Travelling, it leaves you speechless ...

This year's travel journal (the old fashioned paper sort) opens with the quote from Ibn Battuta, Moroccan adventurer and traveller ... " Travelling, it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller." 
Daily blogs and other electronic media don't allow enough time for real storytelling even if I had that ability. However I hope you will enjoy my photos and travel snippets over the coming months.

This year we decided to do something different with flights. They say Variety is the Spice of Life, and it has turned out that way for us. We decided to fly to Europe via Japan and what a bonus that was. Our very first upgrade! Although it was a night flight,  all that extra space was wonderful. Thanks JAL, I slept like a baby all night.

From Tokyo we flew with Iberia to Madrid and were lucky enough to both get window seats with a spare seat beside us.

It wasn't  long after leaving Japan that we started the long crossing over Russia and eventually Scandinavia. What a lot of flat barren land there is in this world. Glimpses of snow on the steppes added to the interest for us.

We arrived in Madrid ahead of time, made a seamless transfer to our apartment, and immediately went out to check out our home area for the next eight nights.

First reactions are that Madrid is impressive, architecturally stunning and charming. Our apartment in Huertas is everything we could hope for, and more!

Wall art at Mokoan Rest Stop - northbound

Today we visited the Mokoan Rest Stop - northbound, on the Hume Freeway near Benalla. The only reason was to look at the wall art on the public toilet block, but we were pleased to see that the water tank by the picnic area has also been beautified.

The tank is the work of Reset and is a nod to the nearby Winton Wetlands.

Andrew J. Bourke (aka Sirum) has painted native Australian flowering gum flowers and a white bellied sea eagle on the amenities block. This is beautiful work but sadly some thoughtless graffiti has damaged it on one wall.

Pit stops have never been so entertaining!

Wall to Wall Street Art Festival at Benalla 2018 - job's done!

This is the fourth Wall to Wall Street Art Festival in Benalla, which is now the street art capital of Australia. The finished street art works are a delight to have around the town and a great asset to Benalla. Some of the old and much loved works were painted over this year but from that new favourites will come. It is a changing art form and Benalla is keeping with the tradition.

This year the majority of artists were women. Here are five of them!

The finished walls of the twenty-one guest artists are shown here in order of appearance on the Wall to Wall festival map. 

No. 1 Claire Foxton (Australia)

No. 2 Lolo YS (U.S.A)

  

No. 3 Julian Clavijo (born in Colombia)

No. 4 Anthony Lister (Australia)

No. 5 Kaff-eine & friends - Paint by numbers (Australia)

No. 6 Zenisis (Benalla, Australia)

No. 7 Justine McAllister (Australia)

No. 8 Tim Bowtell (Benalla, Australia)

No. 9 Shaun Lu (Australia)

No. 10 Kaff-eine (Australia)

No.11 Callum Preston (Australia) 

No. 12 Cristen Brunner (Benalla, Australia)

No. 13 Georgia Hill (Australia)

No. 14 George Rose (Australia) 

No. 15 Leonard Siaw (Malaysia)

No.16 Rosie Woods (England)

No. 17 Loretta Lizzio (Australia)

No. 18 Tom Gerrard (Australia)

No. 19 Elle (U.S.A)

No. 20 Lisa King (Australia)

No. 21 Chris Henderson (Australia)

As always, there were a couple of surprises.

At Goorambat, out of Benalla - DVate (Australia)

That is a wrap on my version of the 2018 Wall to Wall Street Art Festival in Benalla. Do come and visit to really appreciate these works of art.