Land Cruiser'n

Khabarovsk to Vladivostok

2010-09-03T04:10:00.003+01:00

We've made it!! 25,000km since London and we're finally here. Both just a little tired of sitting in the car, so we will enjoy a few days break in Vladivostok while we get the car sorted and shipped to Australia. It will be quite a change travelling by bus and train through China!

It's been a long, long drive from Moscow. Like Australia there's hundreds of kilometres of the same!... But we're glad we've accomplished it. We have been pleasantly surprised by the very few issues that we've had. Apart from a few exhaust welds that we've needed along the way, the car has held up very well. No flat tyre at all for the whole trip! And personally, apart from a few minor complaints, we're doing well too!

Russia is definitely not the dangerous place it's made out to be. Follow the rules, be polite and no one will bother you!

Chita to Khabarovsk

2010-09-03T04:00:00.004+01:00

Distance: 2165km

This was the part of the trip that I had been dreading. From what we'd read, there was an 810km stretch that was unfinished, with large rocks and mud. Turns out the Russians have been busy as this stretch was the best we've had in Russia. Brand new, tarred road. They were still painting the white lines. There was only about 20km of gravel. A few hundred kms out of Chita there was a big party marquee tent and a map showing how much of the road was completed. We got out, took a photo of the sign, had a brief chat with one of the guys there, but then the boss came over and shooed us away. We have since learned that Putin was not far behind us, which explains why there was a marquee, and they were still working at 9pm... and why we had trouble finding accommodation in Khabarovsk and Chita. In Khabarovs, the Check-in process for the third-rate hotel we ended up finding was quite lengthy, she had to make a phone call because she was concerned we hadn't registered our visas for almost a week, and needed to see all our hotel registrations. Wehadn't had that anywhere else. Once you're checked in we got a hotel card, then had to go up 2 flights of stairs to get the key to the room... odd...

So, the fact that we've had a better run than we thought we would, is good for the car and good for our backs, but, may now have had the few extra days in Mongolia, ah well.

Not much to report otherwise on this stretch... lots and lots of forest, lots of random people popping out of the forest or just standing next to the road in what seems to be the middle of nowhere.

The approach to Khabarovsk is really pretty, lots of wetland, stalls on the side of the road selling fruit and veg... and we had a nice sunset... long bridge across the Amur River into town

Irkutsk to Chita

2010-09-02T12:02:00.002+01:00

Distance: 1206km
Had a cruisy start to the morning in Irkutsk, loaded some photos to facebook, enjoyed the breakfast buffet, complete with Vodka Orange! On the way out of town accidently ended up heading down a bus only street and inevitably got pulled up. Got away with it because the policeman eventually got fed up with us not being able to speak much Russian and being non-plussed when he went to put Matt's drivers licence in his coat pocket.
From Irkutsk the scenery really starts to improve, much less industry spoiling the landscape. We drove around the bottom of Lake Baikal, which, to use a phrase from Gavin and Stacey which we have just finished watching from start to finish, hilarious, is 'immense'! More like a sea than a lake. Unfortunately it was a bit overcast and very windy and cold so didn't go in for a dip, and didn't get much of a sunset.
There's still very little tourist development around this area of the lake, and there's a large area of nature reserve so was difficult to find somewhere to camp. We ended up staying in a basic soviet-era hotel near Babushkin, a couple of kilometres off the main road. It was 1740 for the room plus 100 for parking, so wasn't expecting much. Pleasantly surprised that we had an ensuite bathroom, with a cast iron bath, though the cold water wouldn't stop running so had to turn it off at the tap. 2 single beds that we could fee the springs of the mattress through, and a full-sized fridge. So, basic, but did the job. It was a nice little area with quite a few jetties, stalls selling birch bark boxes, a few kiosks, but getting into the hotel carpark was more like getting into Fort Knox! Least we knew the car was secure.
Had to get some yet more welding on the exhaust done, rear muffler mount, then had to get some brake pads replaced in Ulan Ude... Fingers crossed that's the end of the car complaints, though that split in the tyre wall from Morocco has gotten a touch bigger....
On the way to Ulan Ude, we took a bit of a detour off the main road to stay along the lake shore for a while longer. Glad we did, the villages along this route were really pretty and well-kept, and there was a great long sandy spit where people were fishing and kite surfing, just a pity it was so windy!
Just South of Ulan Ude the scenery was absolutely beautiful, lush, green rolling hills, meandering rivers, really really pretty.
Saw lots of overloaded vans on the way to Chita. The roads have a pretty good surface but are pretty bouncy, even the new bits! There was no room at the inn in Chita, so we had a nice meal in a Kafe with old wooden benches which was quite nice, but then started the trek out of town towards Khabarovsk, and the unknown quality of roads!
Went to the Supermarket to stock up on a few supplies, but found it quite difficult to find much veg and meat, and the food markets had all closed for the day... So for the next couple of days we're eating some kind of frozen rissole things and tuna pasta. Can't wait for a change of food in China!

Omsk to Irkutsk (via Tomsk)

2010-08-26T14:22:00.004+01:00

Distance: 2673km

Starting to lose track of what time it is! Have crossed quite a few time zones, and are now at Moscow + 5 hours. We think! Lucky I'm keeping a diary or I would have no hope of knowing what day it is!

Officially in Siberia now. Lots of wetlands and marshes. So experiencing lots and lots of mosquitoes. Even just stopping for a quick loo stop you're likely to get bitten!! It is very flat. I think I was expecting more mountains. The traffic has started to thin a little bit, but the roads are definitely not what I would call quiet.

Where the M51 ends and the M53 starts near Novosobirsk, there were roadworks so we had to come off. But the detour wasn't very well sign-posted so ended up in the city and coming out the wrong road. We're working on 1cm = 15km map so didn't have much detail!. We ended up having to go cross country otherwise we would have had to take a further 150km detour to Kemerovo (we wanted to go to Tomsk, otherwise that wouldn't have been an issue). It was an 'interesting' drive, though not ideal at dusk and then dark... The road eventually thinned out to dirt and corrugations, with lots of potholes. About half-way we needed to ask directions on which road to take out of the town (which surprisingly given it's location had lots of high rises and quite heavily populated). Almost everyone was intoxicated! But friendly and willing to help. One wanted to get in the car to show us the way, but thankfully we don't have room!

Tomsk is a nice university town. There's a concentration of nicely refurbished wooden buildings and good places to eat and shop. Was a good place to have a break for an afternoon and we stayed overnight in a hotel to update our registration. We ate at a place near the hotel called Pastamama, and were a little surprised to see prices for Vodka and other spirits, not just per 100mL but also for the whole bottle! Although the road to Mineersk looked like a minor road on our map, it was pretty good. It was only gravel for about 20km, where there were also some nice, well-kept villages.

The road is getting progressively patchier. Some parts are great, others are none existent, particularly where the new road is being built. Quite muddy and rocky in places. Where the landcruiser overtakes all the little jap cars. Right-hand vs left-hand drive cars are now just as common as each other.

Some other Overlanders - We usually see at least one other 'Overlander' a day. Usually they are sensibly doing the trek in the other direction.

Yekaterinburg to Omsk

2010-08-26T13:35:00.003+01:00

Distance: 1086km

Not much to report on this leg of the journey! Lots of wheat farms, and again changeable road conditions. Roads were really good for the first few hundred kilometres from Yekaterinburg but then there were long bumpy and rocky stretches which were 50 zones. So some of it was quite slow going.

Stopped for some 'Maclo' (oil) to do the oil change and as we were pulling off noticed a bad noise from the exhust. Turns out a weld had come sheer off at the base of the extractors. It was Saturday (town day) so had trouble finding an open mechanic ('CTO'), but did eventually. Had some fun trying to have broken English/Russian conversations with a few of the locals while we waited.

Have been eating mainly at Kafes on the way, preferably ones with at least a couple of trucks parked out front. We're starting to pick up a few words, but it can be hard to decipher the handwritten cryllic so often just point at something random on the menu!

Moscow to Yekaterinburg

2010-08-26T13:11:00.004+01:00

Aug 17 to Aug 20 via Kazan and Perm
Distance: 1881km
We left the comforts of our hotel at approx 10am on Tuesday, heading East into the unknown. Weren't sure to what extent we would be impacted by the bushfires, it was hard to get exact locations of affected areas, only that the Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan regions were all alight to some extent. There was a lot of traffic heading out of Moscow so we didn't get very far very quickly. Stopped off to top up on some groceries. As we'd expected some items not as cheap as you might expect. In particular 1.5/2L bottles of water are around 25-30 Roubles, at least double what we had been paying through Europe.
We took the M7 and did see a lot of smoke, particular near Nizhny Novgorod, and quite a lot of smouldering embers and back burning. No raging fires in sight. So one area of concern now dealt with!
The quality of the roads vary considerably, and there is a lot of roadworks and towns to slow down for. The worst area would be between Kazan and Perm, the best between Kungur and Yekaterinburg. Though where the roads are good, there is also a much higher concentration of police!
Came across a group of cars from France who were on their way back having driven to Beijing. They had a total of about 60 cars, everything from Patrols, old jaguars and even motorhomes, with local guides for each section. Thought we were a bit crazy doing it on our own! Stopped at that cafe for a coffee... very very sweet, have since discovered that without milk the coffee is quite tasty.
First night we camped in truck parking for 70 Roubles. Locked gate so felt quite secure. Second night we bush camped, well attempted to bush camp on the road between Ishevsk and Igra. We pulled of the side of the road and down a little track. Were well hidden from the road with a field the other side. Cooked our dinner and set up the tent and went to sleep. Problem was, a couple of hours later I needed to get up to use 'the facilities' and could see a light coming over the field. Could swear it was a car and big torch coming directly for us. Had to wake Matt up and in the end we packed up and moved on... at 2am! In hindsight, the road probably curved around and it was just headlights I was seeing, or there are lots of oil rigs in the area, could have been lights from one of them. Drove about 1/2 an hour up the road to a truck area and tried to get some sleep in the car. Needless to say we didn't get much. Damn me and my paranoia! So we were very, very, very tired on arrival in Yekaterinburg, after 3 pretty full days of driving and a bad sleep. We tried to find camping on the outskirts of town, though "Kemping" or camping as we know it, is not camping. That or they didn't want foreigners, we got turned away. Ended up at the brand new Ramada Hotel on the road out to the airport. We were able to use their free wi-fi connection in the carpark outside the hotel to double check the rates, and this was one of the cheapest places in town at 4,500 Roubles. Good hotel, free parking and wi-fi and that rate includes taxes. The rates you initially see on hotels.com or other booking sites do not include taxes but get added on when you go to pay. The Ramada price was cheaper walking in than on booking sites.
In terms of touristy highlights. We stopped at a little town called Bogolyubovo just outside of Vladimir, where there is an old church quaintly positioned next to a river, and floodplain. Kazan's Kremlin is very pretty, with white-washed walls and beautiful church and Mosque. The town itself is also generally very pretty and much more well-kept than other places we have been. It is the capital of the Tatarstan Republic which we discovered held on to much of its autonomy during the soviet era so was able to keep much of its wealth internal. Around Ishevsk, Perm and Kurgan there are many prisons, very depressing looking places. Along with Siberia, a lot of political prisoners were sent to the Urals during Communist times. At Kurgan, there are some ice caves, that were quite interesting, and it was nice to get out of the car and have a bit of a walk! Entry is 300 Roubles each with a guided (Russian) tour. The guide seemed quite good, everyone was laughing and nodding... we caught the odd word.

Had originally planned to spend 2 nights in Yekaterinburg, though the weather isn't great, so we saw some of the main sights, like the church of the blood and the site where the Romanovs were murdered, all by car then wandered the markets and the main street (Lenina) by foot and had a pizza for lunch. Was only 3:30 so decided to make a start on the next day's driving.

Terehova (Latvia) to Moscow

2010-08-16T18:47:00.007+01:00

Aug 15-16

Distance: 619km

Crossing the border from Latvia, at Terehova near Zilupe, to Russia was a pretty painless exercise, but very very long. 8 hours in total.

We arrived in Zilupe mid afternoon hoping to buy the Russian car insurance before entering, turns out you can now only buy it at customs. [Once you are cleared through Latvian customs you can park and enter the building to purchase the insurance which cost us about 2300 Rubles. For vehicles up to 3.5 tonne, the premium is based on engine size]

We went to check out the queue at the border and while there were km and km of trucks waiting, there were very few cars, so after a couple of beers with some of the drivers we decided to head off somewhere to cook some dinner and try and get a couple of hours sleep. Our Russian visa didn't start til the next day.

That was a bit of a mistake! We got back to the border at 10pm Latvian/11pm Russian time and the queue had grown significantly. It seemed they were prioritising the trucks at this point, because our queue moved once after half an hour, about 6 spots up, then about 6 more after an hour and so on... 4 hours just to get to the front of the queue!

Border process

1) Once you pass the traffic light go up to the first booth and pick up a slip of paper which has a stamp of which number car you are through for the day. We were number 69. They had a computer which had hundres of licence plates and you have to identify which one is yours. Not sure where it got scanned, but the number plates seemed to be in order of arrival at the gate.

2) Shuffle up a bit further and go through Latvian passport control. Matt was able to take both passports up to the counter

3) Customs - Took a cursory look over the vehicle, in the boot. Didn't seem too concerned with us. Most other cars they even checked under the bonnet.

4) If needed, buy Russian auto insurance from the building at the Latvian customs. There are places to park once you've been cleared.

5) Drive up to the next booth where you need to hand back the slip you were given at the first booth.

You're now in no man's land!

6) First booth you come to you will need to show passport and pick up a migration card. Fill this out while you are waiting for a spot to be available at passport control

7) Passport control do a thorough check of the passport and the visa. They seemed to check that everything on the visa was exactly as per how it is written on the passport, so make sure there are no spelling mistakes on your visa!

8) 2 booths up is then customs. There is a form that needs to be completed, all in Cryllic. We were lucky that the Latvian driver in front of us was nice enough to translate the form for us. Still we had made a mistake but the border guard changed the form for us! We found all the border guards to be polite and helpful. All were interested in our journey. We experience none of the issues we were afraid of. Hopefully the process at the other end will be just as smooth.

The car got another cursory look, and the vehicle importation stamp and passports are double checked at stations on the way out (we had to wake one of them up, they'd fallen asleep - don't blame then) then we're in Russia!

The queue to get out of Russia looked just as long.

We took the M9 into Moscow, straight-forward enough. The road is very very bumpy though. Some big pot-holes and deep ruts from the trucks. The other thing to watch out for is the constantly changing speed limits, sometimes for no obvious reason. Being tired we missed that we'd just entered a town. Sure enough there were police waiting there. Smiley smiley but we did get fined. Paid about £4 and lesson learnt! We saw about 3 more checkpoints, got stopped at 1 as we entered the main motorway into Moscow near Volokolamsk. Just a routine check of drivers licence and insurance and we were on our way.

We stopped at a Kafe on the Motorway, looking out for one with plenty of trucks. Good hearty potato and meat stew and we were on out way. For those that are interested we did see a few camping grounds, mostly attached to a petrol station, but there were a couple that looked to be set up on a river and looked relatively decent.

Road conditions on the Motorway were great but the drivers got a bit crazier! We stayed near Izmailovo Park so took the ring road all the way around, huge big apartment blocks with crazy electricity cables going between them, big retail centres and one very space age looking building. 5 lane freeway all the way round - that's what the M25 needs to be!

Got to the Hotel (Izmailovo Vega) and just crashed. Including stops for fuel and a quick lunch it had taken us 10 hours to travel 600km. The restaurant at the hotel had exorbitant prices so we ate at Taverna nearby. Slept very very well.

While it is a bit hazy here, it is not very smokey. Apart from when the wind blew up a little bit we haven't been able to smell smoke at all.

We have only had one day to look around Moscow. The Red Square and Kremlin (St Basil's Cathedral is so unique and something really worth seeing) were obvious highlights, as were the pastries from the self-service supermarket in the GUM department store! We spent a few hours wandering through Arbat, Katay Gorad and Tverskoy. Ate to My-My (pronounced Moo-Moo) where the service is buffet-style and prices are really reasonable, it was recommended both by some people we met in Lithuania and Lonely Planet). We also stopped at a placed called Bar BQ in Tverskoy, only for a coffee, but the food there is also reasonably priced and look good. It is only a short walk to the Gallery.

Heading further East tomorrow. Would love to spend another few days in Moscow to explore the galleries, but am more keen to get going, want to know what's around the next corner! It also makes sense given we only have a 30 day visa to get to the other side and ship the car and Moscow is also expensive!

The Baltics

2010-08-13T15:28:00.005+01:00

Aug 5 to Aug 15

Weren't quite sure what to expect of Lithuania and Latvia, hadn't done a lot of research and weren't sure how long we'd be here for, but we have loved it so far. Not as busy as the rest of Europe so we've been able to relax a bit.

Our first stop was Trakai in Lithuania, about 20km east of the capital Vilnius. It was a 'top' campsite (to use the phrasing of our lonely planet) about 5km north of the town on the opposite side of the lake. Trakai is a beautiful little place with 2 castles on the lake. We hired one of those paddle boats and took ourselves for a little cruise, having a well-deserved beer afterwards!. Nice to have some sunshine again after all the rain we've had for the last couple of weeks.

Went via the Akropolis (as in the shopping mall chain) on our way into Vilnius. That's one thing we've noticed here, there are retail parks and big shopping centres with huge hypermarkets everywhere. In Latvia especially, there are a lot of run-down buildings and apartment blocks, but there's plenty of places to shop, everyone dresses well and there's not a lot of old cars around. It's a little hard to tell what the financial situation of people really is here.

Vilnius has a nice old town centre as well, a few market stalls, selling amber (which we have since seen absolutely everywhere) but again, so quiet, nice to be able to stroll through the streets in a little bit of peace!

From Vilnius, we were heading west towards the coast, and Trakai was a little out of the way, so decided to check out the Vilnius city camping. It was literally in a disused carpark behind what looked like some retail or light industrial buildings. If you had a tent, you had the 1.5 - 2 m space between the rows of carparks. There is so much green space not more than 3 or 4km from the city centre. Hopefully it's not too long before someone sets up something a little better. In the end we took the detour back to Trakai.

The Hill of Crosses was quite something, particularly given the history of it being bull-dozed a number of times in the Soviet era. People lay a cross in remembrance or in asking for Mercy as a show of their faith. The crosses were stacked so densely on top of each other.

We ended up on the Neringa Spit, a small stretch of land from Klaipeda down to the Russian-governed area of Kaliningrad. Sand dunes, wooden fishermans houses, beaches, a perfect place to recuperate for a couple of days. We got some pretty heavy storms, but we just ate at the bar those nights, which actually had some great Chinese!

We met some great people from Moscow who have given us some really useful tips, phrases and places to visit while we're in Russia. They did seem a little more concerned than we are about the journey itself though :)

Straight around the coast from Klaipeda to Riga. The roads became a little worse on entering Latvia, though there is plenty of European funding being used on development. There was a large stretch of road around the tip to Kolka (the geographic centre of Europe) that looked like it was about ready to be tarred.

Jurmala, about 20km west of Riga is a Spa resort town that became popular in the early 1900s. Not my kind of place. There was a very, very long pedestrian street packed with markets, with restaurants and bars along the edge. Once you got past the first few stalls, it all started to become the same. I loved all the old wooden buildings though, but this area seems to have a lot of money (there weren't many here that were rundown). We think you're actually meant to pay a 1 Lat (about £1.20) entry fee to enter the town, though we must have missed that sign. Ooops

Now in Riga, which is really beautiful. Enjoyed a cocktail on the 26th floor of the Radisson which has a great view over the city.

Feels a bit strange now. We've kind of finished our tour of Europe and tomorrow, Saturday morning, we head East for the Russian border. We plan to camp just outside the border for a few hours and enter just after midnight. It's about a 700km drive to Moscow and we have accommodation booked for Sunday night. I know! A proper bed!!

We have been keeping an eye on the fires and the smog in Moscow. The situation seems to be improving, but we will keeping watching for updates. Fingers crossed all goes well at the border!

Deutschland

2010-08-08T07:20:00.000+01:00

24 July – 27 July

Had never been to the Eastern side of Germany before, so really enjoyed our quick trip to Dresden and Berlin. Particularly for the history. Spent hours reading all the billboards on Berlin’s history both at Checkpoint Charlie and Alexanderplatz. Really interesting, and hard to imagine the limitations on people’s travel and movements, that it was only 20 years ago that the wall came down and Germany formed the Republic it is today. Both Dresden and Berlin are beautiful cities, lots of parkland, beautiful buildings... Really enjoyed it, even got a day of sunshine to enjoy Berlin! Randomly found a Russian bookstore where we were hoping to buy some maps, which they didn’t have. Got to try out some of my Russian though and she understood me... so have a little more confidence now!

We need to enter Russia on 15 August so still have 3 weeks left... weren’t sure whether to spend more time in Germany or in the Baltics, but then met Marek from Poland who insisted we visit lots of places there, so looks like about 10 days in Poland! Looking forward to it.

Polski

2010-08-03T16:44:00.000+01:00

From 27 July and still there

First stop was Poznan, which if it wasn’t for Marek from Berlin we would have driven straight past. A beautiful little city. Has a lovely old market square with buildings with different coloured and styles of facade. Enjoyed sitting and having a coffee and watch the world go by. Easy to see in a couple of hours. We ended up staying 2 nights. First day it just rained so caught up on a bit of my travel diary, did some washing (free clothes dryer) , worked out a bit of a plan for the rest of our days in Europe, just chilled, then rode in to have a look around the town the next morning. Stopping off at the Westfields like shopping centre on the way back for a few supplies.

Stop 2, the religious centre of Czestochowa, which is home to the miracle of the Black Madonna (the one with tears). So many pilgrims, bus loads and bus loads just kept on arriving. We didn’t queue to see the Madonna up close, but did see it from a distance. Only stayed the one night then further south to Krakow. A bit like Prague, a beautiful city with a great old market square and a castle, but again rain and groups on hens and bucks parties. Again, great if you’re there to party but not for a peaceful stroll around town... Why is it that we always end up in these places on a Friday night?!!

Then further south towards the Tatra Mountains and the ski resort of Zakopane. Would be a great spot in the Winter. In Summer it just rains! We could only see to the first group of mountains, only about 30% of the way up when we looked at the postcards. But a very lively town. Lots of street markets and performers. Lots of hikes you could do as well. Unfortunately no mountain bikes allowed in the national park though.

Random stop last night, again at what seemed like a popular spot for the locals. Near a lake called Roznowskie. We ended up having to do a bit of 4WDriving to get there as part of the road we were heading along had been taken out by a mudslide. AutoRoute came in handy to show us the local road around, which turned into grass and then mud, with a big locked gate blocking the entrance at the other end. Small steep gap between that and the tree.. got round it eventually, with a ‘Bravo’ from the guy who was picking fruit nearby.

Now in Warsaw, haven’t been into the centre of town yet. Need to catch up on a few things, like an oil change and find the Russian and Mongolian embassies to get a bit of admin sorted out.

Czech Republic

2010-08-03T16:16:00.000+01:00

20 July – 24 July

Our first stop in Czech was a great spot for lunch. A lake about 30km South of Cesky Krumlov, suggested to us by a random Austrian man who had sought us out in a supermarket after seeing the Aussie car in the carpark. The lake was a big local tourist area, also looked like it would be popular for the ski season. Lots of people out cycling, rollerblading...

We headed to Cesky Krumlov for the afternoon, on what was finally a nice sunny afternoon. A beautiful old town, lovely old buildings, cobbled streets, people rafting along the river through the town. We ended up camping a little way down the river just out of town. Was nice and quiet and watched as the rafters continued on down past us.

Then to Prague, which I have to say was a little bit of a let down, just didn’t get the ‘wow’ factor that I was expecting. I think with a group it would be more fun, checking out the bars and clubs... and maybe it was the weather (very hot, humid, and stormy)... or the groups of English lads after out for the bucks weekend... It is a very pretty city, but as I think I’ve mentioned earlier, I’ve become a bit of a travel ‘snob’, after 2 months through Europe you get to the point where a castle is just another castle, a beautiful old bridge is just another bridge. Which is terrible I know. Really enjoyed our cycle though. For anyone who’s been to Prague, you know the hill the castle is on? Our campsite was 3km further up so the cycle back from the centre of town took quite a lot out of us. Collapsed next to the car when we got there.

We had a little Czech cash left so picked a random town, Karlovy Very (Karlsbad) West of Prague. It’s a town with natural springs, where the water is meant to have great healing properties. I tried it, tasted horrible, but now I must be healed from whatever it was that I had. The springs got hotter and hotter the further up the river you went, to the point where it was too hot to touch the pipe. A great worthwhile stop, even the random campsite we found where we felt like we were in someone’s backyard. Felt a bit sorry for the group on a canoeing trek whose dinner got washed out. Yep. Raining here too!

Osterreich (Austria)

2010-08-03T15:06:00.000+01:00

Jul 18 – Jul 20

Again, a short but sweet stay.

Stayed in a campsite across the river from Wien, in Neue Donau. Had heard bad things about the Wien campsites, very narrow plots. This was true, but they are quite long, and the ground was not very full so there was plenty of space. Even the Contiki group that turned up on the second night didn’t spoil it. They were very quiet, must be near the end of their tour.

Rode the bikes in again. Vienna is built for bikes so it was a really nice ride in. Had to cross over 2 bridges, one of which had a crazy spiral bike ramp to go up 3 stories onto the bridge. Then through a nice green park... and onto the wide streets of Vienna. Should of eaten at the Aussie bar we stopped at for a beer. We ended up at the Rosenburg Cafe opposite the Sacher cafe (which we ended up at later for some torte and coffee). Not cheap and not good quality food either. Ah well... live and learn. The souvenir shops have lots of “we’re not Australia” trinkets. Like “Austria. No Kangaroos” street sign shirts, glasses etc. Austrian Kangaroo, ie. Cows, stuff... you get my drift.

Weather wasn’t great, so didn’t ended up spending much time in Austria... moved on to Czech Republic

Slovenia

2010-07-25T15:32:00.000+01:00

Jul 16 – Jul 18

Lake Bohinj. An outdoor person’s paradise. It has everything. Great hiking trails ( I did a short 45min walk up to a waterfall while Matt ‘watched the car’!), mountain biking, paragliding and plenty of water sports. Campsites are crowded (it’s illegal to free camp in Slovenia) but they’ll fit you in. We arrived quite late having driven up through the mountains from Venice. A great drive, very steep in parts, but there were also lots of cyclists. I am still amazed at the cyclists. Both the ones that ride on these crazy mountain passes and the ones that cycle 170km a day with all their clothes, tent etc strapped to the bike. I’m proud when we do our 20km!

Our day on Lake Bohinj consisted of a ride along the lake into town and back, a swim in the lake, a hike and a stroll around the town of Bled before finding a campsite on the other side of the river. So cruisey! Unfortunately torrential rain spoiled our plans of a nice bike ride up the mountain the next morning. Instead we got chatting with some of the other campers. Campsites generally have such a great friendly atmosphere. Can pretty much start chatting with anyone about their car/camper or their travels. And everyone has an interesting story or good advice. Definitely one of the few pluses compared to travelling in hotels J. Though I spose it is a big plus. [Can you tell I’m getting just a little bit sick of the car J]

So our stay in Slovenia was short. Just 2 nights, but it’s a beautiful spot. If we weren’t on a longer trip we would have spent time on some of the many 4WD tracks or rafting/canyoning or if I could get over my fear of heights, the spot where they were paragliding looked amazing.. Couldn’t really risk damage to car or selves. Only ½ way though.

Italy

2010-07-25T15:15:00.000+01:00

July 4 – July 16

Aaahhh Italy. My third visit to Italy, but I am just as sure as the first time, that it wont be my last. Can’t quite pinpoint exactly what it is about Italy, but I just love it. Everyone is so laid-back, beautiful towns and scenery and of course there’s the food and coffee.

We headed North-East from Southern France through the Piedmont region to Milan. The area is known for it’s gastronomic delights, including Barolo wine, truffles amongst others. But for some reason everything was shut. Couldn’t work out if it was a public holiday or if everything is normally shut on a Monday. Either way, wasn’t good for my mood! Until that is, we found a great little co-op that was open... heaven. Except that because of the heat, the fridge isn’t working the best so couldn’t risk buying too much food.

Not much too Milan unless you’ve got a deep wallet and a big wardrobe to fill with beautiful clothes. I had to do with browsing and window shopping. The Duomo and the surrounding streets are beautiful, but a few hours was more than enough for us to get around. We rode our bikes in from the campsite, about a 25km round trip. Nice and flat so a relatively easy ride but so so hot. Lovely sweat patch on the back from the bag once we got back.

Next Stop, Lake Como. Again, loved it. Didn’t spot any famous faces, but then I’ve been known on a few occasions to walk directly past and even bump shoulders with quite famous people and not notice. Our campsite was right on the shore of the Lake, about 10km from Bellagio. Awesome view. The Espana v Deutschland match was on while we were there. A crowd of about 60 crowded outside watching a little tv. Great atmosphere, especially with quite vocal fans from both sides.

Could spend a week just exploring all the villages around the lake. Although the area is known for it’s famous locals, it just doesn’t have the same pretentiousness as the Southern coast. Much more relaxed. I was also surprised at how quiet the lake was. Maybe we caught it on a slow day, but was expecting to see a lot more boats and other watercraft on the Lake.

Como is also known for its Silk industry. My Lonely Planet (2010 edition) suggested a local silk producer to go and visit. The guide even had an interview transcript with the owner discussing how the Como silk industry will never die out, as people are aware of the quality etc etc. Turned up at the factory / outlet... It’s closed down. Moved to Switzerland. Another Aussie couple had turned up when we did, though they’d walked up from the town, not driven like we did, so were not impressed at all that it was not open. Strangely, the cafe inside the non-existent gallery is still open for business.

Cinque Terre (5 towns). We stayed in a town, Moneglia, just North of the Cinque Terre National Park. Prime land demands high prices, accounting for the steep camping prices for very little space. Suppose when there are cliffs and steep hills down to the sea it’s a bit hard to sprawl out. We walked to 4 of the 5 towns, only missing out on the last one, Monterosso. Really wanted to do the whole 5, but it was just a little too hot and the legs were starting to feel like jelly. It is a great walk though. Magnificent views and beautiful towns along the way to catch your breath and fill the water bottles up. Thoroughly enjoyed the swim in the bay at our last stop, Vernazza, as well. If I didn’t have to get on a train to get back to the campsite I would have walked straight into water fully clothed. Which is pretty much what Matt did, and forgot to empty the pockets J

Drove through beautiful Tuscany via Chianti and Florence on our way to Bologna. Where we stayed 3 whole nights. The most time we’ve spent in one spot since England. Bologna is not as touristy as most other places we’ve been so far. Most likely why we liked it. Not too many historical sites either. It’s all about strolling through the markets, particularly the food markets, drinking coffee. Two of my favourite past-times! We also learnt how to make hand-made pasta at La Vecchia Scuola. No machines involved, just flour, eggs, a rolling pin and lots of effort with the arms! Enjoyed eating the pasta (Tagliatelle, ravioli, tortellini) afterwards as well, which they served with 2 bottles of wine, an orange liqueur, coffee and chocolate cake. Yum Yum. Looking forward trying it out again at home.

Bologna is also where we were to watch the final of the World Cup, Holland v Espana. Nice close game, was hoping Holland would win or that it would at least go to penalties.. oh well... There was such a huge Dutch crowd at the campsite too, am sure they would have gone crazy.

Final Italian stop was Venice (after a brief stop at the Ferrari Museum in Maranello), where we caught up with Garry. Didn’t do too much sight-seeing having been there before. Caught the ferry into town, wandered around, got lost, ate gelato. Actually I think that’s exactly what I did last time I was there!

#End

A little bit of France (and Monaco)

2010-07-25T14:16:00.000+01:00

Jul 3 – Jul 5

Had a couple of days in Southern France. Got to St Tropez around dusk and funnily enough had difficulty in finding reasonably priced camping grounds. We ended up in what we think was a dam catchment area, about 50m off a small local road. A surprisingly busy road it turned out, mostly due to some guy in his Ferrari taking some friends for joy rides up and down the street. We had a boar come visit as well... actually made me feel safer, less likely to get other unexpected visitors... just so long as I didn’t need to get up and go to the loo in the middle of the night.

Drove into St Tropez the next morning, for coffee and croissants. Ended up just getting takeaway. Felt very underdressed and unmanicured even at 7:30 in the morning! There was a great little bay just outside of town where we had a morning swim... even had sand. I remember Southern France as having only rocky beaches, but turns out that’s only from Nice Eastwards.

Spent some time in Monte Carlo, got a few photos of the car outside the casino next to the Ferraris. Camped just inside the Italian border at a dodgy little campground, whose owner pretended to speak bad English. Dinner in a quaint little town, Mataro (between Monaco and the Italian border). Great, reasonably priced cafes and a night market that was still going at midnight when we drove back past.

Unfortunately didn’t win big at the casino...

Hola Esapana!

2010-07-13T19:39:00.000+01:00

We ended up spending a bit longer than originally intended in Spain, for relaxation, the sights and in part made necessary as repairs were required on the car.

First stop was the Costa del Sol where some kind friends let us stay for the night, which turned into 3 as it took a few extra days than planned to get one of the front trailing arm bolt replaced. This was mainly because it was a public holiday in Benalmadena where we were staying (though oddly only in that small part of the Costa del Sol, not the towns neighbouring). The San Juan Festival. There was a night of drinks dancing and fireworks on the beach, along with some odd traditions, swim as it turned midnight... walking over hot coals... There was also a night where lots of women were wearing traditional dresses, and we saw a local flamenco show in the square.... Thanks to the Greenans for showing us around town and for having us stay!

From there we headed North, to Grenada where we had a great look around the Alhambra...

camped in an olive field (and visited by the farmer in the morning as a bit of a hurry along we think J)

and on to Madrid via Toledo.

There were 2 highlights for me of Madrid... firstly the Museu de Jambon in the centre of town.... really good Tapas... from 1EUR. We just stood and ate in the deli downstairs but there was a constant queue for the seating area upstairs... very, very popular and little wonder....

2^nd highlight was seeing a bullfight. Didn’t really intend to go. We got off at the Metro stop just to have a look around the ring itself, to compare to the one we’d seen in Sevilla, but as we exited we noticed there were ticket queues... as Matt was checking prices, someone was a bit too slow noticing an available ticket booth and Matt jumped in and bought the cheapest tickets available (in the sun, at the back). I’m glad to have been... if only to confirm that I didn’t like it. I like the theatrics of it, the skill of the Matadors... but I could not watch the swords and daggers strike the bull... or the bull charging the horses (that are now armoured).. we left after about 40 mins... though we definitely weren’t the first.

We stopped in Zaragoza (nice quaint town) and Montserrant (odd rocky mountain range) on our way across to Barcelona.

I loved Barcelona, but Matt preferred Madrid. I loved the Gaudi architecture, all the little shopping streets and that city beaches were within a couple of kilometres of the centre. Loved sitting in a little bar in a quiet part of town and watching the Spain v Portugal match with the locals. Didn’t so much enjoy realising we didn’t have much time to get the last bus back to the campsite and having to really power walk/run across town! Given that Spain had just played, the city was strangely quiet. Perhaps because we were in the touristy part of town, or they watch the matches at home.

After breaking down on the highway leaving Barcelona and spending a night in a hotel in Mataro we started heading to France and Italy. Stopped in Girona and Figueres on the way and bush camped next to a dam near the border. A really nice spot, including the 4W-Driving required to get down there!... and finding the tarred road the next morning. Got interrupted by some police who were looking to get rid of some people spear fishing, but other than that, probably the best free camp so far.

Leg 2: Waypoint tour of Morocco

2010-06-24T08:29:00.006+01:00

So. We're computer mobile again after picking up a bit of tax-free bargain in Gibraltar (If you're nearby - Gibraltar is also worth a visit for £5.95 1L bottles of Jim Beam, oh and also great views from the top of the Gibraltar Rock where we spent some time with the Barbary apes - make sure you've got some pounds (the currency kind) on you cause they really stitch you on the exchange rate and lots of places dont take card. There is border control for those who were wondering. We got searched on the way out).

Morocco - Where to begin. Well given it's me that's writing this I'll start with food! Our Waypoint Tour began on 6th June at La Casita camping San Roque (a good town to get lost in) Spain with a great BBQ (braai) and meet and greet. Nice change to have someone else preparing the meals for us! and I have to say no one ever went hungry that's for sure! We had nothing but great quality food the whole trip. Everything from tagines, to kebabs, Nandos spiced chicken yum yum. The only times Barrie didn't cater were once in the desert where we got caught in a dust storm we ended up eating in a restaurant in the Kasbah we were camping in - though the tagine there wasn't a patch on his, and most definitely not the same portion sizing; a lunch in Tinehir where we had stopped for the day so the cars could rotate through the garage to fix various issues - we had a couple of kebabs on a roof top terrace overlooking the markets. and Pizza in Marrakech - again the food was a let down there - but we had a great position overlooking the main square, watching the sunset and the crowds growing - great atmosphere. So definitely no complaints on the food! Did miss my cereal for breakfast but most mornings we were up and going and i much preferred the extra 10 minutes kip to a proper breakfast.

The tour was a lot more than we expected. A lot less time spent on tar roads than even we imagined! We had everything, rock crawling through beautiful gorges, steep ascents and descents on very tight, bumpy tracks through beautiful valleys and cedar forests. Then there was the desert driving, sand dunes, salt beds and those bloody corrugations! No way we ould have navigated this ourselves without having done a significant amount of prior research. Taking seemingly random tracks in the middle of plains, no signs in most places. Only once did he miss turn off. We ended up driving through a farm. Good 4WD, but obviously we felt bad driving through their fields. It was difficult to get back onto the track as there was a deep drain to get across. Some kids helped us navigate our way out and thankfully they had already done their harvest so didn't do any damage.

Kids.... that was actually one of the things I will remember most from Morocco. Unfortunately a lot of kids would just come to the car asking for "Bon Bon" "Stillo" (actually took us a day or 2 to work that one out... thought they just thought everyone's name was Stevo). They would see us coming and in some cases run for a good couple of hundred metres just to be able to get to the road and try and wave us down. Some of them would clear the road up ahead of rock (usually really small ones) .. like hey.. I've helped you... in one town they kids started showing off their martial arts and cartwheeling skills in a hope to get a bit of a 'present'.
At the end of first day off-roading we were airing up our tyres, right across the road from a school just as they all started running out at the end of the day... Started off with just a few kinds checking out the cars, saying hello. But in the end there must have been about 50 kids. All good fun to begin with - blasting the air-compressor at them. Trying to explain we were from Oz... they all had a good laugh at Matt when he bent down to do one tyre and showed a little too much! But then one kid decided to throw a stone at the car... then another and it all started to get a little out of hand. Matt cracked it when one hit the car and took off, almost literally - scaring a few kids out of the way!! Shame that a couple of kids wrecked it for everyone else.

I mentioned car issues before. Trevor, one of the other travellers on the trip, decided on day 1 to start an issues log. It made for interesting and lengthy reading by the end... over 40 issues, luckily mostly minor , by the end of the 14 days. We, personally had cracks in the tyre sidewall, bash plate for the gas tank fell off, bust in a pipe for the auto-transmission cooler - not good when you've just started through the sand-dunes, fuse for the dash and the alternator (were glad it was just that and not the alternator itself) ummm.... overheated on climbs when we had the air-con on (had to do away with that luxury).. think that was it... others had flat tyres, broken leaf spring, cracked steering rack, Pete's dodgy exhaust on his Discovery kept falling off... so all in all.. our cars definitely kept us on our toes!

We also camped in some spectacular spots. In a riverbed, in the dunes, in the forest... every now and then (and more regularly than I had hoped for) we camped where there were toilets and showers. The Kasbahs were quite cool... Drove through a fortress looking entrance to an open area then a building that had internal courtyards as well... Would love one day to be able to afford to build my own house like that... one can dream.

Didnt spend a lot of times in the towns themelves, but when we did, we had fun. Wandering round the food markets in Tinerhir and other towns, a lot more authentic than what you get in Marrakech. But that was good as well. Would love to furnish my house (when I have a home that is larger than 2m wide by 5m long) from the antiques shops in the soukhs. Some great stuff, everything from rugs, to lamps to pots to chests... loved it all... maybe when I have that dream house I'l be able to fly back for a special shopping trip :)

So thanks to Barrie of Waypoint Tours, and our travel buddies, Peter aka Tom/Jerry/Ralph/Stevo, Sam aka Pedro, Trev and Nick... we had a fantastic time in Morocco - a great start to our adventures through Europe and beyond.
Now in the Costa Del Sol... soaking up some sun... sorting out some admin things, catching up with friends and need to get the car looked at... it's making cranky noises, even after we've washed it (we thought that may pick up her mood).

Quick Update

2010-06-02T10:22:00.001+01:00

Just a quick update from a Cyber Cafe in Cascais Portugal, near Lisbon.

Can´t believe it´s been almost a week already. Had a great send off from Epping, Essex. Bacon "sarnie" and all!. Thanks to Rick and Viv for their hospitality for our last week in England. It was great!

Headed off on LD Lines from Dover, after picking up some last minute supplies on the way... some clean fuel for the fuel stove and other essentials like that!

We spent 2 nights in France, one camped in the bush right on the ocean which was nice. Have been avoiding the toll roads so travelled through some really quiant little French villages... great meal and vinho in Bordeaux :)

From there a couple of nights in Northern Spain, Basque country. Absolutely beautiful scenery... really enjoyed wandering around San Sebastian.

We headed south-west from there... I got to drive the really, really, steep bits... across some very very high bridges... not good when you´re scared of heights!

We wandered through Salamanca... enjoyed the great architecture

Now in Portugal... Have visited Coimbra, the beaches of Nazare, spent a nice afternoon drinking Super Bock in Sintra and are now in Cascais near Lisbon. Had a great meal last night at a restaurant overlooking the sea... pity that while we were enjoying the meal and the vinho, the car got broken into... Laptop was stolen and a few other little bits and pieces... but they´ve caused us more hastle than the value of the items... oh well....

Off to fix the lock of the car now, have already had the fun of lodging a police report in a foreign country.... then the joys of insurance claimn. Will need to find a more secure way of storing a computer... Kensington lock through a bolt to the chassis was not sufficient. Not the way I wanted to spend our last couple of days in beautiful portugal. Them the joys of travel I spose. Just glad we had backups of everything... ... Will write a better update before we head off to Morocco on Monday.

Find it at CarPoint.com.au New, Used, Demo, Dealer or Private?

We're Off

2010-05-27T07:58:00.001+01:00

3 Continents; 20-ish countries and who knows how many kilometres… The journey starts from Epping, Essex in 1 hr!

The dream has been in the making for a few years now, but in the end all the organisation has been very last minute! Getting visas, fitting water tanks, sorting out foreign currency, these last few weeks have been absolutely non-stop. The enormity of the journey has really only just dawned on me, haven't had much of a chance to stop and think about what we're actually doing until now! [Which may be a good thing as I may have chickened out!]

A few people have asked for an itinerary, but really we only have a few fixed dates. A tag-along tour with Waypoint Tours through Morocco from 7-20 June and Russia as our time there is dependent on the dates of our visas… but the general plan is…

1 week in Northern Spain and Portugal

2 weeks tag along tour in Morocco

3 or 4 weeks in Spain and Northern Italy (we love food… hence why so long here! Looking forward to doing some cooking classes!)

3 or 4 weeks through Eastern Europe and the Baltics

1 month driving across Russia (with a detour through Mongolia) to Vladivostok. We will ship the car from Vladivostok and make our own way in to China and down to Hong Kong… back in Oz at the end of September… Ish!

Our first stop will be – somewhere in France – how far we get will really depend on how tired we feel once we reach the European continent. We are on a 1pm ferry from Dover.

That's as detailed as our itinerary is at the moment! Feels great knowing we don't have many fixed deadlines. We can just go where the wind takes us!

So we say farewell to the UK. We will miss the rolling green hills, the diverse and vibrant capital, the pubs, the multitude of travel opportunities, and of course our family and all the new friends we've made along the way. You all have a place to stay in Oz!

We will keep in touch as often as we can!

Here goes…

Tracey and Matt

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Northern Ireland - March 12 to 14

2010-03-23T12:41:00.003Z

We spent last weekend in Northern Ireland having got some relatively cheap Ryanair (£40 each return including all charges and taxes) tickets to Belfast. This is despite me having said I would never fly Ryanair again! Although you really do feel like a herd of cattle, it was only a 50 min flight and Ryanair flies into Belfast City airport which is only a 10 minute (£2 bus ride on route 600) to the city centre. Easyjet flights were about the same price but they currently fly into the International terminal which is about 45 minutes out of town, though I think they may be switching to the city terminal later in the year. Just something to watch if you’re heading to Belfast.

We met at Stansted airport straight from work. Me on the Stansted Express (quite expensive at £16 one-way, and that’s at a £2 discount if you book online at least a day ahead) along with hundreds of other people jetting off after work and lots of groups of guys heading off for their “Stag Dos”. They’re not Bucks parties over here... Matt had driven and parked in the long-term parking, which again, is significantly cheaper if you can book a couple of weeks in advance. It was certainly a lot cheaper than my ride on the Stansted Express! We had a whole ½ hour to spare before our flight so had time for a quick drink at the Stansted Wetherspoons.

We stayed at the Europa Hotel, which I discovered after booking has the great reputation of being the most bombed hotel in Europe. It’s meant to be one of the best hotels in Belfast, though we got a great deal on Booking.com (perhaps now I know why!) so didn’t pay the price! (We always use this site and hotels.com. Hotels offer different discounts on the sites at different times so it’s always worth checking both). After checking in around 9pm and immediately managing to lock our passports and cash in the safe without resetting the pincode, oops, we headed downstairs for dinner. It was “ok”. There wasn’t actually a lot nearby in the way of food that looked open, but the dessert was absolutely yummy.... choc vanilla crème brulee mmm !!

On the Saturday we headed out on a 1 day Paddywagon tour to the Giants Causeway and L/Derry. This a really good value trip (£18 each), particularly if you’ve only got a couple of days in Northern Ireland. While it is a little rushed in parts, you do squeeze a lot into the day. We left Belfast about 9am and headed straight for the Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge. It was kind of billed as this really wonky rope bridge over a gap between 2 islands that was used by salmon fisherman to get out to the best spots. They’ve obviously done it up a bit since those ‘old times’ cause even I, who is a bit scared of heights, had absolutely no trouble with it! The bus driver did have stories of people who had had complete melt downs on the bridge or who had got over but wouldn’t come back the other way... So I wouldn’t go there thinking you’re going to have an adrenalin-filled experience, unless you’re really bad with heights. But I would recommend it for the views. Really stunning. We could see all the way across to Scotland! We spent about an hour there, it’s a 1km walk from the gate to the bridge, with some quite step steps in places, so that’s probably the minimum amount of time you would want stay there. I imagine it would get quite busy in Summer too and there may be queues to cross the bridge. NB: Entry of £4.90 per adult is not included in the paddywagon tour price.

From here we jumped back on the bus and headed along the coast to the Giants Causeway where we stopped for 1.5 hours. We were quite blessed with the weather. It was relatively cool and a little windy, but it didn’t rain! So we took the longer walking route across the top of the bay, then down some steps to the causeway itself. The story goes that the steps were started on both sides of the waterway by 2 giants, Fionn McCool on the Ireland side and Benandonner on the Scottish side so that they could meet for a fight. One was tricked into thinking the other was a larger giant than he actually was and retreated back to the other side smashing the stones as they went (I’ll leave anyone who’s visiting the area to work out the story). I was expecting to see stepping stones out to sea, but they’re all actually small hexagonal stones connected to each other, all pretty similar in size and shape. Really unique and different, but not quite living up to what I had built in my imagination! The scientists explanation of the rock formations being a result of volcanic activity probably makes more sense unfortunately.

After our long walk (combining the Rope Bridge we had now walked about 6km today... Pretty good for us!) we went into the pub for our Irish stew, which we had been advised by our driver to order before we went for our walk. It was really yummy... as was the Guinness we enjoyed with it! We had about 30 mins to eat... those that came in about 15 minutes after us must have wolfed it down!

I actually slept a bit on our drive from the Giants Causeway to Londonderry/Derry. A combination of the full warm lunch and the sun in my face... Luckily we had headed back inland so wasn’t missing too much scenery! The driver did explain quite a bit about the history of Northern Ireland. Really quick on the older stuff and spent more time talking about the more recent ‘troubles’. I didn’t appreciate how tense relations between the 2 groups still were in some areas. In some towns, the gutters are still painted in various colours denoting which side they support. The “London” in Londonderry is blacked out on a lot of signs. And as we drove through one town, a guy walking along the street made some ‘gestures’ towards our very green bus.

We didn’t have a lot of time in Derry. We got dropped off near where the Bloody Sunday events occurred and walked around looking at all the murals and memorials. It feels like a really dreary, unwelcoming place... didn’t feel unsafe but it’s just such a contrast to the beautiful Irish countryside that we’d just driven through. I say I didn’t feel unsafe, but just this week there were a string of bomb alerts in central Derry... mmm. We caught the end of the Ireland v Wales 6 Nations game before jumping on the bus back to Derry.

It was a long day, but the driver had pointed out some of the best bars/pubs in Belfast.... 2 of which were right across the road so had to give them a go, even though we’re getting old and don’t go out late anymore! The Crown is really decorative with lots of booths.. a great place to enjoy a couple of pints. Next door at Robinsons the music is a bit more lively and through the back there’s this pub called Fibber Magees which has quite good Irish music. But being a Saturday night, and just after the Irish had won the rugby, the place was absolutely jammed... couldn’t move! So we spent most of the evening with a couple of pints and a meal at the Crown!

On our 2nd and last day in Belast, we did one of the Belfast Black Cab tours, which took us round all the key areas to do with ‘the troubles’ in Belfast. Again, neither of us were really expecting a huge wall to still be up between the Catholic and Protestant areas, let alone hear that the gates still get locked each evening. We didn’t see any trouble whatsoever, and I think most people just want to live their lives peacefully, but as our driver said, still too soon for the wall to come down. There’s still some tension and at the moment the wall just takes the edge off any risk of that spilling over into violence. It was a really interesting tour and well worth doing if you’re in Belfast. It’s only £25 for the cab and lasts about 1 to 1.5 hours, depending how many questions you ask!

Nothing opens in Belfast until 1pm on a Sunday so wasn’t much left to do while we hung around and waited for our flight back to Stansted. Just enjoyed a coffee and checked out the view from the top of the Victoria Shopping Centre. All in all Belfast's a fantastic place to go to get away from the rat race that is South-East England for a while!

Arsenal v Bolton January 20, 2010

2010-02-18T10:35:00.001Z

We were able to get tickets to Emirates on one of those rare occasions that tickets go on sale to the general public and aren’t snapped up by all the members. We saw a Arsenal v Bolton game. I had been told our tickets were near the back... fair enough... so we found the right entrance and started trundling up the stair to our seats... turns out “near the back” means second row from the back!... It felt like a long way up but I was doing ok... until I turned around to sit down! Knees went wobbly... thought I was going to fall! Took me about 15 minutes to settle as all the visions of me falling down the stairs / stand collapsing all went through my mind! Then was able to enjoy the atmosphere! The crowd never lets up.... and this was a game against a lowly ranked side! Was a closer match than expected with Bolton going up 2-0... but right result in the end with Arsenal winning the match 4-2. The fans are amazing – can’t believe the enthusiasm and commitment they have for their teams!

Getting out of the stadium was actually a better experience than I was expecting too! Everyone cleared out pretty quick and headed for the tube where barriers had been put up to control the crowd - pretty well organised I thought. A lot of the houses along the way had little stalls set up selling arsenal supporter gear.. food... was such a good atmosphere even out of the stadium

Was a great experience seeing our first ever Premier League game and something I would recommend to everyone, even those not particular interested in football/soccer (as is case with me!)

New Years in Cologne

2010-02-18T09:56:00.002Z

We stayed in Cologne for 6 nights and used it as a bit of a base to see the area from there.

I found Cologne similar to Belgium... similar architecture... dominance of beer halls... What I liked about the beer halls here was that they served the beer in 200mL glasses.. small I know... but they come around with a replacement as soon as you’ve finished unless you indicate you don’t want another by putting your coaster on top of the glass... I liked it... and meant the beer was a lot fresher!

We weren’t blessed with great weather for our time in Cologne... it rained most days... So our first day there we decided to do the big bus tour... It started at the Cathedral which dominates the skyline, and which I found quite scary and ominous... the hotel was over the river directly opposite the cathedral so had to make sure the curtains were shut at night or I couldn’t get to sleep.... really eerie... anyway... the bus took us past all the sites, of which there are few.... and we jumped off at the chocolate museum... heaven! It was a lot more sophisticated and interesting than the little museum in Brussels... It must have either been sponsored or run by Lindt cause there were Lindt chocolates being made on the line.. taste testing was definitely a highlight! As were the old confectionary vending machines... found them quite cool...

We took a day trip to Maastricht, Netherlands, where my grandfather grew up. We took the train... we managed to get on different trains at Cologne – cause the others had first class tickets through their Eurail passes, and I was just in second class – I was on the right one... didn’t realise in time that there were actually 2 trains on the same platform! Still we ended up in Maastricht only 45 mins apart... funny....

Again, weren’t blessed with the weather which was a real shame. Maastricht is a great little place, not yet too overcome with tourists... and the shopping is really good amongst all the little streets – so probably a good thing it wasn’t a good day to be strolling around! We visited the church where my great uncle helped design the stained glass windows... the house where my grandfather grew up... I had been before, but it was nice being there with mum and showing Belinda and Tash around.

The rest of my time in Cologne was really chilled out... for New Years Eve we had dinner at a little Italian place that didn’t require bookings then had a couple of drinks in the hotel room watching the crowd gather on the river front... what I love about New Years eve in Europe compared to Australia is that everyone is still allowed to set off their own fireworks – so the fireworks started about 7pm!! Funny watching people scare other people with bungers as they walked past!... Just before 12 we headed down to be amongst the crowd and it started snowing – was a really nice fun atmosphere... I’m not sure if there were actually any public fireworks displays but it was good all the same!

From Cologne I said good bye to Bel and Troy as they headed to Frankfurt for their flight home... Mum and Tash got the Eurostar back to London and I flew –there was a bit of delay on my flight because of weather... so took almost the same time as it would have taken on the train! (But it was cheaper!!)

Christmas in Switzerland!

2010-02-12T10:47:00.003Z

I was worried there wasn’t going to be any snow in Interlaken itself given it’s only about 600m above sea level... but it was absolutely covered and the snow was bucketing down! Matt and I stayed in a place called the City Oberland, smack bang in the middle of the town. Right above a Latino bar which was a bit worrying – though I think given it was winter there wasn’t too much noise... I could imagine in Summer it would be quite loud. Mum had booked a Riverhouse which was great for all of us... Somewhere to lounge around and we took it in turns to cook dinner which was handy. First afternoon we organised our ski lessons and ski hire.... really straight forward, only shame was that we were staying about 30mins from the ski fields (Grindelwald) but at the same time it was good to be based in Interlaken for the shops etc .

First day of skiing I found very frustrating and painful! It took me pretty much the whole day just to learn how to stop properly! And the boots I got were way too tight on my foot... right length but I’ve obviously got a very fat foot! Lost all feeling in my toes after about 15 mins!! Not good! I was definitely the slowest learner out of the group... (Which even though we booked group lessons ended up being just us which was pretty cool)... Tash was better than she thought she was but lacked the patience of climbing back up the 3m hill to go down again... cause we were beginner beginners we didn’t get a lift .

I thought that when I took my boots off that afternoon my toes were going to be blue... but they weren’t which was a good thing I spose...

Next day was much better... Had exchanged my boots for a wider pair... and while it was still painful, it wasn’t anywhere near as bad... And we got a lift today (one of those rope ones where you just hold onto)!! We spent half the morning revising what we had learnt the day before... and there were a ‘couple more runs for Tracey’ before we were allowed down the proper beginner slope... he was very concerned about my stopping ability!!!.. Once we got going down the main slope everything we’d learnt came together and it was a lot more fun. I did manage to fall almost every run... and it was amazing how quickly our instructor could move when we were in trouble!... I found when the proper stopping method didn’t work, falling onto your bum did... I think there was a bit of a running joke going between the instructors and the lift operators about whether or not I would make it down the run (particularly that last steep bit) without falling... By the end of the third day I had really got the hang of it... but a lot can be said for doing some fitness preparation before going.... my legs had absolutely nothing left in them by the end....

First day of lessons there were 6 of us... then 4... then Belinda had a cold and she couldn’t continue just as she was really getting the hang of it ! So on day 3 there were 3... Matt was a bit more capable than I... though he was the first to manage to stack it getting onto the lift.... and Troy.... you’re just a show off!

It was sooo nice to relax the next day, Christmas eve... just wandered around town... had coffee (it was near closing time in this bakery and they had leftover croissants they had to get rid of for free.. it was sooooo hard to polish them off!!)... Kurt and Shreya had arrived the night before and Matt and Troy ended up taking them up to Grindelwald to show them around and sort out ski gear.... the 4 of them were keen for a Christmas Day ski... the rest of us just followed up on the train for lunch... it was great having the White Christmas... In the snow... gorgeous views.. snowball fights.... but overall it didn’t feel particularly ‘Christmassy’ but it was great having most of the family around. Didn’t realise just how much I was missing everyone!

We went to a restaurant in Interlaken for our Christmas Dinner.... Belinda and I ended up sharing a 3 course fondue... 1st course cheese. mmm... 2nd course was meat.. this was a bit too much to be honest... just dropped bits of meat into oil to cook... so was really heavy on the stomach... but 3rd course, of course, was chocolate!.... yummmeee.. Matt and Troy are of course quite used to all us McLeods by now... but hopefully we didn’t scare Shreya off too much!!

Boxing Day again was really relaxing... late brekkie... pack the bags... lunch.... dinner.... Bit of souvenir shopping... and lots of chilling!!

Unfortunately from here we split up a bit... Matt had to come back to the UK to work... and Kurt and Shreya were heading to Berlin for New Years... I was flying to Cologne where I would meet back with the rest of the crew who were travelling by train.

Kurt and I were both flying from Zurich about the same time and we had a couple of hours in Zurich which was nice though it was very very quiet...

Just as Kurt’s plane took off it started snowing quite heavily... my plane was about ½ hour delayed but thankfully we did get going and got to Cologne without a hitch....

December - the Drive to Interlaken

2010-02-11T11:56:00.000Z

Somehow managing to miss the big Hypermarkets around Calais... we drove to our first stop of Luxembourg... going via Belgium. Was quite a nice drive (says she who didn’t do any of the driving)... Luxembourg is really pretty.... built in a steep valley, there’s gorgeous views all around. Matt wasn’t feeling too well, but we headed into town to have a look around the square... really pretty... there were some small markets with Gluwein (yum!) and there were some kids singing Christmas carols. And after a little while it started snowing... it was all just really pretty... and cause we had managed to score a spot under a heater.. not too cold!

Headed from Luxembourg the next day down to Freiburg (Black Forest) to meet back up with Mum and Tash. Another gorgeous town... markets... gluwein... snow! We stayed at a pretty typical Germnstyle hotel called the Bierhausle.... Matt picked it on recommendation (can you tell?!). Surprisingly though there wasn’t actually much of a bar in the hotel, but the restaurant served some really yummy food!

We took a day trip into the Black Forest... Stopping at Triberg where the shop-keepers were whinging that it was one of the coldest days they’d had... (typical!!) Lots of cuckoo clocks had us mesmorised for a little while but all in all the town was very quiet! We let Navman try and direct us to the next town... but it tried to take us down some small roads that you couldn’t even see anymore! There was about 2 foot of snow covering the roads – though I’m convinced they must have been more like ‘tracks’. Given the steepness of the hill off the side and the fact we were on our own, we just weren’t game enough to keep following the Navman directions so had to head back for the main roads. The views though were absolutely spectacular. So beautiful with the snow on the trees... took so many photos!

From Freiburg we headed into Switzerland and given we were a day early decided to try somewhere random... based on booking.com discounts we picked Biel-Bienne – in the watch-making valley. On the trip there we were having a few problems cleaning the windscreen which was filthy from all the grit on the roads.. and none of the service stations had washer fluid... mmm fun...

Biel-Bienne was.... wierd... there was absolutely no one about... All the markets were closed... Didn’t see any other people in the hotel.... was strange... either it was a public holiday or it’s an industrial town and everyone had headed elsewhere for Christmas... dunno! So we didn’t really do much here! Spent some time in the supermarket! And wandered til we found somewhere for dinner... Mum being very quickly onto the fondue!

From there it was a relatively short but beautiful, particularly the last leg around the lake into Interlaken, journey to where we would spend Christmas... yay!

December in London Town

2010-02-04T17:40:00.004Z

Am getting so far behind in this blog that I’m just gonna have to start really summarising!!

December was a fantastic, albeit flippin cold, month! I finished up at work on the 2nd and was at Heathrow at 7am the next morning meeting Mum and Tash in the arrivals hall! Had a great time showing them... and then Belinda and Troy a couple of weeks later... around London Town. An early stop was shopping... for warm clothes!! Was great watching Tash be bemused and excited by some of the quirky English things... I’ve just got used to them all... she found the politeness of the tube drivers particularly amusing... “Mind the Gap please” is apparently a lot more polite than the Sydney version of “Stand clear”. Although I wasn’t there to witness, she was also pretty “chuffed” (yes, I do have a bit of an English accent now) that she got one of the guards at Windsor Palace to smile! Had a big splurge one day - went to Gordon Ramsays Maze restaurant - yummo!! then to Wicked at Apollo Victoria - one of the best musicals I've ever seen - it was unreal!

We also went to Belgium... my second trip but first time to Bruges. I love Belgium. Beer. Chocolate. Waffles. aaahhh.... I was a little disappointed in the Christmas markets in Bruges though. They're meant to be some of the best... but I found them to be really small... not much there at all... definitely not a patch on the Bath markets. The city itself though is really pretty. Lots of small cobbled streets, little canals.... beautiful. We didn’t have the greatest weather which was a shame

We stayed in Brussels, near the European Parliament in some serviced apartments - Thon Parnasse. It was really good value actually... a little way from Grand Place but the station was across the road and the metro was just down the street.

From there I headed back to the UK and Mum and Tash headed to Paris!

Coupla days ‘break’ at home in Elm Pak, which consisted on catching up with washing and going to Matt’s Christmas Party – which was the night before Bel and Troy arrived – so we didn’t get a lot of sleep that night – Matt slept laying down on the back seat the whole drive to the airport! – It is kinda cool driving the Landcruiser through the main streets of Londond – down Regent Street, around Trafalgar Square...

Belinda and Troy were lucky enough to get 2 of our tours (Mum and Tash got the driving tour to Windsor and the Cotswolds and the brief walking tour to Kensington) ; The first one was a driving tour around London – because it was the weekend we were able to drive them past a lot of the main sights and cause it was so early there wasn’t a lot of traffic.... Saw Buckingham Palace... Greenwich... Trafalgar Square... Westminster... etc etc

The second tour wasn't planned, but we ended up taking Belinda and Troy on a walking/pub tour of London. Started in Covent Garden with some pies and beer... then to Trafalgar Square and introduced them to the Wetherspoons chain of pubs (cheap! – don’t matter for the alcohol but the food is definitely ‘cheap’ too!)... down to Westminster and on a cruise down the Thames to Tower Hill... found another Wetherspoons!... Jumped on a bus down Oxford Street to Oxford Circus.. had a slightly disappointing meal at Garfunkels (with Coke!) and said Goodnight from there! Was a busy but fun day!

We ended up leaving the UK the same day.. Bel and Troy to London via Eurostar... and Matt and I jumped in the car to head to the Black Forest... Straight into France where they were having one of their coldest Winters in history. Woohoo!

Oktoberfest - Muenchen - Sep 09

2010-01-18T13:21:00.004Z

Made a relatively late decision to head to Oktoberfest for a 4 day weekend... arrived on a Saturday.. left on a Tuesday... Flew Easyjet into Munich (ended up catching up with my cousin Michael in town which was an added bonus) then stayed at Camping Thalkirchen. We had booked through Festival Tours, which is a reasonable deal... £99 each for the 3 nights, camping and included all shuttles to and from the Festival and they ran tours out to Dachau Concentration Camp and to Andechs Monastery.

Though it was September, it got very, very cold at night... and that was really the only dampener on the whole weekend!

We did their tour out to Dachau (very moving) and Andechs Monastery (which was more about the beer they brewed there and the Pork Knuckle than the Monastery!) which was a great day out.

So Monday was our first day at the Festival... really enjoyed it actually.... lots of drinking with random people and all in all a really great day out! Spent most of the day in the Lowenbrau tent.. went on a couple of rides... roller coasters and dodgems are way more fun after a couple of steins!

Back into the Festival the next day... tried as many tents as we could [we had our backpacks with us and some of them wouldn't let us in :( ]... and actually managed to venture into 0Munich itself as well...and had a good look around town (including the permanent HB Beer Hall!.

All in all a great weekend - to be honest a lot more fun than I had expected!

Scandanavia - August 2009

2010-01-07T16:47:00.011Z

What a contrast - flying into Oslo from Istanbul!! From hustle and bustle to large open spaces. I spent 10 days travelling in Scandanaiva [unfortunately Matt had to head back to the UK for work]. The first things that struck me about Norway were the open spaces, the many beautiful parks, wide streets, the fact that 97% of the population seemed to be tall, beautiful, blonde and fit!! and yet all in all Oslo probably wasn't as spectacular as I was expecting... I think that was mainly down to the fact there were a couple of drab buildings around the main part of the harbour...

A highlight of Oslo for me was definitely the Vigeland sculpture park - a huge park which contains over 200 bronze/granite sculptures.

I also visited a couple of Museums - including the Viking Ship Museum and the National Gallery which contained a few of Munch's (the artist who painted the Scream) works. Also timed my visit to the Royal Palace right on time for the changing of the guard... though you can't really miss it... a marching band walks all the way up the main street to the front of the Palace (which was no fences... you could walk right up and look through the window if ya wanted to.. and I guess if the guards let you!)

After a couple of nights in Oslo a took a train across Norway to Bergen, via the Flam Railway and a Fjord River Cruise (followed the 'Norway in a Nutshell' tour route). Should organised my trip so this was last... as it was absolutely amazing... Rushing waterfalls, mountains, clear water, quaint villages, rainbow across the Fjord... I really can't rave about it enough and I really encourage anyone who has the chance to take the time out to do this trip!

By the time I arrived in Bergen it was quite late... and it was raining (though there was a pretty good chance it would be given it rains about 265 days a year!). Bergen is a beautiful little city... loved the narrow streets, the little fish market, view from the top of the cable car... It was really nice to be able to spend a couple of days just wandering around, doing some of the walks in the mountains around the city.

View over Bergen Harbour

The Bryggen

Is Norway really that expensive? Yes and No... Some things like travel and groceries are about the same as London.... but eating out is a lot more expensive... but probably only slightly more expensive than Paris... One thing that really hurt was that I needed to do some laundry in Bergen... cost me 65Kr (about £7)! Ouch!

Stockholm

Really enjoyed my couple of days in Stockholm... wandering through the old streets of Gamla Stan...

Taking the ferry out to Drottningolm palace... past all the islands... it's a very green city...

Went the Vasa museum which contains a restored ship which sunk in Stockholm harbour in the 1600s...

Copenhagen

Copenhagen was the final leg of my trip. I took a train down from Stockholm... took about 4 or 5 hours. Like Stockholm, I enjoyed wandering around the shopping streets, visiting some of the museums...

one of my favourites of course being the Carlsberg museum...

But I also managed to get out to Fredensburg, about an hour north of Copenhagen, were Princess Mary's residence is... the grounds of Fredensburg Palace were great... lots of walking trails which was a nice way to spend the afternoon

Turkey - Aug 2009 - Part 2: Gallipoli and Istanbul

2009-11-14T14:06:00.004Z

Altinkum to Gallipoli
Whilst in Altinkum, we arranged a bus, a company called Metro, up the west coast to Canakkale. Can't say we were really looking forward to the 10-hour bus ride but in the end we were pleasantly surprised. There were 4 staff on the bus... 2 drivers, a bag packer AND a waiter! Within the first hour we'd been served tea/coffee, cake, freshening wipes... couldn't believe the service! The bus did stop every couple of hours so we were able to stretch our legs... though I do believe that Kebab I had at the bus station in Izmir was my downfall!!

One thing that was quite interesting was the rearranging that had to take place in terms of who was sitting where, a solo female traveller couldn't travel next to a male, so a few couples had to split up along the way to accommodate that.

We arrived in Canakkale about 7pm, our hotel was only 100m from where the bus stopped which was great... weren't really in the mood for having to walk to far... and the bellies weren't too crash hot! It was a really busy seaside town though with a completely different atmosphere to Altinkum, menus were still written in a couple of languages, but had a much more cosmopolitan feel.

We had a wander round the town in the evening, noticing lots of reference to "18 Mart 1915" - when 3 English and French navy ships entered the Dardanelles, but were sunk by mines. 3 more were destroyed by guns from the 2 castles on either side of the passage, Canakkale being at the narrowest part of the Dardanelles. So while in Australia we recognise Anzac Day, the 18th of March is a cause for celebration in Turkey, being the start of a successful campain to defend the country from the Allies.

Gallipoli
Next day we joined a tour of the Gallipoli peninsula, visting all the main sites, Anzac Cove, Lone Pine, Chunuk Bair and the memorials. Our guide was great, giving insight from both sides of the battle. It was a really moving day, and I could have spent a lot longer there. I think I'm glad I visited outside of the Anzac Day services, it would be a different, though I'm sure just as special, experience.

That evening we had probably the best Turkish meal we had on our whole trip... at a little Pide and Kebap shop about 500m back from the main seafront... Great location too... the open window next to our table was straight onto a petrol station forecourt... Saw 2 lots of women ask the station attendant to use a dash of petrol to clean a mark off their leather hanbags... does that really work?!!

Canakkale to Istanbul
We tried to find some alternative transport to Istanbul... figured there must be a ferry... but the only one available was about a 5hr drive away. Glad we didn't take that option, some people who were on our Anzac Tour tried to do that, but once they got to the port, the ferry was fully booked... so ended up taking them a few days to get to Istanbul. In the end we just took another Metrobus straight from Canakkale to Istanbul.

Same deal as from Altinkum, though even fewer tourists on this route (it's a lot quicker to take a plane from Canakkale, and if you were to book in advance probably wouldn't be too much dearer than the bus)... watched a couple of Turkish movies... the acting was very poor, though apparently it was a comedy... the whole bus was in stitches a lot of the time!

We got a bit confused when the bus stopped at a random bus station on the outskirts of Istanbul... weren't quite sure how were meant to actually get into town... but after finding some people who spoke a little english, we soon found our way to the metro station. All the shop keepers try to barter for your business... I never felt hassled in Istanbul, though it's very different from everywhere else we went in Turkey where you are really left alone.

Couple of trams later we were at Sultanahment... the map I had was pretty terrible, and we weren't 100% sure we were going in the right direct so we stopped and asked a bus driver for directions... so glad I didn't listen to him... he tried to send us in the complete opposite direction! The hotel, though v basic and tiny rooms, was in an excellent location, the rooftop breakfast bar overlooked the Blue Mosque and out to the Marmara Sea - absolutely stunning!

Istanbul
Given we only had a short time in Istanbul after checking in we were straight back out and off to see Topkapi Palace - again, glad we didn't listen to some of the stall holders along the way who tried to tell us it was closed. The Palace was really amazing - particularly due to it's location at the point where the Golden Horn, the Bosphorus and the Marmara Sea all meet.

From there we just started to wander, down to Sirkeci and Eminonu and stumbled across a 10TL cruise which took us along the Bosphorus, under the suspension bridge and back again. It was quite a rocky ride, though we had timed it right on sunset so had magnificent views. We noticed that all the cargo ships had stopped coming through... maybe cause it was peak hour and there were lots of passenger ferries criss-crossing?

Day 2 in Istanbul we tried to squish as much sight-seeing in as possible... Blue Mosque.... Grand Bazaar... but from there we ended up wandering into the local markets where the Bazaar stall holders have mini auctions for goods and the locals are shopping for head scarves etc... found that area a lot more exciting that inside the actual bazaar itself, which was so stifling hot!... Aquaduct... and many stops for drinks and ice-creams along the way.

For dinner we went to an area our hotel recommended, Kumkapi, where there's a whole strip of restaurants overlooking a marina. It's predominantly seafood... pick your fish off a tray... all really really tasty and great to have a change from all the Pide we'd been eating... only problem was the damn cats... they were abolsutely everywhere... wandering around the tables. At one point I dropped my cardigan down next to my legs and jumped a mile cause I thought a cat was walking in between my legs!.... aah... hate cats!

After a couple of very quick days in Istanbul... Matt and I went separate ways... Matt back to the UK for work.. hehe... and I went on to Scandinavia for a bit of a whirlwind tour.

Turkey - August 2009 - Part 1: Altinkum

2009-09-23T22:00:00.005+01:00

With Morocco ‘shelved’ for now, we made a last minute change to our holiday plans and headed to Turkey. We were lucky enough to be able to stay with some of Matt’s family in Altinkum, near Bodrum on Turkey’s Aegean Coast.

Most would probably cringe at the thought of travelling to a place in Turkey where there is a ‘Little Britain’ café, prices are advertised in Pounds, all the pubs are decorated in Football memorabilia and chip butties are more the norm than pide or kebap… and I have to say, I have been one of those people who have criticised the way English people have effectively ‘taken over’ parts of the Spanish, Portugese, Turkish and other Southern European coastlines. But having now lived in the UK for a while and spent some time in what felt like a “English-fide” town in Turkey, I have come round a bit.

England isn’t like Australia where only a relatively short drive from any of the capital cities will get you to beachside towns with large resorts and generally good weather, and still be in the same country, same language, same food. I mean I love to get out and experience new cultures and cuisine, but that’s a very different holiday. Not the same as being able to spend a week catching up on the sun, sleep and relaxation that you’ve missed out on by being couped up in the office for the past 6 months.

We landed in Turkey, pasty white and exhausted… 5 days in Altinkum was exactly what we needed. The time flew, even though we really didn’t do too much! The apartment was walking distance from the beach and the shops and markets so generally we had lazy mornings, eventually get to the beach have wander round and then dinner in the evenings. Very nice and chilled out!

We did hire a car and take a day trip out to Pamukkale – couple of hours inland from Altinkum. An area of white cascading terraces, made of terratine which is deposited by the spring water that cascades down the side of the mountain. The area surrounding this was very brown, not a lot of vegetation, so it made the area even more of a contrast.
There was an area where you could swim in the hot springs, but it was SO packed and you had to pay extra for a wristband that allowed you into the water… Just sitting in the water on the terraces was great!

We had lunch in a village nearby. It was our first ‘proper’ Turkish meal… Kofte and Gozmele (savoury pancakes)… yum! And so cheap! It was also great to just sit there for a while and watch people go about their day. One group were having fun weighing themselves on scales used for weighing seeds/herbs. Some of them would have been worth quite a lot!

We also visited a circus while in Altinkum. A bit random, but well worth the £3 or so entrance fee. It was surprisingly fun (despite bad backs from the plastic stools!), particularly the girl doing the acrobatics hanging from ribbons off the roof.

In the end our time at Altinkum ended all too quickly, though we were ready to move on to the next leg of our Turkish holiday.

Croatia!! Sailing, Plitvice Lakes and a day trip to Mostar, Bosnia

2009-07-12T19:21:00.008+01:00

I know you probably don’t REALLY want to hear it, but we have recently arrived back in the UK from an amazing 12 days in Croatia… Lots of sun, food and beer… but also some beautiful cities and bays for swimming… not to mention the many new friends we made along the way!

Matt and I started off with a couple of chilled out days in Split.
We stayed in a private apartment I booked off the internet (clicksplit.com). I was a little sceptical… the apartment had only had one review, and that was in Croatian, so I really had no idea what to expect – cept it looked alright in the pictures! I had further doubts when I saw the entrance! It looked a little rundown and the first floor entry to the block was really shabby…
but all fears disappeared when we saw the flat itself. The whole top floor (split into 3 – 1 for Mum, 1 for brother, 1 for tourists) looked newly renovated and we couldn’t really fault the apartment we were staying in – particularly for the price (50 Euro a night) and the location (100m from the seafront and lots of restaurants, bakery, supermarket etc all within 30m).

Food in Croatia is really a combination of Italian – Pizza/Pasta etc, Grills, Schnitzel and seafood. Then a few traditional things like čavapi (bread roll filled with long meatballs, tomato and roast capsicum relish and some other thing I’m not sure what it was!.. but yum). Most menus wherever you went were pretty much the same.

We really didn’t do a lot these 2 nights in Split – we wandered around the city, through all the cobbled and limestone lined streets… around Diocletian’s Palace… went for a walk up a hill – towards a lookout, but got waylaid by a bar with an amazing view across Split… dabbed our feet in the water at the ‘Beach’, ate some gelato…

Diocletian's Palace

We first caught sight of our boat (the Novi Dan) at that Terrace Bar halfway up a hill just to the North of the old town of Split. We were enjoying the view and lemonade and beer when we saw the old ships start to arrive into the harbour. We didn’t know it at the time, but we did actually take a photo as it came through.

There were about 18 boats for Katarina Lines (which is the company that runs all the tours for Busabout/Sail Croatia etc) in the harbour Sat morning– all pretty similar, though some cabins had ensuites, some were share showers etc. There was a bit of confusion with our boat. We were allocated a room and Matt had completely unpacked when we and the rest of our group were told to change boats. But I think in the end we ended up with a better room as we didn’t have to share a bathroom… but the stairs down to the lower deck were a little ridiculous! Well they were probably closer to a ladder than being stairs to be honest! What I did quickly notice was that the beers were 5 Kn (About 8Kn to a £) cheaper on the new boat!... Score!

From then on it was all ‘smooth sailing’! I could write for hours on everything we got up to on our cruise… but instead I’ll just give you an idea of what our itinerary was!!.... these blogs sometimes start to feel like a chore, specially when I’ve been at work on a computer all day!
Day 1 – Board at Split Harbour
Lunch – on boat – food on the boat was WAY better than expected. Breakfast (bread, cereal etc) and lunch (3 course meal, with lots of traditional type food) were all included.
Swim in the Adriatic Sea
Walk around Hvar
DrinkDinner on boatSunset Drinks and dancing in Hvar – Our first stop was the Carpe Diem bar, parently a hotspot for celebrities, but I didn’t see any. Then again, I was enjoying my cocktail!. We spent some time at a ‘Foam Party’ and what we called the ‘Monastery of Sound’ – a night club that was out in the open set up with bars, food outlets, dancefloor… and a pool?!! We kind of ended up taking over the dancefloor – except for the 2 or 3 token “princesses” kind of dancing on the sideline… We think they were paid to be there… As soon as we got off, all the locals all of a sudden came streaming on to dance… We would like to think they were in awe of our dance ability, but to be honest they did look slightly more sophisticated and dressed up compared to our lot!... then... Crash

Day 2BreakfastSwimSunLunch (getting the picture that there was lots of relaxation?!!)Miljet National Park – we visited a Monastery on an island on a lake on an Island… which is how they liked to explain the location. It was a really pretty national park and it was nice to get out for a walk! We had a quick squizz around the Monastery and had a swim before heading back to the boat for our BBQ on the boat. Captains BBQ (was an additional charge though a bit better value than the couple of restaurants that were there) – complete with Pyjama partySunset – gorgeousBack to boat for after dinner drinks… they were included with the meal so some of us may have had a few too many?!! Matt definitely enjoyed the red wine! I ended up crashing out pretty early which was probably a good thing. Matt did make it down the stairs at some point, but apparently he spent most of the night sleeping on the deck… “under the starrrrrrrrrsss” Day 3Breakfast (though one of us didn’t quite make it)SwimLunchDUBROVNIK!!! – Loved Dubrovnik. The whole setting of the walled city is just stunning, and it was great just wandering around all the little laneways. I had definitely lost my land legs by this stage. My legs felt really wobbly when we were walking around the wall. We did go to a few bars in the evening. My favourite was the first one we went to just off the main street with 3L and buckets of cocktails…mmmm yum. I loved how the bars spilled out into the laneways. It would have been way too hot to stay inside the bar. Needed the fresh air. Was fun just sitting/dancing/drinking there… but then, we headed to a karaoke bar… which, surprisingly was way too popular.. and probably the worst karaoke we’d ever heard… we were there about 3 songs when we decided to leave… and at least 50 people had the same thought all at the same time… mass exodus! Decision had to be made then… grab the last bus back to the boat or find another bar… probably surprising to most… we took the bus!

Day 4. Chill out day todayBreakfastSwimLunchSwimKorcula – allegedly the birth place of Marco Polo. This was another walled town, but on an Island. Was again really pretty, but not a lot to explore. One of the highlights was drinks on top of one of the towers. The drinks had to be pulled up by a pulley system. The ladder to get to the roof was almost straight up… so skirts are definitely a bad idea! Luckily I had been prewarned! Day 5BreakfastLunchMakarska – a really nice, pretty town. Was a great place to relax. For a change, we actually had a swim at a ‘beach’ rather than off the boat. At most of the beaches off the coast it’s actually quite hard to get into the water. But at Makarska, if it had had sand rather than round rocks, it would have been a proper beach! After dinner, a few of us headed round to a point where our guide had heard there was a bar. I think the guy was just closing up as we arrived, but he did open up and serve drinks and put some music on! Was quite cool sitting out there, was nice and chilled out. But then the mozzies started biting and I called it a night! Day 6BreakfastChilled out in Makarska for a couple of hoursLunchSwimOMIS – was kind of pitched as the Pirate capital of the Dalmatia… there was a pirate fortress at the top of what looked to me like an almost sheer cliff… and when they said, we’re walking up, anyone want to follow… I was like ‘yeah right’… but I went, thought I’d give it a shot, plus needed the exercise really! After about 10 or 15 mins my calves had had it, but after a few just 5 more mins… we eventually made it to the top of the ridge! Was an absolutely awesome view… the fortress itself wasn’t anything amazing and the ladder to the top of the tower didn’t feel very safe! Didn’t stay on the top of that for very long.. my legs were well and truly shaking!!!

Topped the day off with a 'pirate' party on the Novi Dan

Day 7 – Our last day on the boat… didn’t do a lot today really, specially given we had already spent a coupla days in Split. But we spent the afternoon organising our trip to Mostar and Plitvice

Day 8 - We left the boat around 8am and picked up our hire car. We started heading towards Bosnia, though the Motorway that google maps said was finished, wasn’t actually finished… so using our dodgy little map we eventually made our way to the border, though we were running out of petrol and felt like we were in quite remote area which wasn’t the nicest feeling! But we did make it. Surprisingly, the Bosnia-Croatian border was sooooo relaxed. On the way in they glanced at 2 of the 4 passports, but on the way out we didn’t even have to wind down the window! They just waved us through! Driving through Bosnia was quite interesting… some areas still looked quite devastated with no one around, while in others, there was heaps of redevelopment going on. Mostar was quite nice. It all centres round the bridge across the Neretva river, the Stari Most.

The original bridge was destroyed during the Bosnian war, but it has recently been rebuilt. There were heaps of markets, selling everything from war memorabilia, including bullets, to cards with the worlds 52 most wanted people on it. Other than that there wasn’t that much around so we had some lunch – we weren’t quite sure what we were ordering – then started heading up to Plitvice Lakes, back in Croatia. After all the driving, Matt was starting to feel a little tired, so we swapped over driving at a servo on the motorway just north of split. I reckon I would have been driving maybe 5 minutes tops before all of a sudden the clouds rolled over and it started to absolutely bucket down. The wind was amazing and the Motorway had so many big spanning bridges it was really freaky driving! I lasted about 20 minutes before I had to pull over. What a great experience for my first ever time driving on the wrong side of the road! By the time we had made it to Plitvice, the temperature had dropped about 22 degrees… was only 9 degrees when we pulled up at our accommodation.. and there’s all of us in shorts and singlets! Found a random restaurant for dinner and an even more random bar… we were the only one’s there and I think they thought we were just a bit strange!

Plitvice, for our last day in Croatia, was amazing, albeit a little cold! Waterfall upon lake upon waterfall etc etc…. soooo picturesque… it’s hard for the photos to do it justice!

Our "Summer" of Cricket

2009-07-12T19:20:00.008+01:00

Twenty20 Cricket - NZ v Scotland; AUS v WI - The Oval

Was cold, wet day at the Oval with a delayed start to the first game between NZ and Scotland... I was going for Scotland... they had a McLeod in the team afterall! Ended up being a 7 over a side match... so a bit of a free for all! In the end it was an NZ win...

Given the late start to the game and how cold it was... we had all managed to have quite a few drinks before the Aussie match even started! (The poor kid sitting next to us who had made a trek over from the Isle of Wight to see his first ever international cricket match!!)

But that was probably a blessing given the result! Took the edge off the hurt of all Gayle's 6s!!

The Ashes!! - 4th Test - Headingley

Paid a fortune for tickets through Thomas Cook Sport for days 2 and 3 of the 4th test in Leeds - but we definitely picked the right test and the right days to attend! We had absolutely glorious weather, and of course the right result! A win on day 3! The atmosphere at Headingley is fantastic... most seats are so close to the action, I'm not sure that there is a bad place to sit!

One Day International - Australia v England - Lords

After the atmosphere of Leeds, Lords was very ... subdued... very 'proper'. I'm glad to be able to say that I've watched Australia play (and win!) at Lords and it's cool that you can bring a bottle of wine in (hehe!) but I think I would go back to Headingley before Lords just cause of the atmosphere.

Managed to get the tickets to the one dayer by joining the ECB's "Twelfth Man" (shshsh don't tell them an Aussie became a member!) for 12 months. They have allocated tickets to all the big matches and members enter a ballot to get tickets. I was hoping to get tickets to the Ashes through this but was happy with the 1-day tiks!

May Bank Holiday Weekend - Champagne Tasting!

2009-05-26T14:50:00.003+01:00

We made a relatively late decision re what we were going to do for the first May Bank Holiday… in the end we decided on taking the Cruiser on its first European adventure and headed across to Epernay France for a weekend of Champagne tasting. It was a fantastic, albeit tiring weekend.

We headed out on the 6am Dover-Dunkirk ferry, meaning we had to leave Billericay just before 4am… aah! Managed to get a bit of sleep on the ferry which was a blessing though! … on the return trip on Monday we found a great spot under the stairs and had a great sleep!

Our first stop was Reims, though put centre of Reims in the satnav and it wont take you through the prettiest parts of town that’s for sure! We were seriously wondering what all the fuss was about, the area we first drove through was really rundown. Couple of blocks away from the train station though and the whole area opened up into nice wide squares and cobbled streets, really pretty! Ended up finding a really nice bistro out of the main shopping area which had tables and chairs set up in the middle of a square, with grape vines bordering the area. With the sun out, it was certainly a great spot to grab some lunch! Noticed lots of champagne and champagne cocktails on the menu, but it just felt a bit early to be starting on that!

We drove past the Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Reims which was also amazing. While we didn’t go inside, some say it is just as good if not better than Paris’ Notre Dame. There were quite a few churches in this part of France actually that had the same feel about them with the gargoyles and the flying buttresses. It was quite surprising to just see them scattered in the French countryside, when there’s huge queues to get inside the Paris cathedral.

We arrived in Epernay around 4pm and had a quick drive around town to get our bearings. It wasn’t quite what I expected… The Champagne houses like Mercier and Moet & Chandon were huge mansions and really ornate. I’m not quite sure what I was expecting, but they were all really ostentatious… just smells of money!... I guess I kind of expected it to be a bit like the Hunter Valley where the cellar doors are surrounded by the vineyards. Here all the big ‘boutiques’ with the champagne cellars underground were pretty much all in one street. Mercier had a small vineyard attached to it, but the majority of vineyards were out of town.

We stayed at a Caravan Park just out of town, on the river. They had bikes for hire which was great. Meant we could set the car/tent up and not have to pack it up each day. The one downside was you have to bring your own loo paper. Shame we’d just set up and already done our shopping by the stage… but the park owners told us the ‘short-cut’ to the Carrefour supermarket… 10min walk she says… at least ½ hr later… we finally got there!... As I say… glad we could hire bikes the next day to get into town!

Got a huge surprise when we saw a 4WD with QLD plates drive in… turns out though the guy (and the car) lives in Europe, just has a mate in Oz looking after the rego… dodgy but clever… so much cheaper than rego over here. Both nights we ended up having Aussies camping next to us though … actually there were Aussies pretty much everywhere around Epernay… in Moet… where we had lunch in town… Never too far away from the accent. Given the size of the population compared to Europe/America… it is amazing just how many there are traveling around!

Found a great spot while riding on our bicycles, for a quick coffee on the first morning… in a little open square where vegetable and flower markets were set up… and at least 60-70% of people had baguettes sticking out of the bags! Was a great spot to just watch people go by.

While in Epernay we visited Mercier, Moet and Castellane… our favourite, surprisingly for me, was Mercier… even I really thought it was going to be Moet!... The Mercier tour was really good, the guide was very informative and we went on a little laser guided train around the cellars… rows upon rows of cellars chock full of champas! Approx 17million bottles, just for Mercier in those cellars! The one thing better about the Moet tour was that you could walk around the cellars… meaning you could touch and get some great photos of the bottles… including Dom Perignon!

We picked up a coupla baguettes on the way “home” and had a great meal at the caravan park… loved grocery shopping in France.. we walked into the huge Leclerc just outside of Reims and there was just fresh food everywhere (not tucked into one little area like it is at Tescos!) .. bread…croissants… pastries… miles and miles of veg and cheese and deli meats… yum!! Hard to eat badly really!

Unfortunately quite a few motorhomes in the caravan park got broken into overnight… stealing ipods and wallets and things like that. Luckily we didn’t lose anything, but we think they went through our annex… shame really… but the knowledge of that means we will be more aware now…

Highlight of the trip came on Monday when we grabbed a map and decided to do a tour around the smaller villages. Most looked closed and/or deserted… but we came up to one (will have to look up the name), and although it looked shut, decided to give it a go. Matt knocked on the door of this big old farmhouse… no one answered for ages and we were about to give up when this little French woman came to the door… she didn’t speak a word of English.. but she yelled out for her husband… the winemaker who spoke broken English… he sat us down at this huge dining table and opened a bottle of their Reserve champagne for us to taste! Yum! And he told us about the history of the family and, surprisingly, that he was surprised that we, as Australians, were in the area tasting, cause he said we have such great wines back home! Was expecting more of a spiel about how there’s just nothing like sparkling from the Champagne region! He also took us on a tour of his vineyard, showed us the different grape varieties and then took us through his cellars. Was great to see a small scale producer. Really exactly the same as the big guys in terms of machinery etc, but just on a smaller scale.

It was a great way to end our champagne tasting. From there we programmed the sat nav to avoid motorways and started to leisurely make it back towards the ferry… driving through lots of really quaint villages and past mass British and French graves from the war… all the things you miss when you fly past on the toll roads…

Easter weekend in Brussels

2009-04-13T18:04:00.008+01:00

Bier, Chocolate & Waffles......

Thursday

Having a train to catch is a fantastic incentive to get off work on time! It was a bit of a mad rush day at work, but once I'd left work on time and made the train at Billericay, I definitely felt relaxed and ready for a great weekend. We took the Eurostar again having got a pretty good fare, had our packed picnic of chicken sandwiches and a coupla beers... yum!... and were in Brussels before we knew it.

The train arrived in at Midi Zuid, so we needed to work out the Metro in order to get to our hotel... We didn't have too much trouble though it would have been a bit easier if we weren't so tired!. Little things like looking at a map and working out line we had to go on... getting down to the platform and realising that neither of us had remembered which station we needed to change at! Still, after a couple of very helpful directions we were on our way!

The transport system itself is a mixture of undergound tram network, metro and buses... Services are really frequent though I found most of the stations felt dirty and smelt a bit...

Our hotel, The Royal Windsor, was in a fantastic location, right between Grand Place and Centraal station. There are heaps of restaurants, bars etc right round the corner. The casino was across the road, but we didn't venture in there.

I would say there was about a 10min turnaround between check-in and sitting down for our first bier!. Even though by this stage it was about 11pm, most things were still open and there were still heaps of people about. The little street that we had headed down had heaps of Greek cafes and the pubs advertised the prices of their biers in their windows... Where was the cheapest Stella?,,, that's where we headed! After I had had a coupla Duvels (one of my favourite beers), & Matt had 1L of Stella (!) ... we were both practically sleeping sitting up!

Friday

Early (well, not really but it felt like it) wake up call at 9:30 when housekeeping banged on the door! ... Still glad they did otherwise I think I could still be sleeping!

We headed out for breakfast (no way were we paying the 29 Euros... each... for the hotel breakfast!!) mmm pancakes!!!.... then just wandered around for a bit ... through the Gallerie St Hubert (a glass roofed arcade), through the Tin Tin Boutique... and, of course, lots of chocolate shops... so so so many! And they all offer you a taste! mmmm... though by 12 I think I'd had enough!

We went through a little chocolate museum that was just off the Grand Place, which had a history of how chocolate came to Europe, where the cocoa bean is grown and the process from bean to chocolate bar... and, of course..., some free samples! It was quite a good little museum actually, I think it cost about 5 Euro each to get in...

After a walk past the Manneken Pis (yep, as it sounds, it's a statue of a little boy emptying his bladder.. have since tried to find the history of the statue... but there seem to be quite a few different stories....).. we then decided to head away from the main square and jumped on the Metro out to the Atomium.

The Atomium is a huge sculpture (height 102m) that was built for the World Expo in 1958... kinda strange really. Though you can get a lift to the top and get great 360 degree views around brussels. They had a flying fox set up from the top of the Atomium... for one thing, I'm not that into heights... but it also really didn't look all that safe which is my main reason for not giving it a go!... It was hooked up to the front of a truck.. and the only thing stopping you from hitting either the front of the truck or slamming into the ground was the reliance on a couple of guys who "at the right time" would pull on a rope connected to a stopper thing and run in the opposite direction... No thanks!

I would not call the Atomium itself a 'must do', but it was a great way to spend the afternoon. Some of the spheres are set up as exhibition halls - the more interesting ones were the ones on the expo itself. There was one bit on 'interesting expo facts'.. how many visitors, how many beers etc.. but also that 20 people gave birth and about 4 people died... was a strange mix of facts!

We had a late lunch nearby at a pub 'La Leon'. I had a lovely Flemish Carbonade (like a goulash i guess) and matt had some snails and crayfish. Was a great, sunny and warm day and it was great to just sit with a couple of beers and watch everyone go by (there were some strange ones!)

We decided to have a walk past the European Parliament and the Royal Palace before heading back to Grand Place... the Royal Palace was not guarded at all... which I would have realised had I done any research before heading off... The Royal family don't use it as a residence anymore, it's mostly used for large receptions and to accommodate any Heads of State...

Had a late dinner tonight, at a pub off the main square... Matt had a huge pot full of Mussells (I had a couple, just to say I'd had some Mussells in Brussels... though I just don't get the fascination in them)... I thoroughly enjoyed my Schnitzel and Hoegaarden.... what was even morrree yummy were the waffles we had from a little kiosk... mmmm...

Saturday

Another pretty relaxing day today... went to Autoworld, which is a museum housing, well, cars! The collection was quite extensive, though I have to say, I didn't get as much out of it as Matt did. Specially the Citroens... I still think the way the lowered the back and covered the rear wheels is fairly ugly.... still Matt seemed to think they were quite well... oh well, the world would be a boring place if we all liked the same things!

The actual building and the parks surrounding the museum where really quite nice though!

From there we headed somewhere more my style... the Cantillon Brewery, apparently the last functioning brewery in Brussels. The beer has a very distinctive taste - quite acidic and more like wine than a traditional 'lager'. Quite refreshing though not something I could see myself drinking regularly. The brewery is still run by the same family that established it, and you actually meet the family, including the brewer which is quite unique.

The area the brewery is in is definitely not the nicest part of Brussels... and when we decided to walk back to our hotel, we definitely saw another side to Brussels! still we stumbled across a really nice little piazza which had a cool little pub serving really nice burgers (and frites in little terracotta garden pots)... I noticed across the road was Comme shez soi.. or something like that... which is one of Brussels' best restaurants.. well outside our price range!

We had a mini pub crawl for the rest of the afternoon / evening trying lots of different biers. (Affligem, Judas, Jupiler, Kwiek, Kwak, Maredsous, Chimay, etc etc!).. sat at a bar on one corner for a while, watching the little community of buskers and beggars operate... quite amazing what you see when you just sit and watch for a while! ... quite the little operation!

Sunday

- Quick breakfast and last wander round the shops before heading for our Eurostar back to London... damn!

Monday

- diet starts !! ... and we saw Fast and the Furious 4 - a welcome return to the good ol FF (but still plenty of those cheesy lines)!

Greensted Church - Essex

2009-03-29T20:39:00.003+01:00

Oldest wooden church in the world (though only in part cause a lot of it has been restored - though things like Leper holes still remain)

Day out in London

2009-03-29T20:25:00.004+01:00

Brick Lane...

Boundary Restaurant... Really nice! Combination of French and British Food

Spittalfields Market

The Alwyne - Islington - Last Catch up with Sal

2009-03-29T20:10:00.002+01:00

Paris - Day 3

2009-03-29T19:52:00.006+01:00

Lazy morning again today though were very conscious that we made it down for breakfast before 10! Today we had a ‘culture day’ first stop Notre Dame… The spires and the stain glass were really impressive… It was Sunday, so there was a service on which was really nice as well…

Outside there was this guy walkin round with an ‘ugly’ mask on. He just kinda sidled up to people and took their hand or put his arm on their shoulder – was quite funny watching the reactions – specially when they screamed… I was wondering how often he got punched though!

From there we wandered through the Latin Quarter and had a light lunch in a Patisserie. There was a bike stand on the corner, so from there we rode along the bank of the Seine to the Musee de D’Orsey. Not being huge art fans, we knew we didn’t want to go in both the Louvre and the D’Orsey, so we took the advice of the majority of people we asked and went to D’Orsey. The collection is really nicely laid out, and the huge ceilings in the centre let in lots of light. The building itself used to be a railway station. Lots of Renoir and Monet… an also a room of Vincent Van Gogh which I like. Matt’s favourite was “Whistler”… cause of Mr Bean.

It was quite tiring walking around… plus the legs were a little sore from all the riding… Least I felt I was working off a little of the good food we’d been having! Didn’t have a lot of time left before we had to be back at the hotel for the bus to the train station. Plus we had to get our train supplies… ie cake from the Patisserie.. YUM! and some beers… for some reason Matt bought some Amsterdam… horrible! Took about an hour to finish a can… good thing I spose… and had to give away the 2^nd one… that’s how bad it was!

Train ride back was quite fun… few of the group were getting quite drunk… luckily I think our tour was taking up most of the carriage so I don’t think we annoyed anyone too much.

Paris Day 2

2009-03-29T16:49:00.006+01:00

As expected, we were up late this morning! Made it down for breakfast 2 mins before 10 (parently breakfast shut at 10, we thought it was 10:30) The lady looking after the breakfast started yelling at us in French – no idea what she was saying… then a couple more people came in after us and she just started yelling at everyone and turned the lights off! Twas quite funny… but we got some croissants and coffee which was the main thing!

Spent most of today just wandering around… took the Metro over to Galleries Laffeyette… planned to do some shopping but with the Euro : Pound exchange rate… it was really too expensive… above the shopping centre was Tour Montparnasse – a 200m tall tower with a viewing platform on the roof. We went up, but unfortunately the cloud was quite low so it was quite difficult to make a lot of things out… but Matt managed to make out a bike stand just round the corner…

Can’t remember the last time I rode a bike… cept in the gym… but they just stay still… but after an extremely wobbly first 50m I was alright… First thing we had to do was cross 4 lanes of traffic! The bike system in Paris is excellent. You pay 1 Euro for a 24hr pass and you can pick up a bike from one stand (there are stands everywhere) and drop it off wherever you end up. Don’t have to worry about locking it up or anything. It just automatically locks itself on the stand… Really handy and a great way to see the city.

From Montparnasse, we rode up near the Champs Elysees and had a coffee (should have had a hot chocolate) and a yummy choc brownie from a Chocalatier.. spensive but had to be done! Had a wander up to the Arc de Triomphe and went to the top…. Great view from up there… don’t know if it was cause the weather had lifted, but it was a much better view from there than Montparnasse.. It was right on 6 o’clock too so we were up there for the sunset. They also stopped the traffic for a procession to walk up to the Arc de Triomphe…. It was quite funny to watch the traffic once they let everyone go… the policemen had to run for their lives! Everyone was going everywhere….

But still no accidents… we were up there for quite a while and didn’t see one – but apparently there’s an accident every 15 mins on average…

We were heading down to the Seine for our River cruise… but stopped off for dinner at one of the bistros… food was quite yummy.. and the service surprisingly good! Matt had some escargot (I don’t get the fuss really!). So with full stomachs we went on the cruise – the view was great, pity it was FREEZING!!

My Chrissy Present - a Long Weekend In Paris - Feb 20

2009-03-28T11:41:00.005Z

Sometimes I really don’t know why we do it… I mean obviously to make the most of time off… but yet again… we set off super early to get to Kings Cross Station for our Eurostar trip to Paris. So, so, so much easier than flying. For one thing, no carry on limit and you can take drinks from outside the terminal on-board and the whole check-in and immigration thing is just so much quicker. 1 min exiting the UK… walk 5 m and you officially enter France. The passport stamp is kinda cool too.. has a little train in the corner. This is one good thing about having a non-EU passport, getting all the stamps!!- Small downside was that the train (a designated train) to Eurodisney was also leaving at about the same time… so eaps and eaps of kids around… but I spose it wasn’t that bad, plus they had a little 4-piece band playing some Disney songs in the waiting area which was alright. Both trains were leaving off the same platform and I’m sure some people must have gotten on the wrong one…

Matt had arranged our trip through Andersen Tours, which made everything really easy – got our boarding pass and a map handed to us on checking in with the tour leader (who happened to be the same as the tour leader we had on our Top Deck tour through Europe in ’03... though Matt already knew this was going to be the case …) and then straight onto a Bus for a quick driving tour of the city.

The train trip itself was pretty uneventful… which is a good thing surely…

Having been to Paris once before, the driving tour we had as soon as we arrived didn’t really show us anything new, but it was a good way to get our bearings again, plus getting a recap on the history of the city is always helpful. After a couple of stops at the usual places for photos we headed to our hotel…

There was a great little Patisserie on the corner which we managed to avoid until our last day, groceries and a few little shops were all really handy. Best of all we were about 20m from the entrance to the Metro station, Marcel Sembat. It was only a couple of stops from the end of the line… but only about 15/20 mins to all the attractions. As soon as we arrived we got a bite to eat and got some beer, wine and nibblies from the supermarket (plus I threw in some bananas for good measure) We bought a 15 pack of Heineken – I thought that’d be plenty to last us the whole weekend and the train trip home… how wrong was I!. Buying the fruit there was a little different… Kinda like a deli counter, had to select the fruit I wanted then go to a counter to get it weighed and a sticker with the price put on it. Obviously I didn’t realise this until I got to the front of the queue, so had to go back – and all just for the fruit I thought I ‘should’ get!.

Back at the hotel we decided to have a couple of drinks before heading out for a Cabaret show… Matt and Jude (who was looking after our tour) managed to polish off all the beers rather quickly! For once I was the sedate one!. Given all the beers they’d had and the couple of roadies they took with them… it made for a fairly interesting metro ride out for the show! Plus when we got out of the Metro we couldn’t quite work out what direction we needed to head! Still, we made it just in time for the start of the show. To be honest I wasn’t overly impressed with the show, apart from the trapeze artist/flying acrobat… that was quite cool cause the rope and swing went right across the crowd. I’m sure Matt got more enjoyment out of the rest of the show than I did!

The Metro ride back was a lot quieter, with both Matt an Jude sleeping… luckily by this stage I kinda knew where I as going! Only thing open for dinner though was Kebabs – was a really nice kebab, but it still felt a little wrong to be eating kebab in Paris!

Leeds Castle Feb 15th

2009-03-15T17:46:00.008Z

Being highly recommended by most we met.. we took a day out to Leeds Castle, Kent... not Yorkshire... so it was less than an hrs drive! The grounds are amazing, with lots of birds.. and the castle itself is really beautiful... pity we didn't think to charge the batteries on our camera... it had run out before we got inside... which was a good thing in a way... meant we probably took more in rather than just trying to take a great photo!

It's actually built across 2 islands on the River Len... and while it has been home to Royalty, including Henry VIII's wife Queen Catherine of Aragon... it's never been the site of a battle... from what we could tell... Henry VIIIs entire court stopped at Leeds Castle en route to the tournament of the Field of Cloth of Gold, in France in the 16th Century... there was a summary of the number of soldiers, cattle etc that they took with them... we were surprised to read that it included 2 dolphins... didn't say whether they were dead or alive... were interested in first understanding why they would need them and secondly how they would have been transported... but unfortunately no one there was able to answer our questions.

After wandering through the castle... imagining what it must have been like living somewhere like that... we headed outside and to the dog collar museum... the last resident of the house Lady Baillee was into dogs... but still the museum wasn't my kinda thing.. but a little quirky.

The grounds also have quite a large aviary... which included a lot of tropical birds.. toucans etc... we felt a little sorry for them... shivering in the freezing English wind.. poor things.

We missed out on the maze.. but all in all it was a great day out and thoroughly recommend it!

Snow Snow Snow! Mon Feb 2nd

2009-03-14T16:14:00.008Z

We were warned it as coming... yet still...

"Foot of Snow Paralyses London"... "Snow shuts down British capital"

We had a belated Aussie day bbq on the Sunday.. which turned out to be an oven and grill as with the wind our fuel stove just wasn't working properly for some reason... and as everyone started leaving the snow started to fall...

By the time the sun went down the ground was well and truly covered and when we woke up literally everything was white... We had both got up early predicting traffic could be a little slow... took a while to get going... shovelling the snow off the car... but me, being in the cruiser had no issues at all getting to work... Matt also had gotten most of the way before getting a call from his boss saying no need to go into work today... was a little sliipery for him.. and he finally slowed down when he saw a car had gone off the road!.. I did get a call though saying he had gotten stuck... but only at the bottom of our street.. so he could walk! - thought I was going to have to come and get him...

I did get to leave work early though... they didn't want any of us travelling in the dark.. though not many people had actually made it in anyway... This made Matt happy as well... I think he was a little put out that I had the cruiser and there was all this thick snow around... literally ass soon as I got in... he jumped in and went for a drive...

So all in all we both didn't really know what all the fuss was about... just thought it was a bit of a laugh and really pretty!

Malta - Australia Day Long Weekend

2009-03-08T10:56:00.012Z

Malta Day 1 - Saturday 24 January

We spent our Australia Day weekend in Malta, which was short but sweet. Flying from Luton was very different to other ‘London’ airports. We drove to one of the cheaper airport carparks and got a shuttle bus to the airport… which was pretty straightforward… but the airport itself is synonymous with the low cost airlines that depart from there (no major carriers do). While at Stansted you can get away with a carry on and a handbag… not at Luton! – they will turn you away as you try to go through security… strictly one piece of hand luggage only… luckily that’s all we had anyway but some people in front of us were caught out with a baby bottle bag...

The airport itself had a real dim, hospital type feel about it, but apparently it has been an airport since it was opened in 1938… dunno… just felt a bit strange… but then I spose you get what you pay for.

We arrived in Malta around 7:30pm – about ½ hr early even though we left late. Ryanair states it has the best on time record – though I think they must put a fair bit of buffer in their flight times… ½ hr early on a 3 hr flight is quite an achievement.

My tone here probably reflects my current view on Ryanair – but that’s probably because in the news recently they stated they were looking at charging you to use the toilet in flight… £1 a go?!! Bit rich… Once you add on all the extra charges for baggage, paying by credit card etc… sometimes it doesn’t work out all that much cheaper than the major airlines… and there’s no customer service to top it all off…

Anywayz… even though our flight was early, it took us about 1 ½ hrs to get out of the airport as we were waiting for our rental car rep to arrive… he said he had a flat tyre on the way but Matt was a bit sceptical – his clothes/hands etc weren’t dirty!...

The car itself… (Matt’s idea!)… was a Suzuki Maruti (or Sierra)… Not the comfiest ride but Matt said it was fun to drive….

Things picked up considerably from when we left the airport! [Even though I was starving hungry… I was just happy to be somewhere I didn’t have to be wearing 10 layers of clothing]… Malta is only a small island so since we had hired a car we were able to see most of it on our long weekend. We were staying at St Paul’s Bay – crashing on the sofa bed of a friends’ holiday let. By the time we got there and had a bite to eat, it was well and truly time to sleep!

Malta Day 2 - Sunday 25 January

Saw quite a bit of Malta today… First stop was Mosta and the church of St Mary, which not only has an amazing dome (4th largest in the world) but is famous for an incident that took place during WWII. Hundreds of people had taken refuge in the church when a bomb came through the dome and rolled across the floor… but never exploded. You can still see where they’ve patched the dome over.

Malta has a real old-worldy kinda feel about it… not only do the buses look like they’re leftovers from the 1950s, but all the cafes, shops etc all play 70s and 80s music… but at the same time there’s quite a few nice cars around…

From Mosta we headed down to Marsaxlokk for a wander through the markets – including live fish and stingrays! – and had lunch at a nice little café overlooking the bay. The wind was a little chilly, but was great to have the sun on our back. Could imagine how busy it must get in Summer…

We headed out on the bumpy roads, passed tent city (where North African Refugees) have set up a community, to the Blue Grotto, a rock formation off the coast. Like Capri though, the weather prevented us from hiring a boat and getting a closer look and no sooner had we got out of the car to have a walk around, it started pelting down with rain. Luckily we had put the cover back on the car before setting off.

So, quick change of plans, we headed to Mdina, the ‘silent city’ though once we arrived it wasn’t so silent.. we all seemed to be in a loud, boisterous mood.. oh well… such a pretty place though from the churches to the stone streets and the great views over Malta.. on a clear day, apparently you can see Sicily. Spent a good couple of hours here just wandering the streets. It was dusk too, so the sun was casting a really nice light on all the buildings.

After dinner at a local restaurant and a couple of bottles of La Vallette, we were shattered… again… and had a thoroughly good night sleep.

Malta Day 3 - Monday 26 January

Had a great day today - nice and sunny... didn't require a jumper for most of the day! Took a drive up to the coast today where the ferries go across to Comino and Gozo - It's a shame we weren't here for a few more days - it would have been great to go over - both are stunning islands from what we've heard. Still it was a really pretty drive... Maybe... one day... we'll come back and go to Sicily and Gozo...

Given the weather we decided to have another go at looking at the Blue Grotto. We took the scenic route there.. driving along the coastline which was really quite spectacular... nothing between us and Africa (if my sense of geography and direction are right)... and then through some back little lanes through the countryside... Stumbled upon a little street vendor selling fruit, vegies... and cactus liqueur... which is quite yum - a little sweet but not too bad.. thought we'd found something quite yummy and unique til we were later at the airport and saw shelves upon shelves of the stuff... oh well!

At the grotto, it was still REALLY rough and the tide was really high so not much chance of hiring a boat... had lunch down there though... Matt had the local specialty - rabbit... it was great sitting with the sun on our backs... could have sat there all afternoon...

But... we did have a plane to catch and we still hadn't been to the capital, Valletta. Almost got into a little bit of trouble playing around taking photos in an empty Pulizija (Police) Box thing... very quickly got told to delete the photos... thought the guy was gonna take the camera for a while... Found Valletta itself to be a city of contrasts - some beautiful buildings, churches and streets but then some filthy laneways with piles of rubbish... and cats everywhere!!... not a great thing for me being allergic!... But then.. we were walking around the edge of the harbour right on sunset.. again the views were stunning which was a great way to end our whirlwind tour of Malta

So all too quickly our long weekend was over... but it was fantastic just to get away. Thanks again to Darren & Liz for your hospitality - we had a great time!

Italy Day 9 - Final morning in Italy :(

2009-02-07T21:55:00.004Z

Heard on the grapevine that Pope Benedict was going to be holding a mass so we headed up to St Pauls to watch - huge crowd - bus loads of people arrived just in time for the service. Can't say I understood a word of what he was saying but still was good to see.

Gave ourselves a little while to get to the airport - a number of roads are closed on sundays - according to the taxi driver - though I guess we had a set fare [30 euros is the standard set fare from the centre to the airport]

And before we knew it we were back in frosty Essex... it snowed that night!

Italy Day 8

2009-02-07T21:29:00.003Z

Took our final day in Italy real easy... decided to do a bit of shopping on Via Cola Di Rienzo.. wasn't a lot of tourists around and there were plenty of sales.. so all good! bought a jacket each which we both love... Matt got his top gun like leather and I got my ultra warm puff jacket - should have got it first day of the trip!

Easy lunch and a coupla coffees and that was about us for the day!

Met up with Darren and family again in the evening for a meal which included an on the house limoncello - certainly warmed me up!

Was a great relaxing day - just what we needed!

Italy Day 7

2009-02-07T21:01:00.004Z

Up early today to join the queue into the Collosseum. I think it took about an hour to get in.. or something ridiculous like that. It was good though - quite massive and to think it used to hold as many people as Homebush stadium... they must have had little behinds I think. There was also lots of pictures of what it probably looked like so it was good to be able to imagine what it must have been like.

Had some Pizza off a stand which was actually really yummy and headed into the Forum.. there was an American guy doing a free walking tour which was really good - I think I would have walked through blindly but he was able to tell us some stories about Caeser and Mark Antony which put a whole new spin on things.

Ducking in and out of the rain we ended up at the Panthenon - was kinda cool being in there with rain coming through the hole in the centre of the Dome - always amazes me how they ever managed to build them.

From there we ended up at the Spanish steps and the Trevi fountain again (via some yummy gelato) - it took on a whole new look at night.

Italy Day 6 - New Years Day

2009-02-07T20:19:00.004Z

Did some usual touristy stuff today. Didn't get the best weather today... quite cold and was raining on and off... here's a tip though - don't bother with the umbrellas off the market stands - they last 5 mins.

Caught the Metro round to the Spanish steps, had a wander round and headed towards the Capuchin Crypt we just missed the morning opening times (it's shut between 12 and 3 so that they can have lunch?! - that's a long lunch) so found somewhere for lunch and just walked around the area - lots of shops - all closed for the holidays - - probably a good thing! Found a really nice place for a coffee - was a damn expensive coffee, but REALLY good - I was tempted to get a second but then remembered how much they were!

Went and saw the Trevi fountain. We had been here last time - but I was still amazed as I walked out of the little laneway into the Piazza. It's not like you can see it from a distance and walk up to it. It's just all of a sudden there. It's the same with a lot of the buildings in Rome... you just happen upon them. There was this guy at the Trevi with a magnetic pole - getting all the coins that people had been throwing into the fountain... only the worthwhile ones though, not the 1c... he was there for about 10 mins... must of then had enough for lunch...

The Capuchin Crypt was really eerie - it's full of mosaics made out of the bones of deceased friars... must have been a strange group of blokes to do something like that... mmm

Ended up at Piazza del Popollo (i think that's right) and saw lots of remnants of NYE. Statues with left over beer bottles... and lots of half eaten pizzas lying around.. also happened upon some vending machines selling beer and wine... obviously don't have the same worries about under-age drinking here!

Italy Day 5 - New Years Eve in Roma

2009-02-07T18:31:00.005Z

Left the sleepy town of San Felice early today to head into Roma and drop the car back at Termini. We had heard so many bad stories about the traffic and were expecting quite an experience, but either cause we'd had a few days practice outside of Rome or traffic was light being new years eve, we really didn't have any issues.. just gotta go with the flow and expect people to move in every direction! [Would have helped if we had put the right address in the SatNav though!]

Headed straight to the hotel (Hotel Columbus) to drop our bags off, and while we knew we were near the Vatican, didn't quite realise just how close.. 100m max

We had a wander round the Vatican and Castel St Angelo before heading off to meet Darren (one of Matt's mates from Oz) and his family for dinner. There was a great party atmosphere around the city with lots of markets and street performers in all the piazzas.

After a little scare with a certain white bag that we thought had gone missing (we can laugh now!) we had dinner at Piazza Navona - some really nice Pizza and Pasta.. what else.

Not long after dinner we parted ways and Matt and I headed towards where we had heard there would be fireworks... near the Collosseum. We only had to wait 20 mins... but even then I'm not quite sure if it was worth it?!! If I had to describe it in one word it would be 'chaotic'! Definitely not like the organised event in Sydney. There were firecrackers and bungers going off everywhere... one right next to my foot... I definitely wasn't surprised at how many ambulances were around... In the middle of one intersection, people were running in and letting off fireworks... I mean the big ones going up at least 50-100m up. All I could think of was how likely it would be for it to fall over or head off into the wrong direction... fun though, in a chaotic stupid kinda way! Now that I think about it there was a lot more random fireworks than there were as part of the main display.

Italy Day 4 - Pompeii and San Felice

2009-01-23T22:11:00.003Z

Unfortunately.... left the Amalfi Coast and Sorrento today... but I was really looking forward to seeing Pompeii.

Very glad for the Navman... wasn't actually that well signposted coming from sorrento and we were able to make a small wrong turn... but made it and found some parking relatively close to the gate.

My first impression of Pompeii... HUGE!!!!! I was really not expecting the magnitude... we quickly realised the 3 or 4 hours that we thought was going to be plenty of time was not going to be anywhere near enough... in the end I think we might have seen a total of 1/3 of the site. It's just amazing to think how long those buildings have been there... how many people had walked the same streets... and i love the concept of their courtyard houses... is now now part of my dream house!

From Pompeii we started heading back to Rome, we had organised a night in a little seaside town called San Felice so that we didn't have such a long drive back into Rome. We had had trouble finding anywhere available on the Internet and as we arrived in San Felice, we discovered why... wasn't because there was a major festival or anything... was simply that there was noone there! It's a thriving town in Summer as visitors come from Rome for weekends etc.. but in Winter it's a ghost town... All the streets were dark, no one around... turned into the driveway of our hotel and were met with locked gates! No one home! A little surprising.. they'd taken our booking.. and our money!

Ended up finding probably the only open hotel... which was ok but not great... but they directed us to an amazing restaurant. I think the owners of the restaurant were actually a little disappointed that we turned up though... being the only ones there I think they were hoping for an early night. Good for us though as we had 3 waiters and 2 chefs all to ourselves.. and the seafood was so fresh and yummy! A great meal and no English on the menu!!

[oh... BTW we did get the money back for the hotel]

Italy - Day 3 - Isle of Capri

2009-01-23T21:23:00.003Z

Had a an amazing day on the Isle of Capri... headed out on the first 'fast ferry' of the day for the 20 min trip to Capri. When we were almost there we got approached by this guy offering to give us a tour, sounded like a bit of a scam, but when we got off the bus there was quite a queue of people waiting with him so we thought, probably couldn't be that bad... plus we said we didn't have any cash on us so couldn't pay him til we found a cash machine. Worked out quite well in the end, saw more of the Island than we would have trying to get around on public transport... though most of the people were Italian, and while he would explain things in both English and Italian, it seemed to take at least 4 times as long to say the spiel in Italian compared to the English version, so I think we got the summary!

First stop was Ana Capri, the highest town on the Island. Gorgeous view from the top of the hill though frikkin freezing in the wind! For those so inclined, there are steps that lead all the way from the port to Ana Capri, parently the road was only built about 100 years ago so in the past that was the only way up... I think I would have lived at the Port.... While we were up there we had time to get the chair lift to the very top... My legs do get a little shaky with heights.. but I thought, I can do a chair lift... paid our tickets and got to the top of the stairs then I noticed how SMALL the chair was... I just assumed it would be a 2 person one... didn't really have time to think about it though cause there was no queue... just hung on tightly to the bars... and given i didn't have gloves on... my hands were nearly stuck to the poles by the time I got to the top! (and almost stacked it as I jumped off)... BUT the view across the Bay of Naples and the Meditteranean was amazing, particularly the ruggedness (don't even now how that's spelt?!) of the coastlline... biggest bummer of the day was that there were no boats going to the Grotto due to the roughness of the sea.. may have to come back one day for that!

After a quick lunch and wander round the town.. back on the mini bus and the tight roads to Capri... a really pretty town though feels like it was built just for shopping (til you duck down some of the nooks and crannies... ) We walked down through the town to the Gardens and out onto a lookout looking back down the coastline towards where we were at the top of the chair lift. The water was soooo blue... Not surprised so many wealthy people have villas here.

Had a wander around the town (wasn't in the mood for shopping which has to have been a good thing) and back to the main square for a coffee (sooo much cheaper if you either drink it standing at the bar or have takeaway by the way) There was a whole lot of commotion surrounding a few people... turns out they were there for the Honda Film Festival and were quite famous Italian film stars... no wonder Matt got a few strange looks in the Honda jacket...

Still... all too quickly it was time to find our mini bus again for the trip back to the port for the ferry back to Sorrento...

Back in Sorrento we walked back up into town... tried on a few leather jackets... but didn't end up buying... found a tv that was playing the cricket.. not live.. and twas a little depressing anyway!.. But they sold Jim Beam.. AND the guy gave us free cake cause it was 'happy hour' - now that's my kinda happy hour - free food!

Italy - Day 2 - Amalfi Coast

2009-01-11T20:16:00.008Z

Unfortunately we got a bit of rain today... but were still excited to be doing the famous Amalfi drive and to test out the Mini. Heading up the windy road, pleasantly surprised with how the Mini stuck to the road and glad we hadn't decided to get the cheapest option as we would normally do... we were able to unsafely pass a Fiat Punto (a likely hire car option) on a corner without any trouble.

The views across the coast were stunning, despite the weather, and we were amazed at the number of buildings that seemed to just jut out of the cliff face.

We drove straight through to Amalfi and spent a few hours wandering the streets there, the church there was really pretty and there was a mass on which was quite nice, though obviously we couldn't understand a word. Had a great coffee and pastry in the square before heading up to Ravello for lunch.

The road up to Ravello was REALLY tight, with our side mirrors touching with another car at one point.. was glad we didn't have to try and pass a bus. While this area would be amazing in Summer, I think the roads must be so overcrowded with buses and cars it would be really hard to get around.

Ravello was also nice, but dead quiet, no one in the square, but we found a really nice little place for lunch... great home-cooked Italian meal... and apparently we hadn't ordered enough food as the 'mother' of the restaurant brought us out an extra plate of pasta 'for the growing boy'!!.. It was all great food though.

From Ravello took a leisurely drive back through Amalfi and had a quick stop off at Positano though it was getting quite late by this stage so after a quick walk around town we headed back to Sorrento and a drink in the Hotel Bar (they had Jim Beam so Matt was set! I'm a bit more flexible, there's vino everywhere!)

Italy! - Day 1 - Essex to Sorrento - 27 Dec 08

2009-01-11T19:27:00.005Z

What a day! Early morning start to get to Stansted for our 6am flight with Ryanair to Rome. Was a fairly full flight but we managed to get 3 seats for the 2 of us.. always a mad scramble to get on when there's no reserved seating... Was a beautiful flight as well.. over the Swiss and French Alps... great view!

Was a little disappointed when, as we approached Rome, the pilot announced it was all of 3 degrees in Rome (was 30 last time we were here). We were hoping for at least 10, still it's warmer than the UK (just I had only brought the one jacket!)

We were welcomed with great Italian service and efficiency... an hour for our bags!!... and Ciampino is only a small airport! Then, once we had our bags, set off to find our rental car, which we found was quicker to walk to 1km than to wait for the shuttle bus (that came every 5 mins apparently?!)

We got the keys to our car, a White Mini Cabriolet, the only mini in the carpark apparently... yet somehow we managed to get in the wrong car, got our bags in, but then couldn't work out where the key went... was only after 5 mins or so when Matt got back out of the car did we realise there was another mini.. the key fit that one (btw the mini we had jumped in was green and not a convertible... same make though)

We brought along our Satnav from the UK, which was FANTASTIC, made it so much easier to get around... though it was still relatively straight forward to get out of the airport and onto the A1 to Sorrento via Napoli. Felt a bit strange for a while to be on the right-hand side of the road... kept telling Matt off for veering too far to the right!.. and was unnerving not to have a steering wheel in front of me!

Still... we made it.... a gorgeous drive once we got off the A1 through some small towns and around the coast from vesuvius to Sorrento.

Our Hotel, the Grand Hotel Aminta (sounds Grand... but every second hotel is the grand something) was great.. was halfway up the hill overlooking Sorrento and had a free shuttle to take us into town... which was the first thing we did.

Had a wander round the Sorrento streets, where they still had all the Christmas decorations and stalls set up. Was quite a buzz about the place. We then found a trattoria our bus driver had recommended and savoured our first Italian pizza, pasta and cappuccino! Then off for an early night... we were stuffed.

Boxing Day at our place

2009-01-11T19:13:00.003Z

Had a great day boxing day, relaxing at home with John, Shirley, Lee, Connor and Aaron. Ended up playing a bit of blackjack... Matt was the dealer.. and we all know that the dealer always wins, but we still thought the rules were being made up as we went!! As an added bonus there was plenty of sunshine streming through the windows!! [Oh.. and somehow Aaron, the youngest of the group, won the card game]

Our first UK Christmas

2009-01-09T21:25:00.008Z

Christmas Eve at the Price's... wine getting everywhere seems to be the norm... has exploded onto the ceiling and here... onto the lounge room floor.. was a shame, meant I had to open the champas!

Our little Xmas tree from B&Q!...

Christmas Day with the Butterworths

Birmingham Dec 08

2009-01-09T20:52:00.003Z

Took a another trip up to Birmingham before Christmas and caught up with all the relatives. Ended up staying at Ian and Ellen's place near the centre of Birmingham... had a great night in with good curry, lots of drinking?! and lots and lots of family photos! Chatted well into the night and before we knew it, it was 2am

Sun 30 Nov - Xmas Markets in Bath

2008-12-13T14:14:00.004Z

On the way back from Cardiff we stopped in at Bath to have a stroll around the Bath Christmas markets and to have lunch with some of Matt's family (which was de-lish).

We arrived in Bath central just before 11, about when the markets were due to open... heading straight for a cafe and a coffee... In our haste to find coffee I think we must have been looking the wrong way and almost missed the markets completely! We first had a wander round the old indoor markets then decided to have a wander down a little alley that opened up into a large courtyard... with HEAPS of markets.. we're lucky we walked that way otherwise we would have just been wondering what all the fuss about Bath Christmas markets was! Very glad we had a pretty tight deadline... otherwise could of bought heaps... particularly really nice Xmas decorations. [Note Santa's sign advertising 'centrall heated market'!]

Sat 29 Nov - Wallabies v Wales

2008-12-13T13:18:00.005Z

Early morning rise... we made the trek over to Cardiff for the Rugby... Matt was so tired from his afternoon the day before that I actually drove half the way... very unusual!... knew it was going to be a freeezing day when the sleet started near Bath!. We parked just out of the city and caught a bus in to pick our tickets up from the stadium then started wandering around the city centre. All the streets were closed for the rugby which created a really great party atmosphere... There were a few aussies scattered around... but i was probably expecting a few more really. Went into quite a few shops just to defrost... was too cold for beer (strange i know)... but the pubs were packed after about 10am anyway.

So... the game... we had some pretty good seats given how late we bought them and the roof was almost completely closed which made it slightly warmer in the stadium. There were a few Aussies near us and we did our best to be heard over the Welsh crowd... but we also had the Welsh flag draped over our faces a few times and had the Royal Welsh army rugby team sitting in front of us... still the banter was fun and we had a great time despite the result... was very disappointed Mortlock was only a couple of minutes though.

Fri 28 Nov - Day in London

2008-12-13T12:44:00.004Z

Had to go all the way to Wimbeldon to swap over my drivers licence... so took a day off work and made a day out of it. Worked out well cause Matt was also in town today.

While I was waiting for Matt (poor thing had to go to the Moet Bar in Selfridges for some drinks with his work... what a waste... he doesn't even drink champagne!!)... I did a bit of shopping and wandered the streets... was really pretty with all the Christmas lights and displays in the windows.

Once I met up with Matt we took a stroll to Hyde Park to have a look around the Winter Wonderland... where there was some German Style markets set up, rides and an outdoor ice rink... we would have had to wait around for a few hours to get on the rink so gave that a miss and, surprisingly, headed to a pub in Kensington for a drink and meal instead!

Billericay - our new home

2008-12-13T12:18:00.004Z

Moved into our new place on 19 November... We were lucky enough to find a place in our budget with parking for the cars...spent the first few nights sleeping on the mattress out of the tent and eating off plastic boxes!!... but ebay saved the day and we bought some furniture second hand to fill the space. Took a few phone calls to work out how to turn the heating on... I think the people at the real estate thought we were a bit stupid... but hey, it's not like we needed it in Australia!

We are loving it in Billericay...

> distance to railway - 400m (35mins to central London)

> distance to high street - 500m

> number of pubs in Billericay - 15 (at last count) - and heaps of nice places to eat too...

In short, Billericay has everything we need, but just 5 mins down the road we're in the countryside. Great thing is I only have 15 min drive to work... a drastic change to my commute in Sydney... Tis a strange feeling to be still at home at 8am.

Didn't have to wait too long for snow either (though was largely gone by lunchtime). There's a 30% chance of a white Christmas... fingers crossed!

16 Nov - Lunch with family in Hertfordshire

2008-12-13T12:05:00.003Z

Made the trip up to Hertfordshire with John & Shirley to catch up with some of Matt's family. Had a Chinese Buffet lunch in a local pub with lots of laughs and stories.

Late lunch at the Plough & Sail

2008-11-02T17:50:00.005Z

.. had to watch our heads on the extremely low ceilings...

Fireworks Night - Sat 1 Nov

2008-11-02T13:25:00.003Z

per Wikepedia "Guy Fawkes night is an annual celebration on the evening of November 5th. It celebrates the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot of the 5th of November 1605, in which a number of catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, attempted to blow up the houses of parliament in London and kill King James 1."

So we celebrated a little early so that it was the weekend... but we all headed over to Matt's cousin Claire's place on Saturday... for some homemade chilli and fireworks. Felt a bit strange letting off fireworks in the backyard.. has been many years since we've been allowed to do that in NSW!... some kind of just popped and fizzled, but most were great... and only a couple headed off in the wrong direction.. but nowhere near any people thankfully!

Colchester Castle

2008-11-02T13:11:00.002Z

Yes... it was a little chilly and raining, but we took Connor and headed over to Colchester to have a look through the Castle, which is now a museum displaying lots about the history of the area. There was also an exhibition showing some Terracotta warriors excavated from Shizishan Hill in China which was really interesting. Hopefully one day will get to Xian to see the larger versions

Evening out in Covent Garden

2008-11-01T13:40:00.005Z

Organised to meet up with a few mates from Oz for dinner at Souk Medina, Covent Garden. Had a great night and Matt & I headed in early to have a look around the markets and watch some of the street performers. It was a really great atmosphere with lots going on.. though Matt's attention was drawn to the live models in the lingerie shop window...

Promenade Park - Maldon

2008-10-19T15:17:00.005+01:00

Spent today with Lee and Aaron at Promenade Park. Aaron loved his first ride in the "Monster Truck"

Was a fun afternoon playing frisbee and just getting out and running round a bit. There were a few barges moored there advertising for Christmas functions... a cruise for Christmas in Sydney is great... down the river in Essex, middle of Winter may not be so appealing??!!

The LandCruiser arrives - Oct 14

2008-10-19T15:04:00.002+01:00

The Landcruiser has arrived and can now be seen touring the streets of Essex... turning a few heads along the way... not sure if that's cause there isn't really anything like it here or because of the Aussie Rego...

It has an issue with the injectors, but is running fine on gas til we get it fixed.

Only other issue has been insurance... can't find a company that will ensure both a car on Aussie rego and someone who hasn't held an English license for over a year, meaning I can't drive the car. Luckily Matt has a UK license so he's just having to drive me around everywhere at the moment!

Adam and Claire's Wedding - October 2008

2008-10-14T13:48:00.004+01:00

Set in a gorgeous 16th Century Gatehouse, Layer Marney Tower, Adam and Claire's wedding was on Saturday 4th October.

It was a beautiful day, with good food and great wine. It was great to catch up with everyone, and to meet Adam's new wife of course!

Sorry Nicole... I didn't wear a hat... but had fun getting dressed up all the same!

Visting the Midlands October

2008-10-14T13:15:00.007+01:00

Before we both started work, we were keen to get up to the Midlands to catch up with Pam, Fred, Lauren, Glen, Ellen and Ian - they all helped us out so much last time we were here.

It was like we had never been gone! - lots of chatting and laughter... and food! - you can never go hungry at Pam's! Took a drive around Birmingham, past where I went to uni and had a look at Lauren's new digs. Even had my first ever visit to a Costco... we headed straight to the cheese and wine tasting!! - still it did work, we did buy stuff as a result... They were also sampling Appletiser for all those Tiser fans back home!

No trip to Bromsgrove would have been complete without a pint and a carvery at the New Inn... Fred's local and now also where Lauren works.

Matt and Glen are waaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy to similar for my liking!!.. both really into their 4WDs... we are already penciled in for a 4WD trip to Wales in November - from Coast back into England without touching many roads. Glen also took us along to a Winch challenge in Stourport.. a really pretty area actually... I think Matt enjoyed the 4WDs, but must have felt a bit strange for him to just be watching and not in the Drivers seat.

A great day out at Old Leigh

2008-10-14T13:00:00.004+01:00

Went out for a great lunch in Sept at Old Leigh (bout 15 mins from where we're living at the moment). Was a fantastic day... sun shining... and REALLY warm... Tasted a few of the local delicacies, like cockles, whelks and other stuff I just couldn't eat!

The "beach" was not much of a beach... bout 10m sq area of sand, which I'm pretty sure must have been trucked in from somewhere... still it was crowded, Aaron had fun.. and all the old men were taking the opportunity to take their shirts off and get a bit of a tan... I just got a bit sunburnt on my face.. oh well

Ireland

2008-09-27T18:04:00.011+01:00

Have spent this week touring around Ireland and have seen quite a bit.

Spent a day looking around Wicklow and Arklow, where some of Matt's family is originally from, a really beautiful and scenic area. Took us a little while to find his great, great grandfathers headstone at Glendalough, but found it relatively easy in the end, right near the main church!

Matt has been enjoying the country roads, specially when the speed limit is 100km!... though that requires concentration and can get tiring, so we mixed that up with some main road driving and just stopped wherever he got tired. The drive though has been great, everything is very green (apparently that's cause it always rains here, but we haven't seen any!) and scenic, lots of tractors, including on the motorways... and lots of pubs of course.

We've stayed in a mix of B&Bs, some great, some not so... my favourite was the one where the room was decorated all in pink and florals... very pretty!!!

The Rock of Cashel was really interesting, amazing to think that the buildings have been there since the 11th Century

Visited, and kissed the Blarney stone this morning... wasn't expecting to have to lie on my back over the edge of the castle though to have to do it!... apparently this will give us the gift of eloquence from now on... we'll see! At least we were the first ones there this morning, so hopefully the mist on the stone made it relatively clean?!! All I could think of was how many people must have done this before me!

Dublin!

2008-09-21T19:16:00.003+01:00

Arrived in Dublin this morning! Got in just after lunch, picked up the rental car and headed straight for the Guinness Brewery (well... it was getting late!). The museum was quite good actually, and it's true what they say, the Guinness does taste better in Ireland... but, I think I'll stick to the Lager (can't believe I'm calling it that already!)... Back into central Dublin tomorrow for some more sight-seeing... (Our hotel is about 5km out of town, most of the reasonably priced hotels were booked out... know why now... the gaelic football grand final was on this afternoon!)

We have arrived in the UK

2008-09-18T12:12:00.003+01:00

Hey everyone,

We arrived in the UK Monday night. Flight was "ok"... wouldn't go Finnair on a long flight again though!... Neither of us got any sleep on the flight. After circling over London a few times, we were lucky enough to be met at Heathrow though by Lee and Connor, and I was able to have a bit of a snooze on the way back to their place in Essex while Matt chatted with Lee!

We've both been a bit effected by jet-lag, but are starting to feel normal today!! We have both been spending a bit of time looking for jobs and setting up interviews, opening bank accounts and all that fun stuff.

Off to Ireland for a week from Sunday... which should be great!!.. We don't have much planned for the trip, just hiring a car and going wherever looks good!

Day 4 - Sept 14

2008-09-14T13:26:00.003+01:00

Spent today seeing the older parts of Bangkok... caught a ferry up the river to Wat Pho and the Grand Palace. Wat Pho was great, spent a little extra for a guide who was able to explain a lot about Buddhism and the history of the temple as we went around. We also got our palms read... One of the first things he said was that I love food... how accurate!! Things are looking good apparently for the next few years... a good time to make a change he said!Had a quick look around Khao San, quick Tuk Tuk ride and back to the hotel... need to work out how we're going to fit everything back in our bags for our flight tomorrow! Plus... there's a few thunderstorms around at the moment... great night for a few beers on the balcony!!

Day 3 - Sept 13

2008-09-14T13:18:00.003+01:00

'A full one day!! Hired a taxi for the day who took us to the floating markets, an elephant farm (which I wouldn't actually recommend doing unless you really want to just be able to say you've ridden an elephant, felt a bit sorry for them).. from there we headed out to the River Kwai, which was great to see... spent a bit of time there before our taxi driver took us to a tiger temple... This is worth doing... felt like the Tigers were more in natural surroundings and well looked after... was a little bit strange sitting so close to them... specially when they started waking up when it started raining! The cubs were great though, just like playing with a puppy!!.. Just always at the back of your mind that they can snap and turn around and bite your calf.
It was a long day, but a really worthwhile one... Must have been about a 300km journey all up, but still worked out cheaper than going on an organised tour. But best of all we could keep to our own pace.

Once we were back in Bangkok, managed to find a bar televising the Bledisloe, just in time to see the last 5 mins...so close yet so far... d'oh!!!!

Day 2 - Sept 12

2008-09-14T13:10:00.004+01:00

Spent today walking around central Bangkok. It's so easy to get around... the Skytrain is just up the road, plenty of taxis and Tuk Tuks.. but we stuck to the Skytrain today.
Thank goodness for airline baggage limits (and that we were already at our limits).. could have spent a bit of money here... I wouldn't say you get massive savings to Sydney, especially for the decent quality stuff, but it is a little cheaper, and there's just lots of it! Matt was at home at the computer "stuff" market... huge!
Have had fun just working things out here... like we had lunch in a food court, where you have to buy coupons which you used instead of money at the various outlets... pretty cool... lunch for 2 for about $3! (Yes, including beer)

Headed back to the hotel for a snooze (my feet were killing me... not used to so much walking)... before heading out to Patpong. Had a look through the markets (and here's my bargaining tip... Actually have no money with you when you're looking... you can honestly say you don't have any money and start walking away and it's amazing how cheap things got!.. I ended up getting 2 pewter wine glasses with elephants engraved on them for about $20 each.. now don't anyone tell me I could have done better... cause I was happy with that)
Had dinner here in Patpong... it was pretty shite but kinda fun watching the "interesting" crowd

Day 1 - Sept 11

2008-09-14T13:07:00.001+01:00

Doomsday 7 years ago... but marks the beginning of our adventure!! Most of today was spent travelling so not much to report. Watched a few movies (I'll blame it on the emotion of leaving and the 2 champagnes I had had, but the Sex and the City movie made me teary!!).. Had and interesting passenger sitting across the aisle from us.. couple of wines and she was gooooonne!!! Very loud! And had an argument with the Jestar staff when settling her tab, she really didn't think she'd had that many drinks!!
Bangkok airport can be desribed in one word - massive
So easy to get a taxi, and 400 Baht later (bout $15).. we were at our hotel/serviced apartment Chateau de Bangkok...
Our Bell boy/tourist activity advisor has been great... his name... and I'm being serious... is Ping Pong. He says Aussies are great, always having a joke and remember his name!!.. no wonder!
Made it just in time to squeeze in dinner at the hotel's restuarant before it closed.. about $20 for our meal including beer... love Thailand already!!! Unfortunately Matt accidentally ate a whole chilli :( has turned him off the hot stuff!

Welcome

2008-09-06T13:03:00.006+01:00

It seems to have both taken an age yet come around so quickly, but tomorrow... we're off! We've had a great time over the last week or so catching up with everyone before we head off... lots of eating, drinking and fun!! It will be a bit strange for a while not having everyone around, but we hope to see at least a few of you over in the UK/Europe at some point!

Our first stop is Bangkok, for a bit of shopping, sight-seeing and relaxation, arriving in London on Monday 15 September.

The plan is to keep this site updated with what we're up to... so don't be afraid to let us know when we've been a bit slack!

PS: To all the McLeods... will be with you in spirit on Saturday.