Malteser

Well Summer was rubbish, we had only a hand full of decent days and I don't think it got close to 30 deg once. We really wanted to get across to Europe for some beach and sunshine but we didn't get around to it. We left it pretty late and finally decided to book 5 days in Malta in late November.
Malta is south of Italy and not that far from north Africa and enjoys lots of sunshine and decent temps all year round.

When we arrived it was about 20 deg and a nice bit of humidity in the air. We had booked most of our stay on the smaller Island of Gozo as it is quieter and a bit more relaxed. We stayed in a great hotel that overlooked a small harbour and was just a 10 min boat trip to the small island of Comino which is home to the crystal clear waters of the blue lagoon. We headed there on our second day and had the remote island almost to ourselves. It was warm enough to swim (water temp about 23 deg) and we took full advantage of this after not having had the chance to swim in over a year.

The weekend was very windy so we stayed away from the beach and checked out Victoria (capital of Gozo ) and Valletta (capital of Malta). They were both really pretty towns with a mix of Italian and British Influence. The buildings are Italian style but as Malta was a British colony until the 60's they still have red British post and phone boxes and old Bedford buses everywhere. The food was a mix of Italian and local with great cheese and pastries. Malta adopted the Euro this year but was still very cheap compared with the UK and western Europe.

For our final night we stayed in a big hotel in Valletta, it was built in the 30's and had a real old world colonial feel to it. On our last day we visited some ancient ruins on the coast of Malta that are over 5000 years old and were built before the Pyramids. We also checked out the Town of Mdina which was fortified around 1000 years BC. Malta has an amazing history and has been occupied by the Phoenicians, Arabs and Romans to name a few. It is also where Saint Paul was shipwrecked in 60 AD.

We really enjoyed our time in Malta and Gozo, Beautiful Islands, warm sunshine, cheap and everyone speaks English. We are off to Paris next for Renee's birthday then to Morocco over the Christmas New Year period. Check out the pics below.

Pics here

Copenhagen

This year for our Wedding Anniversary we decided to go to Denmark.
We left the the rain in London and arrived in Copenhagen to sunshine and blue skies. It was crisp at around 15-16 deg but was nice in the sun.
We hopped on a boat and cruised around the harbour and canal areas which were really picturesque. We went past the place where Princess Mary lives and saw the royal yacht that she can Cruise around on.

On Saturday night we went to The Tivoli which is this amusement park/Gardens area close to the city. It was really nice at night with all the beautiful lights and restaurants, and jazz bands playing. We went for a ride on the Ferris wheel but didn't brave the roller coaster.

The next day we went to the Copenhagen zoo and checked out the new elephant enclose that my work has recently designed and saw polar bears, brown bears, lions, tigers etc.

Copenhagen was expensive but has a chilled out feel and friendly people. We really enjoyed our short break and would like to check out some of Scandinavia.

Pics here

Anyone for a pint of Guinness?

My Cousin Vinton was visiting from Australia last month so we decided we would take him to Dublin as we had been meaning to check it out.
Also Renee's cousin Kelly lives there so we wanted to catch up with here as well.
Dublin was great fun and had a relaxed and chilled out vibe.
We wandered around the cobbled lanes and went to the Dublin Castle and at night caught up with Kelly and her boyfriend Ken. The took us around to a few different pubs to sample some Guinness and here some Irish music which was cool.

The next day we visited a Jail that was a few hundred years old, It hasn't been used for prisoners since the 1920's but is used for TV and movies including "In the name of the Father".
A trip to Dublin would not have been complete without a trip to the Guinness Storehouse so we headed there for a tour and to sample the finest pint in Dublin. The top of the storehouse has a rooftop bar with great views over Dublin and the surroundings.

Some pics here

The Bavarian Alps

I flew to Germany to meet up with Matthias and Peter so we could climb the highest peak in Germany.
The Zugspitze is 2963 meters high
and has a glacier and snow at the top all year round.
The hike up was both challenging and breathtaking
and took an epic 10 hours. We needed ropes and harnesses and even ice spikes for some of the harder bits.
We were planning on getting a gondola back down but we missed the last one and had to spend the night in a mountain hut. We hiked back down the next morning but had to go a different way that took us across the boarder into Austria.
So all up I spent about 15 hours hiking up and down and spent the night sleeping at 2100 meters.
I passed waterfalls and caves, saw mountain sheep and cows grazing, snow and ice and mountain lakes. It was an amazing experience and photos don't really do it justice but here are some.

Pics

The Dolomites

The world Mountain Bike Championships were in Italy this year. I put the word out and got together a group of 7 other lads from Brisbane and we headed over to the Dolomites (Mountain range in Northern Italy) for the weekend.
It was an epic trip and we crammed a lot into 48 hours.
We slept very little , ate some great food and drank some great beer and watched some exciting racing. We even managed to hire some bikes and ride through some spectacular alpine scenery.

Pictures here

3 Days in Paris

I guess we weren't expecting a lot from Paris as it was kind of just a quick stop for a few days on the way back from Tuscany to London.
Because of this i think we enjoyed it a bit more than we were expecting. I had been 10 years before in the winter time and was keen to see it in the summer.
On our first day we had some decent weather so we took a boat trip on the Seine and passed many of the famous sights such as the Eiffel Tower,Notre Dame, and the Louvre. After the boat trip we headed to one of the largest street markets and had some lunch. In the afternoon Renee and i went and lazed around in one of the parks and enjoyed the sun while Alan and Darlene went to a gallery.
Over the next few days Alan kept himself occupied with galleries and we checked out the Sacre Couer (church) at Montmartre and did a bit of shopping. We visited the Tower but as it was raining we didn't go up.
I found the people were nicer than I expected and although we had a bit of rain it was still very nice to see it in the summer. The best part was when we were done it was only a 2 hour train trip and we were back in London.

Pics here

Tuscan Towns

Tuscany has many amazing towns and cities and in a week you can barely scratch the surface.
We were staying in the north of Tuscany so we were close to Lucca and Pisa. We were quite impressed with the leaning tower and some of the other Pisan architecture and had some nice sunshine whilst we were there.
Lucca was a definite highlight for me. Its a walled city and is mostly pedestrianised so i hired a bike and rode around the walls and between the alleyways which was very cool. It has some nice towers and we climbed up one which had great views toward the surrounding mountains and across the village.

We went on a bit of a rode trip to Sienna which was about a three hour drive. It's a great little city and has a unique main square. We also checked out the 'Duomo' Church which had an incredibly detailed facade.
We also checked out some local towns which aren't really on the tourist trail. Peitrasanta was a nice town with an old roman wall running up the hill and is also known for its marble.
It is set back in the hills not far from the coast so after visiting it we headed to the beach resort towns of Viareggio and Forte dei Marmi. The beaches have thousands of beach chairs and brightly coloured umbrellas.

Although it's not in Tuscany we were not far from the Chinque Terre where we went for our anniversary last year. So we took a day trip there and met up with Renee's Uncle and Aunt who were passing through on holiday so that was fun.

After a great week in Tuscany we packed our bags and headed for Paris.

Some pics here

The Hills of Tuscany

Alan and Darlene (Renee's Parents) arrived from Australia in may.
Darlene and Renee have both read many books about Tuscany and it has long held a special appeal. So we booked a Villa in the Tuscan hills for a week and meet Alan and Darlene in Pisa as they had been to Berlin for a few days prior.
The villa was part of a tiny hillside hamlet in a place called Peralta. We arrive late on Saturday afternoon after negotiating the steep winding access road. We had a 3 level place with incredible views over the hillside and out towards the Mediterranean.
This was our base for the next week and we spent many evenings sitting on the balcony eating cheese (Pecorino from sheep's milk) olives, bread and drinking local wine.

The hillside was covered in Olive groves, lemon trees and wild Flowers and we wandered around some of the tracks on the property and even stumbled across some ancient ruins.
Most days we headed off to explore the Tuscan cities but i will cover that in a separate blog.
We also really enjoyed spending time at home and had many a home cooked Tuscan feast thanks to having our own kitchen and produce supplied by our local store in the village below.
The view from our balconies were spectacular and we had some memorable sunsets and skylines.
Click here for pictures
Tuscan Cities blog coming soon

Snow in London

We waited all winter to see some snow fall in London but it never came. Then in spring (April) it happened! Sunday morning we woke to snow on the ground and it continued to fall until around lunch time.
We threw snowballs and enjoyed walking around in it as its still a novelty for us having lived in Brisbane all our lives.
Some more pics here

Easter in Belgium

For Easter we caught the Eurostar under the English channel to Belgium. The train takes a little under 2 hours and travels at 186 mph. We left London on Easter Saturday and planned to spend 1 night in Bruges.
Bruges is a picturesque little town surrounded buy canals and chocolate shops. The old town is full of medieval buildings one of which was our hotel. The hotel is over 500 years old although it was renovated inside last year.

We really enjoyed our first day in Bruges and spent the day wandering the streets and squares and shopping for beer and chocolate. Belgium is famous for both; and there were 47 different chocolate shops in Bruges and over 600 local varieties of Belgian Beer on offer. Saturday night I looked outside the hotel window just before bed and noticed this strange-looking white stuff falling from the sky.
It has been a long time since I have seen snow actually fall and Renee and I were quite excited.

In the morning the snow melted quickly but during the day there were repeated snow showers.
We walked around the canals and found a pub built in 1515 and grabbed a local ale. After lunch we took a boat cruise on the canals and were showered buy snow and sleet. Sunday night we headed back to Brussels to catch the Eurostar to London. Unfortunately I miscalculated the times and we missed our train which happened to be the last one of the night.

With no other option we found a nearby hotel and checked in. In the morning we tried to find a way to get back as our tickets were non-transferable. We eventually bought new one-way train tickets but decided to make the most of our day and spent the afternoon seeing the sights of Brussels. I am really glad we did as Brussels is a really nice city and has the best public square (Grand Place) that I have seen anywhere in Europe. We wondered around the lanes tasting waffles and chocolates and stopped in for some beer. More snow fell and we soaked up the experience of being in a Europe at Easter.

It was memorable, with some unexpected experiences that we made the most of, and had a wonderful time.
Pics Here

Germany "East side Style"

Well it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. We have been in hibernation enduring the long English winter. Seroisly though it has actually been quite pleasant and by the sounds of it less rain than Brisbane has been having.

We spent new years in London and had my Cousin Matthias over to visit from Germany.
We had some good times catching up and it wouldn’t be long until we caught up again as we had booked some cheap flights to Germany for the end of January. It was Australia day weekend so since we weren’t in Australia we thought it would be nice to be with our relatives in Germany.
We flew in on Thursday afternoon and were planning on spending 5 days staying with The Wuensch family in Sandersdorf which is a small village in the former East Germany a few hours from Berlin.
Matthias met us at the airport and took us to Liepzig to have a look around for the afternoon. We had a great meal at this little student cafe that is underground. That night we returned home to catch up with Doris and Peter (Peter is my Dad's cousin) and Doris had a lovely meal prepared for us with sausage and sauerkraut and a German beer to wash it down.

The following day Matthias showed us around some of the neighbouring towns and took us to a chocolate factory where we purchased close to 10 boxes of chocolate. At night Renee made us a Pavlova for Australia day which we all enjoyed.

Saturday was a real highlight for us as we took a day trip to the Harz Mountains to climb Mt Brocken. Mt Brocken is the highest mountain in northern Germany at 1142 meters and has a lot of history surrounding it. My German family has also had a long association with the Harz Mountains as my Grandmothers sister and most of that side of the family has lived there for many years.

We started the day by climbing the 9 or so kms to the top of the mountain. The top was freezing and really windy and covered in plenty of snow and ice. The top was used by the Russians in East German times and was closed off until 1990 .It now has a museum and cafe at the top and an old steam train now runs up and down. We had a sausage and a beer at the cafe and then jumped on the train for the trip down. The scenery was spectacular and it was rewarding after having hiked for hours up the icy paths.

In the afternoon we visited my Grandmothers sister who is 84 and loved having us visit. The relatives laid out an extravagant spread of cakes and strudel.
It was good catching up with them again as it has been 11 years since I was last there.

The next Day we went to Berlin with Matthias and his Girlfriend Dana. The weather was not great but we still had fun walking around and checking out the sights. I really enjoyed seeking the Reichstag (German parliament) as the Architect firm I work for re-designed it a few years back and I always her a lot about it. Berlin has so much history and I always enjoy the city.

We headed back on Monday having eaten copious amounts of wonderful German food and our bags were laden with chocholate and other gifts from our incredibly generous hosts.

We go to Belgium for Easter next so expect to here more stories of chocolate and beer.
Cheers

Pics Here

14th December 1907

Renee's Grandmother "Jessie Lindsay' was born in Bournemouth, England on the 14Th of December 1907. Bournemouth is in Dorset on the south coast of England about 2 hours from London. December the 14Th 2007 would have been Jessie's 100Th birthday so we made the pilgrimage to Bournemouth for the weekend. We had the address of where she was born and even a photo so our aim was to find the street and see what it was like 100 years later.

We managed to find the street without to much trouble and we found a part of the road that looked the closest to that of the photo. I had the laptop in my backpack so we were able to refer to the picture as we stood on the street and took some pictures. In Australia streets can change a lot over the years but in Bournemouth things seemed quite similar to how they would have been way back then.

Bournemouth is a seaside resort town, and we spent some time walking on the beach and checking out the pier. Being December it was freezing but we imaged it would be lovely in the summer.
We had a Cup of tea and some scones with jam and cream and reminisced about Renee's Grandma. We will go back to Bournemouth in the summer when Renee's parents come over to visit.

Some pics of our trip are here

Dashing Through the Snow

Merry Christmas!
We figured this year would be a good opportunity to experience a white Christmas after all these years of heat and sweat in Queensland. With no sign of snow in London for Christmas we decided to head for Austria. We arrived in Salzburg on the 23rd and it was cold! About minus 5 and although it wasn't actually snowing there was still some left on the ground and roovesetc from when it had fallen 10 days prior.

We started by Checking out the Austrian version of Christmas markets and they were a little bit different to the German ones but equally as good. They had different types of sausage and different hot alcoholic drinks to the ones we went to in Germany. We enjoyed the hot cherry or berry punch they had on offer. Renee bought some mistletoe and a little Christmas tree for our hotel room.

On Christmas eve we went up the the big Fortress that overlooks the town, it was built almost 1000 years ago and is quite impressive. The view was great and we could see large snow capped peaks as we looked out towards the alps. On the way way back to our hotel we picked up some delicacies like strudel and giant chocolate pretzels. In the evening we tried to find a traditional Austrian inn for dinner bu they were all full up so we settled for Indian. As it was already Christmas morning in Australia we had arranged to do a web camera session with our families. It was great to share some present opening with them and be apart of there Christmas day.

Christmas day was fairly quite , we started with a nice hot breakfast in our hotel and then opened presents from each other. As there wasn't much open on Christmas night we had dinner at the Italian restaurant next to the hotel. The food was good but we did miss the roast turkey dinners back in Bris.

Boxxing day was the real highlight of our Austrian trip. We booked a day trip to the mountains and a horse drawn sleigh ride. We headed about an hour out of Salzburg into the alps at about 3000 meters elevation. The scenery was incredible and we were blessed with a prefect day of clear blue sky and sunshine. We played in the snow for a bit then had a traditional Austrian lunch with dumpling, Sauerkraut and meats. Then it was time for our Sleigh ride, our sleigh was pulled along buy 2 Horses complete with jingling bells attached. They took us around for about 2 hours through forests, little mountain villages, and passed ski Fields. We stopped for a break at an inn to let the horses rest and had a hot mulled wine in the snow as we waited. It was an amazing day and a great way to finish our time in Austria .

Happy New Year

Pics here