially not these guys ...

On the other hand we are looking forward to the excellent historical perspective on Lionheart that we will get from Sam Wood, our tour guide and historian extraordinaire.

Cathars

After a couple weeks of recovery in Normandy and Brittany we're going to make our way to southern France to walk Le Sentier Cathar with our friend Michel Leonard. It will be a couple of weeks of travelling at a slower pace, contemplating the Cathar religion, the castles they built and their persecution and annihilation by the Roman Catholics under Pope Innocent III (not so innocent, eh!).

Canucks

We will have another short break before flying to Vancouver and spending three weeks visiting Canucks  in the form of family and friends who do  like their hockey ...

 ...  - and we might just ride our bikes a bit 😉 in southwestern British Columbia ...

... before coming home to Hobart.



I hope you enjoy the blog. If not, blame Gillian Woodley, our wonderful travel agent, who has been the catalyst and inspiration for my decision to put it together! If you're interested in our travels you should be able to subscribe to receive posts by clicking on one of three options. The next post will probably be in a few weeks time when we will be recuperating from long-distance flying in Mantua, where Romeo was exiled ... or so the story goes.

And, to finish, a little flashback. I once thought ice hockey was the Best Game in the World. While yes, it is a Good Game - even a very, very Good Game - and the fastest sport on two legs - it just doesn't have the multi-dimensional, spectacular nature of Aussie Rules. Check out this marvellous mark in 2001 by diminutive Gary Moorcroft.