middle name 'adventure'

Au revoir! Adios! Ciao! Tschüss! Cheerio! Bye!

2008-10-14T03:31:00.000-07:00

At Heathrow airport with ALL our bags. Thanks Mum and Dad for helping us get all 16 bags home!
We are home, safe, happy and sound. No regrets. Feeling very fulfilled and ready to start the next chapter of our lives. We've been home a month now. Life is very different here. No more going away to amazing places every weekend. It's all about the beach, friends, bbq's and enjoying Sydney life. Lachie already has a fantastic job at Macquarie Bank, a cool car and we are settled into the 'granny flat' above Lachie's mum's place in Beecroft. So we are sadly saying goodbye! What a journey we have had!

Thank you for reading this. We are going to sign off for the last time...

Lac and Sal

Canal boat racing!

2008-09-16T03:54:00.000-07:00

It was Sharon's 30th last week and to celebrate Paul and Sharon organised a fun weekend in Wales on two canal boats. We had hesitated about going because of funds but we decided to go in the end and SO happy we did! It was such a blast! The boats were 70foot long and tricky (but fun) to manoeuvre along the canals. We spent the whole weekend cruising, drag racing (not so successful as the boats are painfully slow and hard to steer) eating and drinking. Grey skies but no rain. It was a great way to finish up our time here in the UK. We fly home in two days! Lots of packing, re-packing and rearranging of bags, bike selling, goodbyes and good riddance! We can hardly wait to get home and see our families and friends again, live a more permanent life, save up some money, buy a house (in the next few years) and soak up some much missed sun rays. Pulling out of the marina at Chirk, Wales
70ft boats

Cruising along the canals, about to head into a long dark tunnel
Going over a aqueduct. Pretty cool! This one was over 70ft high.

Lachie making sure he doesn't fall off the edge of the aqueduct
Dad having a blast!
At night we'd light a big fire on the side of the canal. Happy 30th birthday to Sharon!
Fun times and tons of laughs
The water...

Yay!
Looking out at the rapids, misty hills and pretty flowers in Llangollen, Wales
Cruising over another aqueduct looking at greeeeeen rolling hills and sheep
Pauly coming through a bridge
coming out of a loch, a very slow but interesting process, letting water out to get to the next level of the canal.

Fun times!

Sensory overload

2008-09-16T03:22:00.000-07:00

Ahh Marrakesh! We LOVE this place! It was a total blast to bring Mum and Dad along. From the moment we stepped off the Easyjet flight to the moment we stepped back on it three days later our senses were in total overload. The smells - spices, meat, leather, wool, tajines. The sounds - call to prayer, horns, yelling, haggling, arabic music, drums, laughing, kids running through the narrow streets. The visual - rainbows of slippers, rugs, blankets, beads, painted walls, burkas, skies, tiles, people walking, riding, running past, horses, asses. The taste buds - Chicken and lemon tajine, beef and pear tajine, mint tea, fresh orange juice, nuts.
Amazing! The first two days we spent wandering around in a bit of a daze, shopping, site seeing and the last day we hired a guide (Rashid) to drive us into the Atlas mountains for a bit of country life site seeing. It was a very chilled out (and chilly) good way to see a bit more of Morocco. We had mint tea with a Burba in his village, lunch in the mountains and a flat tyre.

Mum and Dad thoroughly enjoyed themselves as did we! I hope we'll be back again one day! In the souq's...
The wool production area is fascinating
Dad getting swallowed up in the souq crowds
Lachie chilling out on the roof terrace of our Riad
The riad dog, watching the world go by...
Inside an old Arabic school
Mum in a doorway of the school

Having a crazy fun dinner in the main square
Getting in on the action
Visiting a woman's refuge where they produce oil
With Mum and Dad in a little village heading into the mountains
A local style sauna

How many men to change a tyre?
A pool in Richard Bronson's Kasbah (the most amazing hotel!)
A view down the mountains
In the Palm grove back on the edge of Marrakesh
Looking over the roof tops of Marrakesh at sunset...

Till next time...

Last days...

2008-09-16T01:44:00.000-07:00

You think it's hard to keep up with our travels? So do we!

After Edam we stayed a night in Delft and cruised around on our bikes. Then another night spent on the coast of The Hague, Netherlands. It was the last warm day we had and we spent it lying on the beach and daring each other to go for dips in the freezing cold Atlantic Ocean. After the Netherlands we headed to Belgium for a week. The weather, as usual, wasn't amazing but in between the thunderstorms and huge down pours a few patches of sunshine and blue sky came out. We lay low in Antwerp for 5 days visiting beautiful Ghent one day and spent the rest, organising the van, building up our beer stamina and chilling in Antwerp. Then off to Brussels for our last hurrah with all our mates at the Belgium Beer Festival. It rained on and off the whole weekend but we pushed through. It was so fun to see friends, familiar faces and English speaking people! Early Sunday morning we drove to the Dunkirk ferry and headed back into London where we unpacked The Van and sold it! Within 4 hours! and attempted to sleep for a few hours before flying off to Marrakesh...We drove 17541kms!!

The end was always a few months away, a few weeks, a few days and now it's OVER! We really had the most incredible time of our lives and so grateful that everything worked out and we are back in London in one piece. Yay! Thanks for sharing our adventure with us!

The square in Delft

The world heritage windmills of Kinderdijk in the Netherlands. There are about 18 of them in one area. The day we were there they were all in action. They only turn them on a few days a year so it was pretty special to see!

Beautiful Ghent in Belgium

Graffiti in Brussels

The Belgium Beer festival

Lachie and Ollie at the festival

Middle name 'Tourist'

2008-08-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

Ahhh the Netherlands! Can’t camp with them but can definitely visit their homeland! We LOVE it here! We are in Edam at the moment. One of the most beautiful towns we’ve ever been to! About 20kms away from Amsterdam, where we spent the past three nights drinking tea, beer, eating good food and cycling to our hearts content, among other things…
But BEFORE The Netherlands we drove from Jenny’s house to Potsdam, 20mins outside Berlin, where we visited a fabulous old park with some amazing ‘Prussian’ palaces, gardens and a 300year old brewery (of course) beside a lake.
On to Berlin where we had HUGE expectations and were slightly disappointed by what we saw. BUT not letting that stop us, we rented a beautiful apartment for 2 nights and lived like the locals. A nice change from the van! Berlin has a pretty interesting recent history and we really appreciated that, what we didn’t like was that it was all so NEW! New buildings, streets, people. Everyone we met wasn’t from Berlin or Germany for that matter. No quirky winding streets, or 1000year old buildings, but understandably considering it has been bombed to pieces!
Next stop after Berlin was a random little campsite…somewhere between Hanover and Hamburg to break up the 7hour drive to the North Sea, on the coast of Germany, for a few days of ‘nature’. It’s a whole different world up there in the Frisian Country. They speak a different language, they look more Dutch, REALLY friendly and the scenery is beautiful, in a mellow way. It hadn’t really stopped raining since Switzerland and we were getting a bit of van fever by this stage, so we organised a walk out to one of the Frisian Islands at low tide (they have 5km tides). Oh it was fun! We were told to walk in our socks as the mud is deep and sticky in places and bare feet could get cut on the shells in the mud. So we trekked out to this island, wading through waist deep water in the pouring rain in our clothes and socks, looking at shells and crabs and worms. Once at the island we washed our feet and had a yummy lunch at a café and lay in the sun for a few hours before catching a ferry back to our car at high tide. FUN day! The next morning we headed for our beloved Amsterdam. Jenny stayed with us one night before heading back to Mainz and we stayed on to dream that maybe we will live there one day.
Time to move on! Only 7 more sleeps in the van! We can’t believe how far we’ve come (over 14,000kms so far…)! So the next 6 days we plan on stopping into Rotterdam, Antwerp, and a few Belgium breweries and meeting friends in Brussels for the Belgium Beer festival. The last HURRAH. But not to be so hasty as to head home - after that we are heading to Morocco for three nights with Sally’s Mum and Dad (TO CELEBRATE OUR 6YEAR ANNIVERSARY!) and then a canal boat trip for Sharon’s 30th birthday AND THEN heading home! Flying back to Sydney on the 18th September.

Proust! Beers at the Brewery in Potsdam
One of the palaces in Potsdam
Jen and Lac 'hanging'
Photo booth fun!

A really cool church, it was blown up and they kept it as it is. In the middle of Berlin.
Part of the Berlin wall Pariser Platz, Berlin
Jenny, Sally and Lac in Pariser Platz with the famous gate behind us.A memorial area for the people killed in the HolocaustSally contemplating the ducklife. In the campsite between Hanover and Hamburg. It was pretty cold! Lachie watching Jenny fly our kite on the North Sea, Germany
Jenny and Sal sitting in a 'basket' seat at a cafe. The seats are famous for the Frisian area
Walking out to the Frisian island at low tide...
eek! It was pretty muddy!

A colourful Dandelion on the island
The 'baskets' on the beach
Sunset at our campsite over the North Sea.
Graffiti at our favourite bar in Amsterdam 'Belgium Cafe'
Jimny Cricket, the Dam

Life in Dam square
A native in Volendam. NL
Volendam
Cruising back to our campsite in Edam, this afternoon with our dinner in the basket.
A confusing picture? We flipped it the wrong way but thought it looked better. A classic boat for the Netherlands.

Ich liebe dich

2008-08-19T09:48:00.000-07:00

Guten tag from Mainz in Germany. Its wet and cold here today but we are all snuggled down in Jenny's apartment. We arrived here yesterday after an eventful week visiting friends, the Swiss Alps, a few Swiss towns and Lake Konstance. First up after Scott and Flo´s was Valerie and Francöis, who we met on our trip in Syria two years ago. They have had a baby, Julie, since we last saw them so it was really fun to meet and play with her. We also saw some other family friends, Grant, Sara and little Sienna. Yes, LOTS of babies in one week!
It was so nice to hang out in the warm weather, in retrospect of the weather to come for us, and go for a swim in the local pool where Lachie managed a few laps in between getting sun burnt. Next stop was Lauterbrunnen, near Interlaken, in the Swiss Alps. Beautiful! Cascading waterfalls, glaciers, rushing rivers and some of Switzerland's largest mountains as the backdrop. And then...it started to rain and rain and rain. Nonstop for over 24hours. A bit of disaster in the old trusty transit! But we made it through, relieved when the sun finally came out on our last day revealing some spectacular scenery of Jungfrau and the Eiger. On the rainiest day we visited Luzerne. Which would have been nice if any of the shops were open and the rain stopped! We spent most of the day in the local brewery sampling the finest Swiss beers. So on our last day we went for a scenic little hike up to Mürren, partly for the views and partly to keep frostbite off our toes...amazing views!
On next to Bern, a beautiful city to realise that we are starting to get low on funds, hence the photo below of us not so happily eating McDonald's for the first time on this whole trip. Switzerland is expensive! Otherwise Bern is a very cool city, onwards we went to Lake Constance on the Swiss/German borders via Basel. Basel-nice but wet. Constance- nice. We got to Jenny's last night and leaving tomorrow morning for a big drive up to Berlin with Jenny in tow. Looking forward to it! Especially after looking at the weather report for the next week- rain, rain and more rain! Onwards we go! Little Julie

Saying goodbye to Valarie, poor Francois was hard at work

Little Miss Sienna

hehe...

Rugging up at our campsite in Lauterbrunnen

Lachie looking happy in wet Luzerne

The covered bridge in Luzerne

The spectacular view from our campsite in Lauterbrunnen

On our little hike up to Mürren

In Mürren

Beautiful Bern

Eating a cheap meal at McDonald's in Bern

Lake Constance

In the town of Constance

Slovenia, the Lakes and Swiss chocolate

2008-08-12T04:54:00.000-07:00

Hello from rainy Switzerland. As always - busy! But the last 3 days we have been chilling out at my cousins house in Switzerland which has been bliss! Fresh air, a HOUSE, babies, rain, sun and a private toilet.
Slovenia was so beautiful! We really enjoyed our time there. After lake Bled we went to lake Bohinj for a night then to the coast. Piran is beautiful! A stop off at the deepest underground gorge in Europe (in Slovenia) - lots of stalactites and stalagmites! Onto Como via - Venice, Verona and Milano, for a few nights before driving through the spectacular alps to Switzerland. We plan on spending a few more nights in this country before moving on to Germany. On top of Mont Tendre with Mont Blanc in the background
On top of Mont Tendre
Beautiful sunsets and moons on the plains in Switzerland

Little Kailee, Scott and Flo's 10month old sweetie
Hay stacks in Switz
On top of the mountain pass Simplon coming into Switzerland. It was COLD!
Bellagio, Lake Como
FIAT! Our favourite car to spot in Italy

On top of the Duomo in Milan. The most spectacular Gothic church we've ever seen!
The Duomo again
On the roof terrace
Loving graffiti at Juliet's balcony in fair Verona
Lachie rubbing Juliet's boobie for good luck....

Sally LOVING a steamy Venice. A night stop over between Slovenia and Como
Lachie looking over Venice from the bell tower
The duomo in Venice
Venice by ferry...
Inside the 'biggest underground gorge in Europe' in Slovenia. Stalagmites

Piran, Slovenia Piran- A very photogenic town
Bohinj lake, Slovenia

On a beautiful walk we did near lake Bled

Lake Bled at dusk
We went for a bike ride along the shore of Lake Bled. One steamy day
Ducky swimming in Lake Bled

Bosnia and Slovenia

2008-08-02T04:05:00.000-07:00

Hello from Lake Bled! It’s been thunder storming this morning and the camp site is packed full but one walk out to the lake and you can see why. Slovenia is such a beautiful country. Mountains and lakes and lots of fresh fresh air.
What a magical few weeks we have had since we last posted. Bosnia and Hercegovina were so different, a mix of mosques and churches with Turkish bazaars, mountains and open fields. A more developed Albania. Friendly people were also a welcome sight coming from Croatia! It wasn’t only us that felt that way, all the locals we spoke to also felt the same way.
First stop was a short drive from Dubrovnik, which was ridiculously packed with tourists, straight to Mostar. Famous for its diving bridge and being bombed to pieces 10 years ago. To our lucky surprise the annual diving competition was on so we decided to stay an extra night and see the action.
Sarajevo was next. A real Turkish feel, obviously because it was an Ottoman city 500 years ago.
It had a real vibe to it. Smoke filled the air from all the meat on the grills, lots of cafes, people watching, bars and the call the prayer going off in the back ground. Who would of thought this was Europe?! Driving through the country, alot buildings haven't been touched since the day they where blown up and bullet holes riddle houses all over place.
It’s so interesting to see how these countries have done in the last 15 years since the war. We could really appreciate that life really does just go on. What else can they do?
From Sarajevo it was a MASSIVE drive, 10 hours to Zagreb. It wasn’t that it was a long distance, just the roads, detours and trucks held us up. Back into Zagreb, Croatia again. All was good; it’s not the coast so everyone was much friendlier.
Zagreb was a nice town, everyone moving at a nice leisurely place, big wide streets, lots of parks and not much to see. Then off we headed back into Euro land where everything is normal again. And our van insurance is valid. Phew.
The minute we crossed the border into Slovenia it was totally Europe, a mix of Austrian, Hungarian and German. Pine trees, Alps and fresh air.
Ljubljana was our first stop. A small old town, a castle and a million cocktail bars and cafes.
It was lots of fun. Not that much to do except shop and drink and drink and wander around the streets leading off the river and drink.

Now we're relaxing at Lake Bled with lots of other people!

Where we are today! Lake Bled

The beautiful buildings along the Ljubljanica river packed with bars and cafes

The mascot of Ljubljana, the dragon.

Sal's new roxy dress that she just HAD to have

Zagreb
Zagreb's old town lined with cafes
Lots of grave yards around Sarajevo from the war
Sarajevo's main square in the Turkish quarter, lots of fun!The famous bridge called 'the old bridge' in Mostar, Hercegovina There are lots of nice old mosques in Mostar. The town had a real Arabic feelA reminder of their past, on the street commonly know as the front line.Someone getting ready for the 21mtr jump off the old bridgeThe diving championships at Mostar

Magical Mljet

2008-08-02T03:52:00.001-07:00

A few more pictures from Mljet in Croatia. The island was so beautiful and peaceful as you can see from the pictures below. It was so much fun meeting up with Heather and we ended up being 'unofficial' bus drivers for two crazy Swiss guys who thought sleeping under olive trees was much more comfortable then in a tent... Dusk in Mljet
YAY! Meeting up with Heather in Korcula for the day before bringing her back to Mljet to play for a few days.

The highest point in Mjlet. The views were so spectacular it was hard to truly capture it on camera.
The beauty that is, Miss Heather Collins, the giggle master
Fishing nets...
Having a pre-dinner picnic in Mljet with Heather
Dusk...

Ulysses cave or the Blue Grotto of Mljet
We hiked down to Ulysses cave on our last day for some swimming in magical waters
Sunrise on the ferry back to the mainland

Fisheye update

2008-07-22T08:05:00.001-07:00

I've been still snapping away on my fisheye camera and we got three films developed really cheap in Montenegro. There are SO many fun ones but here is just a few of the best ones... Mel and Ollie in their pad in Clapham
At our house farewell party - Nick, Lachie, Eb's and SallyIn Cornwall at our first campsiteIn Seville with Anna and Dalbs lying on the grass in the park before we said goodbye to themAgain in SevilleSome popped balloons in Toledo, Spain after a fiesta of some sort

At a beach just below BarcelonaOn La Rambla in BarcelonaOn top of Barcelona in Gaudis park with MealzA cat caught in the act just above Dali's house in Cadaques, SpainIn Cinque Terre, ItalyThe fabulous Duomo in Florence, ItalyEating pizza and sunbaking by Lagos TrasimenoLachie hard at work chilling out in SicilyTired and excited to be on the ferry to Athens, Greece

Hvala!

2008-07-22T07:50:00.000-07:00

Hello from Mjlet, Croatia. We have had massive withdrawals from Montenegro and the people since we left. It's very strange that two countries that used to be one and the same can now be so different. The people, the type of tourists, the price difference. But we'll push through...
We stayed one night in a large campsite by Dubrovnik before catching a car ferry to a little mostly national park island called Mjlet. There is definitely tumbleweed moments here as it's Very quiet. But beautiful too. This morning we woke up to rain and lots of wind for a change so we've come to a hotel with wifi to catch up on 'admin'. Just a few pics below...
Meeting up with Heather C. tomorrow in Korcula then she'll come back to Mjlet with us for a night or two before we head up to Mostar and Sarejavo in Bosnia. Still 6 weeks of fun ahead of us!
Lying on the rocks at Copacabana beach near Dubrovnik
Pulling into Mjet on the ferry - Can you see the port??
Funny little cars on the island. This one is supposed to be a cat!

Hello from Stoliv

2008-07-19T05:28:00.001-07:00

Hello from the deepest Fjord in Southern Europe...It's absolutely spectacular here! From Tirana we went straight to Petrovac in Montenegro. Lying on the beach in the town it felt like we were a part of a very crazy circus! People walking around with monkeys, alligators and deep fried something-or-other-balls. Lachie and Dan had partied hard with the Serbs till the wee hours of the morning. Ahhh...the Serbs. Such friendly people! We are now in a little Stari Grad (old town) near Kotor, right on the water where we haven't been able to bring ourselves to leave for the past 5days! We've been exploring the local area, hiking up to deserted towns in the hills and meeting lots of locals who are so happy to talk, show us around and help in every way. Montenegro is such a beautiful place, huge mountains crashing into crystal water with boats bobbing around in the bays. It should be a must for everyones next trip. Everyday we wake up to the most spectacular views we have ever seen, this is what this trip is about!!

Yummy, funny dinner in Tirana
Showing a bit of love for the biggest bunker in Albania

The 'circus' beach in Petrovac, Montenegro Sveti Stefan. A deserted island town - once a town, communist base and flashy resort
mmmm...soaking up rays in Sveti Stefan
Sveti Stefan
Looking down over beautiful Kotor, Montenegro

On top of the fortress in Kotor, looking over the spectacular fjord
All sad to say goodbye to Dan
Our new Serbian friends. Having a reiki or 5
The whole happy gang

Lovely old houses on the foreshore of Stoliv
And again...What greeted us every day for a week. Bliss.
Visiting a quirky monastery off Perast
Our view from our campsite at dusk

Shqiperia

2008-07-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

Hello from Tirana, Albania! Wow! What a week we've had! We have already been with Dan for almost 7 days. We met him in Athens in the afternoon and went straight into the Acropolis for a spot of stinking hot site seeing. Had a fabulous dinner by the sites and headed back to the campsite for a restless, hot, mosquito frenzied sleep (the norm now). The next morning, bright and early, we sped up to Igoumenitsa where we caught the ferry over to Corfu for 2nights. We rented a boat the one whole day that we were there which was, at first, windy and big swell (scary in a little boat) but by the end of the day we were in total chillout mode. Corfu wasn't what we expected at all. Being an island in Greece we thought it would be barren and lots of white buildings, but it's not at all! It's very wild and lots of forest, sheer cliffs, gorgeous water. We loved it there but have to keep moving as we need to drop off Dan on the 16th in Montenegro. Times a ticking. The next day we caught the ferry back to mainland Greece and then drove up, over the border and into Albania! We've been so hesitant about Albania and we've had the most incredible experience being here. Albania isn't in the EU. It's been a very war torn country for a long time. It's poor and there isn't much infrastructure but the people are the happiest people we've ever experienced. They are so friendly, happy, always waving, smiling. The roads are SHOCKING, HUGE holes and not much paved, but soooo worth it for the scenery and the whole experience of being here. The crazy man who ran this country for 40years built bunkers for 1:4 ratio of people in the whole country and so they are really just part of the scenery. Seems strange to be seeing beautiful beaches, and then bunkers in the same picture but that's just part of the charm. We are really truly charmed by this place. We slept on the beach last night which was absolute magic! Could go on and on but I'm sure you get the picture. We are now in Tiran (the capital of Albania) for the night before moving on tomorrow to Bar -Montenegro. All is well!
Acropolis, Athens
Meeting up with the wonderful Dan. On top of Athens.
Happy!
Glowing in the evening sun
Chilling with our rented boat in Corfu

Happy Dan
eeek! were our first thoughts when we saw this sign!
eek eeek! where our thoughts when we saw this in the middle of the road!
Beautiful coast in Albania. As yet - untouched by the tourist bug

One of the many bunkers. They paint them sort of like mushrooms, colourful to make light of them...
The main coastal road in Albania. eeeek!
Beautiful, magical colours in the water of Albania
Where we camped last night under the stars

Flying the kite in the little breeze. We were totally blissed out.
Gorgeous sunsets on this coast!
Dan and I playing with my cameras exposures
First site in Tirana...

Gallipoli and Gnomes

2008-07-08T10:45:00.000-07:00

Boom! Crash! Flash! Went the storm over the mountain, as we contemplated climbing Mount Etna. Hmmm…Do you think we should attempt it? Nope. And to defend our ‘wooziness’ they announced that we wouldn’t be able to anyway because of ‘poor visibility’. Phew.
However – the 2500metre accent up the mountain through fields of lava flow and lush greenery was truly spectacular! Worth it 100%. To get a bit of adrenaline Lachie decided to ride the bike (wobbly back tyre and all) back down the mountain while I followed behind in the ‘trusty transit’. Being only the second time I’ve driven it (since the popped tyre in Cornwall) the brakes started to fail near the bottom of the mountain, of course. To quote Mr.Love ‘pump the brakes at all times! Or they will stop working!’ Never mind, I’m not allowed to drive the car EVER AGAIN!
It was a strange experience getting out at the top of the mountain where it was ‘cold’ and rainy and then back down at the beach it was 35 degrees again. The rest of our stay in Sicily was pretty tame. Lots of beach time and some incredible mushroom truffle pizza in the beautiful town of Taromina. It was pretty cool being able to see live lava flow at night on the mountain.
We then did a quick 9hour drive to Gallipoli, Puglia on the Ionian Sea. Gorgeous area! Hardly any tourists. Somewhere we’d definitely like to explore a bit more one day. After our slog in the car we needed another few days of rest (holidays are hard work you know!), more beach time, beautiful sunsets and a spot of seafood.
This morning we headed out of Gallipoli for Bari via Alberobello. I’ve never said ‘WHAT A CUTE TOWN!’ so many times in my life. It was SUCH A CUTE TOWN! It’s famous for its pointed roof houses that were built in the 14th century. We kept hoping that gnomes would come out of the houses to water their pot plants. So cute!
And now…we are on a ‘Superfastferry’ to Patras, Greece! Half way through our trip – 8321Kms since leaving Courtland’s. We can hardly believe it. We are having such a wonderful time but there have definitely been some trying times. It’s extraordinarily hot. We have been sleeping with all doors and windows open in hope of a breeze to keep us cool which allows pesky mosquito's in which LOVE to suck our blood all night which in turn keeps us up a lot of the night which makes us pretty short on patience. We’re exhausted! But happy. Especially because we are sitting in the relaxing air-conditioned ship with a bunch of young Americans boogying to ‘my umbrella ella ella’ in the disco next door. YIKES! We’re looking forward to meeting up with Dan tomorrow; hopefully he’ll make it to the campsite without loosing anything. We’ll be heading to Albania in the next few days which we’re a little bit apprehensive about, but we’re pretty sure we’ll be fine even if the roads, landmines and other drivers aren’t. On Mount Etna

Lachie getting super excited about riding down the mountain!
Mt.Etna from a distance
Beautiful sunset at Gallipoli, Italy.
Gallipoli

sunset watching

And drinking Long Island Iced Teas. Yum!
The 'Cutest town ever!'- Alberobello

Looking over the town.
Our Trusty Transit next to some big scary trucks

Prego

2008-06-30T12:34:00.000-07:00

Ciao from Sicily! We just arrived here this afternoon and what a splendid afternoon it is. Warm sea breeze, sun slowly melting into the sea, feral cats stalking the campsite, fat little Italian kids running around eating ice creams.
What a week it’s been! Either we are getting old or having too much fun, it feels like Cinque Terre was about 3months ago.
So…from Cinque Terre we went to Pisa, yes we did the cliché pics, it was such a beautiful warm afternoon, no queues or crowds. We really enjoyed Pisa but when the exhaust fell off from 7 weeks of cobblestones it was a good time to get out of there (well done to Lachie for fixing it on the spot)! Next day to Florence where we spent two nights and two days enjoying the city and the pizza. Ticked a few things off our list – David and climbed the Duomo. It was SUPER DUPER hot so we tried to keep site seeing and queuing to a minimum. From Florence we went to this beautiful lake right on the edge of Umbria/Tuscany called Lago Trasimeno. We felt like we had melted after Florence so spent two nights/days there seriously recuperating and working on our tans. It was so beautiful and relaxing and just what we needed. Onwards to Sienna where it was so hot we only spent an hour site seeing before jumping in our car and driving ALLLLLLL the way to Pompeii. 7 hours later…
Pompeii was HOT, but really amazing. A whole city over 2000years old in pretty good condition. The Amalfi coast next stop where we stayed for 3 nights. LOVELY! Amalfi coast is pretty spectacular; the roads are toe curlingly windy, steep and narrow. Tons of tourists. We actually got a bit stuck, driving too far along the road to turn around, too windy to keep going, we couldn’t make up our mind where to stop for the night and ended up driving for 5 unnecessary hours after a very sweaty morning at Pompeii so we spent the whole next day lying by the pool at our campsite (back in Sorrento – the beginning of the Amalfi from Naples). Did we mention that it was really hot?
The next day we went to Capri. Fabulous darlings. Also really touristy but we went anyway. We did a tour around the island and made a stop off at the ‘Blue Grotto’. Have you been? It was incredible! We got taken into a tiny mouth in the cliffs in little row boats by these crazy singing Italian men. From watching them they didn’t spend long in there and we had to pay 10euros each to go, our expectations weren’t very high but they were certainly exceeded! The sunlight bounces off the walls underneath the water which makes it luminescent inside. Magic. After Capri we caught a ferry to Positano where we spent the afternoon swimming, beer drinking and ohhhing and ahhing over where we were. Bello! Crazy bus ride back to our campsite with a storm chasing us. First rain in a while which was a huge relief! Met two girls from Victoria (Australia) who were driving around a campervan one of their Dad’s had custom made and had shipped over to Russia. Lachie was pretty ‘chuffed’ to meet them and hear all about the car.
From Amalfi we planned on staying a night in a little town before continuing on to Sicily. Again, no expectations of the area between and WOW! There is this area which is like the Amalfi (really dramatic cliffs, azure water, high mountains) but devoid of tourist build up. It was breath taking. We’d highly recommend the area to anyone. We stayed in a beautiful campsite right on a pebbly beach in Praia a Mare. And now today we are in Sicily! It’s only a 20min ferry across the water and we are in a town called Catania on the eastern coast of the island. We are going to hike up Mount Etna tomorrow! It’s a live volcano and we’ve read that it could erupt without warning so if you don’t hear from us again…
Piazza dei Miracoli
On top of the Leaning tower of Pisa
Hard work!

Mr. Muscles
Pisa river at dusk
Florence, Duomo
David in his finest attire
Lago Trasimeno at dusk. Bellisimo!

Mr.Love at Pompeii
Capri through the haze
Amalfi, note the bougainvillea everywhere?
Lachie getting ready to go through the little hole into the blue grotto - Capri
Magical water inside the blue grotto

Magical water everywhere!
Arches off Capri
Lachie chillin' on the boat trip to Positano
Happy campers in Positano
we stopped off at Paestum, some ancient Greek ruins south of Amalfi

The beautiful coastal road (ss18) Golfo di Policastro
looking down to the azure water
Playing with the pebbles on the beach and some sunflower seeds
On the beach at Praia a Mare
Lachie steering the boat over to Sicily.

Chinka terror

2008-06-20T01:50:00.000-07:00

Bonjourno! Here we are, sitting right on the water in a little bay in the Liguria area in the North Western Mediterranean coast of Italy. Splendid! It’s definitely been an interesting few days what with a stop off at a dirty little hospital in the backwaters of Italy for false alarm appendicitis. Days of rest…just in case anything else might appear to be about to explode in Sal’s body. Extreme roads, coasts, cliffs, weather, landscapes. Because of the little ‘incident’ mentioned we so far haven’t done that much since we drove into Italy except a day spent visiting Portofino and Santa Margharita where we did some splendid people watching and lay on the beach all afternoon (well deserved!) and yesterday we went to Cinque Terre ‘five dramatically located villages cut into the craggy Ligurian coast, backed by steep vineyards’ to quote our trusty Lonely Planet. We had HUGE expectations of the area and we wondered if they were a tad too high for when we got there they seemed the same as the rest of the coast we’d driven through since Spain, except every shop was selling something aimed at the tourist. You can train hop between the 5 towns and by the time we got to the third we thought we’d have a quick look and head back to our splendid campsite but it was smaller and less touristic because of its location (up a VERY steep hill) and we got a very appreciative feel for the UNESCO world heritage area. We were supposed to be appreciating the back breaking work of the farmers who farm on extremely steep hills and we got that for sure. We spotted so many different things growing from – Basil, wine, roses, apricots, lavender, olives, and pine nuts…bello! The ‘slow food’ movement was started in Italy and we are happily living by that philosophy. It’s been such a pleasure to buy local produce and cook up storms in our little kitchen! Ohhing and ahhhing to the last mouthful. You should have heard us last night - we cooked a feast of fresh pesto (the pesto here is AMAZING!), pasta, parmesan cheese and beautiful olive oil (which we’ve plonked a whole heap of garlic into) and a salad with parma ham, boiled eggs, alfalfa seeds, cherry tomatoes and local cheese. YUM!
Today we plan on enjoying a bit more beach time before heading inland to Tuscany for 4-5days. First stop Piza – expect a cliché photo of us holding up the leaning tower of Piza in the next post!Ciao!
Driving through one of the many cliff tunnels along the med coast
Beautiful driving in Italy!
Portofino - the Italian St.TropezA crazy yacht with a helicopter and sailing boat on it!

Our campsite in Moneglia - bellisimo!A full moon from our van before we went to sleep...
Sally with ANOTHER Hello Kitty purchase...a mini notepad...

Cinque Terre - the hills where they farm grapes
One of the little towns in Cinque Terre - Manarola

Local produce - yum!

Côte d'Azur darlings

2008-06-16T02:33:00.000-07:00

Bonjour Darlings! We are in Cannes at the moment. It’s been a week since we left Barcelona now and so much has happened we really have to sit down and think about it. Flashy boats, private jets, fast cars.
First stop after by-passing the truck strike just out of Barcelona was a little beach town 1 1/2hours north called Tamariu … Beautiful! Just what we needed. Few days in the sun, dramatic cliff top walks, exhibitionists and crystal clear (still cold) water. Next stop to Figueres to visit Salvador Dalis museum in his home town. Pretty cool, crazy, extraordinary. Then to Cadaqués and Port Lligat (where Dali spent his summers) GORGEOUS! The quaintest, most extraordinary place we’ve been to so far. We could totally relate to where Dali got all his inspiration from-the clouds, the rocks, the stillness and then the winds! We got to visit his beach house in the most peaceful serene little port which was pretty fun to see.
And then… the drive! From Mr.Dali land into France…the sheer drop off cliffs and winds like we’ve never experienced before…in a very tall van. We’d prefer there to be no more wind like that thanks Gods of the sky. But a pretty spectacular drive none the less. First night in France - a night we’d like to forget in a little town that we DO forget the name of, where I STILL have the nastiest mosquito bites ever…somewhere in the bottom of France.
St Tropez, darlings, is where it’s at. The insane amounts of cash being thrown about that port is…insane! We were in total awe at the yachts, expensive watches, and perfectly coiffed hair. And yet, it still had a nice intimate feel about it which we really liked, not that we could even afford a drink. We even drove the Van along the port with all the Lamborghinis, trying to fit in but not really getting much more then a laugh. Onwards to Cannes where we currently are for another few hours before heading into Italy.
Yesterday we went to Nice, not so nice, and Monaco, not as crazy, flashy as we thought. None-the-less it was fun to hear all the Ferraris hooning through the streets and tunnels. Last night we decided spur of the moment to jump off the train (back to Cannes) to have dinner in a gorgeous little coastal town called Ville-Franche-sur-Mer. Maybe not such a good, well thought out plan…a good indication was on realising I’d left a poster I’d just bought in Monaco sidling away on the train without me. As we tried to forget about the poster and enjoy our lovely dinner, we counted how long between trains (1/2hour) no problems…For some reason by the time we got back to the station there were no more trains for another 4hours…Go figure! Oh and the bus drivers were on strike. We ended up flagging a ‘luxury’ taxi back to Nice, 35€ later for a 15 min ride, we made it and from there back to Cannes. No problemo’s!

Hidden Coves on our cliff top walks

Looking over Llafranc

The crazyness of Dali

Port Lligat, where Dali spent most of his life

Dusk at Cadaqués

In the gardens at Dali's house

We made it into France! Amazing coastal roads

The biggest surviving roman aquaduct at Pont Du Gard

St-Tropez looking very lovely

And Sal joining in, me being paparazzi

Nice. Beautiful water colour!

At the world famous Aquarium in Monaco

Lots of BIG boats, fast cars and tall apartments. The mountain setting made it very dramatic

Off to Italy next stop, ciao bella's!

Happy Twosome in Barcelona

2008-06-08T14:27:00.000-07:00

brown bum in barcelona

2008-06-08T13:57:00.000-07:00

Yep. Random man walking down the street naked in Barcelona.
We are in Barcelona till tomorrow morning. We've had a really fun time! The weather has been lovely, awesome to catch up with Mealz, loving chilling out in a city for a few days. It was Lac's first time here and he LOVED the town. The architecture here is wonderful, Gaudi was fabulous as always.
This afternoon Lac, Mealz and I went to the top of Güell Park in the warm sunshine to play Uno and drink a few lemon beers. We giggled so much and whooped Mealz's butt in Uno. On the roof in the Güell Park. Love Gaudi's work!
Looking out over the beautiful city of Barcelona in the evening sun

Sagrada Familia
On Mealz's roof top with vino tinto teeth

Very early this morning...

Fun pics on Mealz's cannon

El Greco

2008-06-04T11:50:00.000-07:00

Some stats for you. 25 days, 4378kms, 22 tanks of fuel, 3 nights in a hotel room, 1 day at the beach swimming – today!, 1 flat tyre (day one in Cornwall and the only time Sal has driven) and a million Germans and even more Dutch and what seems like three weeks of constant rain.
We’re writing this sitting out side in the warm sunshine next to the van on wifi, Sal chopping some veg for dinner and listening to Faithless on the ipod. We are at a large camp site directly across from the beach about an hour north of Valencia. Today has really been day1 of the beach trip side of things and kicking off the start of the Med.
Since we last wrote we spent a day at Europe’s largest and most important wetlands on the Golf of Cadiz called Parque Nacional de Donana, where pink flamingos fly north from Africa and wetland horse’s roam free. A really random town called El Ricio where the roads are sand, horse stalls out the front of each, deserted, house and the only thing missing was tumble weed.

We then spent two days in Granada, a beautiful town with its Islamic jewel the Alhambra backed by even more spectacular snow-capped mountains, the Sierra Nevada’s.
driving past fields and fields of olive trees
The view from Alhambra overlooking Granada

Gorgeous gardens in Alhambra

Before we left the Granada area we went for a quick hike in the Sierras...in the rain.
A long drive north to Toledo. A spectacular looking town set high around the river Rio Tajo where we spent a night getting to know the view, an older English couple, the feeling of ripped jeans from climbing trees in the dark to find out where some party tunes were coming from and a nasty hangover the next morning.
Looking over Toledo

Onwards to Madrid…in the rain. We saw some fantastic storm clouds among other things. We stayed a night in what was supposed to be the ‘cool/hip/happening’ part of town but turned out to be the most ‘dodgy, prostitute, pimps and raging gays’ part of town. Maybe that’s whats hip these days? We wouldn’t know we’ve spent too much time with old people in caravans in the past few weeks. We don’t really rate Madrid high on our list of big cities. The pimps and hoes, rain, no parking, riot police everywhere (from riots the day before – on our hotel street) and a not a great overall vibe.

We've seen about 20 of these so far on our travels through Spain. This one was the coolest one we've seen, just outside of Madrid.

We planned on driving the whole way to Valencia but decided to stop over a night in a beautiful pine forest campsite and another world heritage town called Cuenca where there are ‘hanging’ houses and massive gorges. Not as amazing as the people at the local tourist office told us it would be but beautiful all the same.

Lac looking over the gorgeous gorge

The 'hanging houses'
Valencia next stop. It seemed a long drive and hot and we just wanted to get to the beach so we did our own little driving tour of the town. Took a few snaps shots of the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (incredible!) and kept going. The mood in the trusty transit changed almost instantly as we drove down the hills towards the coast, the weather was warm, sunny, therapeutic, wonderful!

We've seen sooooo many fields of poppies, sunflowers and days and days of olive trees.

And now here we are! We spent the day at the beach with a little storm interval at lunch, chilling out, soaking up the rays like true Europeans (eurotrash) (oops!) getting some much needed R&R before we head off to Barcelona tomorrow for five days.

What we are really loving about this trip is the freedom!

El Toro

2008-05-25T15:59:00.001-07:00

We have made it safely to Seville and just got back from the weekly Sunday night bull fight. Lots of fun! Yesterday we spent the night with Anna and Dalbs in a camp site near Tivara in the Algare. Lisbon was a ball! Such a fun gritty city with an incredible night life and street scene.
The little pension we are in didn't lock its wireless so lucky us for free internet in the room. A great chance to catch up with the blog and emails. All the travels have been going really well. Lots of hours in the car, however, means lots of rest and relaxing later on and the Van is going great guns!
Here is a very small selection of pictures from the trip so far...starting Cornwall, north and west Spanish coast, Portugal and back into Seville, Spain.. Enjoy!

Adios Amigos!

On the road

2008-05-22T11:24:00.000-07:00

Hello! We are in Lisbon (Lisboa) in Portugal. We've already done over 1000miles! ALOT of driving to meet up with Anna and Dalbs tomorrow. Cornwall was really wonderful. Very relaxing and chilled out. Lots of Cornish pasties, walks along the beaches, bunny rabbits, green rolling hills and sleeping in. Just what we needed.
Northern Spain was lush and green. The weather has been unseasonably cool and rainy.
Slowly getting used to camping and the Van. All good!
Will try and get some pics up here in the next week. Haven't really spent any time inside since we left London....we are now heading to Seville and back through Spain.
Signing out
Love Lac and Sal
xx

GOODBYE TO LONDON!

2008-05-11T03:36:00.000-07:00

So we are leaving in half an hour to head to Cornwall for a few days before getting on a ship to Santander in Spain. So many people have asked us about our itinerary so here it is...

12th May - My birthday - Pop open a very special bottle of champagne beer that lachies been saving for this occasion!
14th May 12pm we board a ship to Santander (it takes 22 hours).
Travelling through the north of Spain into Portugal
23rd May picking up Anna from Lisbon
26th May Dropping Anna off in Seville
After Seville we plan on going to Grenada then up to Madrid then back to to Barcelona and follow the coast up and along the South of France. Into Italy and follow the coast the whole way down. Maybe go to Sicily if we have time. We are then getting a boat to Greece where we are meeting Dan in Athens on the 6th July where we will then, with Dan, go through Albania all the way to Bosnia where we drop him off on the 16th July - before continuing up to Zagreb in Croatia. Solvenia is next for a few days then onto Austria to the alps to hear the hills alive with the sound of music! Switzerland, Germany - Jennys place and hopefully up to Berlin and then France and THEN back to london for a week or so before flying home.

We are sad to say goodbye to our coach house, our really wonderful friends that we've made since we've been here. My family, the spring flowers, the amazing weather we've had in the past week or so and finally the London transport system....joke...
We are taking our laptop with us so will be in fairly regular contact.

Don't worry - we will be safe! We have a baseball bat for any boogie monsters, a valid fire extinguisher (thanks to our super neighbour Andy!) lots of sunscreen, and lots of good playlists on our ipods.

WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!
xxx

Busy Bees

2008-05-11T02:58:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been really full, fun and busy. Here's a few pictures of what we've been up to...

Hanging with friends in the parkBBQ's and beers... Taking pictures of beautiful spring flowers...

Lachie went to a wake boarding park with Dan and Ollie one hot sunny Saturday
Flying kites with Jenny and Anna who flew in from Germany for the long weekend/farewell party

Isabella's plantation. Beautiful!With friends at our farewell party on the 3rd May. Miriam, Me, Zoe and Sharon

Mel, Ollie and Anna

Popping open our magnum of champagne we got in champagne. YUMMY!

fisheye

2008-04-28T03:46:00.001-07:00

Lachie and I on Richmond greenAt Richmond Hill Love the blossoms!

Sharon and I
Anna and I at Trafalger Square

Eggheaded Dan at our friday night picnic on Richmond Hill
Ollie
Anna

In Isabella's Plantation

I bought a fisheye camera a few weeks ago and have been having fun taking silly pics. as well as wondering what my pictures will turn out to look like because I'm using a proper film. These aren't very good quality scans but fun all the same!
My friend- Miss HindmarshMe on the train home from Waterloo

A dandelion in Richmond Park
Trafalgar Square
A bit of a whoopsie picture of Mum, Dad, Sam and Oscar. Same negative used twice

The Hamptons

2008-04-20T04:20:00.000-07:00

At the moment I am living the life of leisure. We only have a few weeks till we leave on our big road trip so no need for work. Jasmine, an old friend of mine from home has just moved over so as soon as the sun come out we made the most of the nice weather and headed down the Thames to Hampton Court Palace. The famous home of King Henry VIII, and to a lesser extent, a lot of other royals. I was quite blown away at how beautifully kept the gardens and grounds were. The pond gardens were like a rainbow of colours! The palace itself is also very spectacular.Jaz and I down at Richmond about to head off to the PalaceYou would not think this is London! Some areas of the Thames are picture postcard.Hampton Court Palace Spring!!60 Acres of perfectly manicured gardensOne of the pond gardens. Amazing display of color.

Calm Before The Storm

2008-04-17T03:42:00.000-07:00

On Sunday afternoon Dan, Lachie and I went for a little bike ride along the river just before, we realised, a massive storm hit Richmond. Here's a few nice pics of Richmond, before the storm... It seems the angel in the window gets more sunshine then any of us...

Country Life

2008-04-14T06:02:00.000-07:00

It was long over due to head back to welly Cymru, Aberhafesp.. in English that is Wales. Flash backs of the car trip home last time brought some unwelcome memory's but squishing around in all that mud and not doing much at all was what we were after.
It was the same awesome foursome from the France road trip a few weeks ago plus papa Waldron who met us at the cottage on Friday night.
It was still freezing cold in Wales and it always seems to be raining but we had bursts of sunshine that really made it feel a comfy 5 or so degrees....with expected snow and hail. All the more fun!
We spent most of the weekend going for nice walks in the surrounding hills, hassling the local donkeys in the paddock next door and eating yummy roasts, cheese and wine.

4 + 1 - Carly and her dad Mike showed us around the local hills, more like marshes with all the rain

Snugged up as usual

A lone tree on a hill

Tormenting the donkeys with a carrot tied on some string to a stick.

Carly thought it was the funniest thing she had ever seen!!!!!

Dan's off and away! They weren't the friendliest donkeys around

What's Wales without lots and lots of sheep?

...and a shaggerty haired person

Quintessential Wales, green rolling hills...

Carly showing some love to the camera

How nice is this! Toasting by the fire, having good chats and enjoying life in the countryTom the neighbour, and has been for the last 85 years. Can you believe he has never been further than 20miles from his house. A real character...

What a morning! It was so beautiful with the snow everywhere

Back to city life....

Sipping Champagne in...

2008-03-25T03:58:00.000-07:00

Champagne! Lachie, Dan, Carly and myself got up at 4am on Friday morning and zoomed down the freeway to Folkstone where we put our van on a 30min train ride under the sea to France for weekend of champagne sampling and...more champagne sampling! Jolly good fun! I wouldn't recommend going to see vineyards in the middle of winter as there isn't much to see, but we were drunk most the time so it didn't really matter. We spent Friday and Saturday in the champagne region and Sunday night and Monday in Paris. I've been wanting to go back to Paris since we were last there in September 2006! Nothing monumental happened over the long weekend, but we had soo many laughs, good champagne and yummy toasted sandwiches in the van. The van passed it's test run with flying colours, everything is in working order, except the side mirror on the drivers side which was broken off by someone in Epernay, obviously they hadn't been drinking enough happy champagne. It was a sleeting/freezing cold sort of weekend but the company we were in made it not matter one bit. All the really good photos were taken on Dan's camera. Thanks Dan.

For 7am with an icy wind we look pretty happy! On the train Epernay where we stayed for the first two nights. Apparently there are 27 kilometres of champagne vaults under this city!

Making lunch in the van

The boys washing up

Epernay at dusk

A full moon. always a full moon over Easter...

Sampling some yummy golden sparkling champagne

Viva la France!

This was a badger on the side of the road. I'd never seen one before and didn't really think they existed outside of 'Wind in the Willows' so I was pretty excited to see one! Dead or alive.

Carly going in for the winning shot

A view over the vineyards
A statue of a pope...and a great view looking over the valley and the river Marne
Dan feeling mellow with a Chateau in the background
Feeling pretty hot

After a long day of champagne tasting

Lachie in the champagne vaults at Moet & Chandon

The view of Paris from our hotel room

YUM! eating at our favorite salad restaurant in Paris.

Trying to be as cool as the locals in Paris
Le Eiffel tower

A happy seat in the Paris underground

Dan the french boobie man

The happy gang. a few minutes before it started snowing...
This spider was only a few months ago out the front of the Tate Modern in London

We drove around the arc de triumph twice. 'monumental' was the word used by the driver, Mr.Love
Goodbye Paris! we'll hopefully be back again one day soon

Our mascot, Mr. Owl. Hand made by my Mum

Powder Hounds

2008-03-20T05:27:00.001-07:00

I’m already having withdrawals- 24 days of actual skiing this year still doesn’t quite seem enough!! The good ol’ US of A. Things are cheap, milk comes in gallon bottles, a cappuccino is a cup of froth and Aunt Jemima will soon become my new Aunt. It’s always such fun to go to America and sometimes you just have to laugh...
I met up with my family (minus Sal) at the Embassy Suites, Denver Airport and woke in the morning to fresh snow everywhere. We made the 2 hour drive up to Vail safely in our truck and began to settle into our fab Condo at Antlers in Lions Head Village. We had such an awesome 2 weeks. The weather was quite a mixed bag. A day of high winds, about 5 powder days, some great sunny days and a few half half’s.
A friend of the family Ian Dobbs also stayed a few days, making his way up from Copper Mountain which was lots of fun.
We were all skiing like pro’s including mum and carving up the mountains in style!
Now comparing Austria/Europe back to back with the States, with out a doubt the States have the snow, the facilities and the tree runs but they don’t manage to have the steeps like Europe or the real ski town vibe. Still it has to be North America for the best place to ski at the moment, and then Europe when they sort the lack of snow situation out. Although, Vail and Lions Head village do have a European feel to it.
Mum and I also shared our birthday together on the 12th and enjoyed a fabulous dinner at the chop house courtesy of Ed and Cam, thanks!!
After Vail, Cam and Ed made their way to LA and Mum and I had a few days to spare together so we headed up to Apsen for 3 days to stay with our friends the Hutchies. More powder! More fun! On Friday it dumped 25 inchs. I had fresh tracks all day :)
I was so good to hang out with the family minus James who has just started at UTS. Good times as always!! Until next time! Hopefully Steamboat!

Heading through the pass and the Eisenhower tunnel

The lovely view from the front out our Condo at Antlers - Lions Head Vail - Such a great spot

A little extreme..but nothings to hard

Cam, Lac and Mum getting ready to hit the slopes

Cam resting her legs from all that powder skiing

An awesome powder face shot in the back bowls of Vail..that's me

Ed and Dobbsy carving it up

Cams fav spot after a few runs in the morning

Taking in the views at Beaver Creek

On the way back to Vail, great Apres there in Beaver!!

I'm not sure what it is but its the Vail mascot saying hello

Looking out over to the back bowls, what a day!

Up the gondola looking back at Lions Head

A few laughs at Mezzalunas, loved those Coronas!

Ed outside our fav lunch spot, the Wildwood Smoke House 'Smokin 2 miles high'

LOTS of snow in Aspen

-Until the snow calls again-

Spring!

2008-02-24T13:47:00.000-08:00

4:21

2008-02-19T04:19:00.000-08:00

What can I say about Antwerp and Amsterdam that I haven’t said about 5 times before on the blog. Both places are our all time favourites. And it sure put on a show for us over our self made long weekend. This time there was a big group of us. My brother James, Chris, Sam, Neela, Sal and Me. Sam and Neela had been over from Aus to see Sam's brothers new baby girl in Leeds. Chris and James were still over from our ski trip.
We headed off from the new Eurostar terminal at St Pancreas. It looks really good. First stop was Brussels where we switched trains to the Intercity and then off we headed to Antwerpen.
A quick dump of our bags and fly through the square past one of my most favourite churches to you guessed it.. The Kulminator. It’s the same old story. Amazing beers, quirky owners and lots of fun. I really love that place!
The next day I did my ‘tour’ of Antwerp which consists the square, the docks up to the red light area back down into the old town, over to the antique area and then off the closest bar.
We jumped onto the train to Amsterdam mid afternoon on Friday and settled into to our really cool B&B that I had booked for everyone. It was run by a gay guy and the rooms were all themed, we were in Thailand and the location was awesome! Having somewhere good to stay can really make or break a trip. We had lots of fun. Hired bikes, went to the markets, peered into the windows of the most spectacular interiors of houses you have ever seen. Its quite funny..as obviously no one is home but still they leave all there curtains open, lights on and every home looks like a gallery. Some serious style! We ate Mexican at our favourite restaurant - Café Pacifico and drank beer at the La Chouff bar. All our favourite things! If you have read in the news lately they are getting rid of all the red light windows in the old area, and from just walking around over the weekend we couldn’t believe how many had gone. They are turning them into boutique shops. So you can see where Amsterdam is heading over the next few years. To top off a great weekend the weather was so beautiful. We have been so lucky nearly every time we go away.
Not long to go now before we head off around Europe in the camper!

The crew leaving North Sheen to meet us at Eurostar

Inside the new Terminal at St Pancreas

The Grand Antwerp Central

The Cathedral of Our Lady, One of my favourite Gothic Cathedrals

Getting started on some 1997 Leffe Triple at the Kulminator

Cheers to good beers

Do I have something in my teeth??!

Some cool pics down by the docks. The Maritime museum and the Castle

Our cool B&B, Barangay. They served us the yummiest breakfast in bed! That's service!

The only way to get around Amsterdam

What a beautiful winters day by the canals!

They were celebrating Chinese new year in Dam square

Tulips!! At the floating flower market

Its nice to hang out by the windmill and the canals. Its a brewery.

All of us having a ball of a time!

The Alps of Arlberg

2008-02-07T03:17:00.000-08:00

I have this weird longing for the Alps. Summer or winter, the towering mountains and quaint little towns that dots them. My brother James had just spent the last month doing the same Austrian ski instructors course that I had done 8 years before and he passed with flying colours. So I had organised to meet up with him after the course with a mate of mine from home, Chris and attack one of the best skiing areas in Europe, St Anton. The area consists of 7 or so ski towns all linked to make up the Arlberg Region. As far as the snow went we managed to get a few sunny days, a few cloudy days and 3 days of powder. The snow conditions didn’t give St Anton what its most world famous for, endless off piste and back country powder runs. The weather was just all over the place causing havoc with the ski base. The Apres made up for it though!! I just think the US and Canada has the best consistent skiing in the world. Meters of powder, endless tree runs and cold cold cold. This didn’t stop us one bit from having an awesome time and attacking those mountains hard. The Alps are spectacular!Our Apartment, 50mtrs from the Gondola and right in the pedestrian area.

I was waking up to this every morning!

James doing it in style, both pictures!Chris, Lac and James at the top of the Valluga We spent most of our powder days in sleepy Stuben A nice drop offA different view of the slopesWe skied over to Lech. 7 years since we were here lastWe had to stop off for drinks and a pizza in Zurs at the Arlberg Haus. Cainso getting in to the Gosser on the way to InnsbruckTwice in the space of 5 weeks! The old town in Innsbruck is really beautiful and we had the best schnitzel of the week here!! Farewell Tirol...

Winter Lights

2008-01-29T06:16:00.000-08:00

North Sheen at 7:30pm on 31st January 2008

Green Richmond park

Sheen common on a sunny Saturday morning

Looking over the Millennium bridge at the Tate modern
an incredible building in Holborn

We only have 3 1/2 months left in London! It's going to be sad to say goodbye to this place...

Out the front of the library in Richmond

Roma

2008-01-25T07:26:00.001-08:00

Through out all our traveling in the last 2 years we have come across so many influences and ruins from the Romans, it was about time we went and visited the heart of where it all started, Rome! It was Sal's first time there and my second time, I had been once before in 2001 on a family trip. Another beautiful sunny winters weekend was in store for us.
Rome is a really amazing city. Vibrant, old, dirty, gritty and fun. And then when you finally come face to face with these unbelievably old and beautiful buildings, ruins, statues and fountains it really makes you stop and think....wow! How was this possible!?
We also had the chance to meet up with my cousin Camilla who is Italian and lives in Rome. We went out to a real local Italian restaurant for dinner and ate very traditional food. Pizza? No way!more like intestines, bulls balls and other fun stuff, oh and lots of wine! Its hard to cover all that Rome offers over a weekend so I'm sure we will be back, you could spend the whole weekend just at the Vatican or the forum. Until next time!The Vatican looking as grand as everThe dove in the stained glass window. It is above the throne of Peter in the BasilicaThe amazing roof in the room of mapsL & S with the Ponte Sant' Angelo in the backgroundThe TiberThe view down the Plazza NavonaThe Pantheon is such a dominating building in the tiny square. It was one of the highlights. Built 125AD and still standing!Flooded...with tourists. Trevi fountainRome silhouettesThe Spanish steps at sunset. Bellissimo!Out to dinner with Cam, her boyfriend Francesco and his brother. Fun funThe Colosseum

Orange trees! Everywhere!

The Forum

Snowflakes, goodbyes and the Badlands

2008-01-13T16:32:00.000-08:00

GrandMa's funeral was beautiful. I felt so blessed to be able to be there for Mum. To be able to say goodbye to my GrandMa. The burial was a couple hours drive from Kelowna where the actual funeral was. It was snowing really heavily in Salmon Arm where GrandMa was buried. We lit candles and sang hymns. It was really magical.

My baggage didn't arrive until a few days later so I got to go SHOPPING! That was fun!
I have been loving the snow, the cold and seeing how people live in this sort of weather. It's like a whole new world. The last two days I've gone skiing with Brent Ree up at Silverstar. I can't believe that it's been SO much fun!! The snow has been awesome! Tomorrow I'm going to Calgary to hang out with AliO for a couple days before heading back to London and then on to Rome for the weekend with Lachie! At Grandma's Funeral

At the Graveyard
At Auntie Leona's houseNear Jill's houseOn our way in the car to Vernon from KelownaSilverstar at dusk
Out the window of Brent and Mary-Sue's condo looking up the mountain

Mumoshka in the snow
Annika and Pedar sleighing
Tubing at Tube town
View from Mary-Sues balcony Ohh! The next morning Brent and I got up early to ski on some freshly groomed powder, above the cloud it was sunny! Beautiful!

Thats me all the way down thereOn the top of the summit, the trees made me feel like eating icing sugar! Brent and his dad OwenAnnika and Mum in the hot tub

At the Dinosaur National Park, East of Calgary. It was freezing cold and no-one else around. We saw remains of Dinosaurs that were approximatly 700million years old! Pretty cool. Literally.Road trippin in the prariesDinosaur town!

In the museum. Definitely worth seeing!

Rest in Peace to Grandma Nichols

2008-01-07T06:06:00.000-08:00

I still can't believe I've lost two GRANDparents in a month, but this is life!

My Grandma passed away peacefully yesterday. I'm so greatful that Lachie got to meet her. I'm flying to Canada tomorrow afternoon to be with Mum and go to the funeral.

I'm picturing Poppa and Grandma sitting in rocking chairs somewhere in the universe drinking tea and catching up.

Splendor in the Barca

2008-01-07T04:41:00.000-08:00

Late one night in Austria I was tricked into booking flights to Barcelona for a few days. The lengths people will go just to BE with me....
Anyway I went, reluctantly, from the 2nd to the 5th of January. Poor me!
Besides catching up with Mealz and Anna (who was there for NYE with her friend Alicia) the main highlight was seeing La Sagrada Familia again. I saw it about 10 years ago and was completely blown away by how magnificent, extravagant and wildly out there the whole entire building is. I ended up studying Gaudi in Art class for the rest of school. I had all the same feelings going there again. It was wonderful! (Hence the large amount below, I took at least 52,000!)

Looking over Barcelona from Mealz's rooftop at sunset.

Bring on 2008

2008-01-05T08:20:00.000-08:00

It was like Christmas for Lachie when he came home with what is now known as "Big Bertha". We are both so excited about the adventures to come in this...how do I put this delicately? Big ol'ugly campervan. Can't wait!

Loving the brown carpeted walls and velour seats/beds. We are going in style to the continent this May. New Years Eve is always (co-incidentally!) Paul's birthday. He turned 27 so we went to his house for NYE celebrations. We attempted to watch the fireworks but amongst the rain, fog and the fact that a building was in our way we didn't actually see anything but a bit of flashing. Nothing like wishing everyone a happy new year in the rainy, freezing cold on a crowded bridge in the middle of London! Splendid!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I made Mums famous Chocolate Macaroons and Dan brought Turkish delight back from Turkey for the perfect New Years Day birthday cake.

Austria ya!

2008-01-01T11:58:00.000-08:00

The smell of fresh mountain air and pines. It’s just what we all needed. A week of sun and fun at the snow for the Christmas break. I did all the organising this time around and we headed off to Seefeld Austria via Munich. Munich greeted us on a very chilly Friday night and Sal and I decided to head for the Hoffbrau house beer hall to wait for the others who were arriving on later flights, pork knuckle and a stein were on order.
We woke up the next morning to a few cm’s of fresh snow blanketing the hole of Munich and headed back into the square where the Christmas markets were. After a little sightseeing and shopping we loaded up the car and off we went across the border to one of the most beautiful countries in the world, Austria! We had such a lovely week. There was no emphasis for ski, ski, ski. It was wake up when you feel, do what you want and relax for the week. Sally loved it! I was still mostly ski, ski, skied! We had a 5 course Christmas dinner that was amazingly tasty.
One day we took to the xcountry tracks, which Sal loved – not. (Seefeld has held the xcountry skiing for the winter Olympics twice) I think the rest of us had fun; the girls seemed to have problems with stopping.
The town was beautiful and all full of locals, which was a good change from the over run Aussie and English resorts. We even made it to St Anton for a day of skiing.
And on Friday night I had a big surprise for Sal. Jenny had just arrived into the area and was staying over new years at another place 40mins away. I snuck out, organised to meet her in Innsbruck and she surprised Sal for dinner and stayed over, So much fun!
It was such a great week. 3 weeks till St Anton for me!

Right before we headed off there was a big accident out the front of our house, the rescue helicopter landed on the field next door! We just made the plane....

A fresh snowy morning in Munich

The main square where the markets were. Love that Gothic style

Sal, Sharon, Lyndon and Paul

A frosted lady

Prrrrrost......At the Hoffbrau House

On the road to Seefeld!!

The beautiful town of Seefeld

Our place. We had the top two apartments. Really nice and amazing views over the valley!

Some views from the slopes

The crew, 2 borders and 4 skiers. Sharon, Paul, Mireille, Lyndon and Sal

Getting pumped for our fab 5 star 5 course Christmas dinner at Kracherlemoos

Enjoying lunch in the sun

Off on our fun xcountry adventure. Fun for Paul and I only i think...

Our lunch spot

Sal was praying for snow i think

Apres! The girls were pro's at that.

I taught Paul how to ski one day

What a view!

We were so happy to see Jenny. Off to Innsbruck we go on the last day

Innsbruck is a really beautiful town surrounded by towering mountains

Cheers to an awesome week in Austria

Family Christmas

2007-12-17T13:32:00.000-08:00

Because my family in London aren't all going to be together for Christmas day we had a lovely feast and present swapping on Saturday night. Perfect timing as we'd all just found out that our Pop had passed away. So it was an extra special time for us to all be together and celebrate family. A candle I lit for Poppa

During the day on Saturday, we went for a very chilly walk in Richmond Park with Mr.Henry Dover, who'd stayed over from Friday night.

A close up of some wood in Richmond park

Winter in Richmond Park

Henry, Sally and Lachlan - FREEZING cold!

Wonderful mud

my pop

2007-12-16T02:35:00.000-08:00

My Poppa died yesterday.

It's a relief that he's not in pain anymore, but i'm really going to miss him.

Rest in peace poppa.

Welly Wales

2007-12-13T15:04:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went with a Carly to her family's cottage in north Wales. It was one of those perfect weekends where it was rainy, cold, no heating, muddy and musty. The only real luxury we had was heated mattress covers. It was COLD!! but so much fun! We got up there late on Friday night, Carly and I had already polished off a bottle of red, much to Lachie's dismay. It was pitch black and freezing cold in the house, so we drank some more (strictly to keep warm of course!) and lit the fire, not that it did much at this stage of the night.
Saturday it was raining heavily most of the day but we managed to rug up and go for a walk up the hill to see the sights. Carley's dad came up with some soup, cheese and bread for lunch and in the evening we pulled together an amazing roast lamb and tons of veggies.
Sunday we went for another walk. It started out spectacular and dramatic and ended with pouring rain. After another lovely roast of turkey we attempted to head home...

And this is where the story actually gets interesting - cruising down the motorway about an hour into our journey - the radio dies, and then the windscreen wipers, and then the lights, and then the car. Luckily it died near an SOS phone and in the middle of Birmingham. 45freezingmins later a tow truck came and dropped us and our gear at the central station where we had to clear out the car, say our goodbyes to our faithful old wren and train it back to London! In the mean time Lachie's beers somehow smashed in my handbag and my whole LIFE was covered in Belgium beers. We eventually managed to get back to London by about 1am, absolutely knackered and ready for our next adventure!!!

Some weird looking hairy donkeys

The Cute little cottage by the streamSally and Carley mud bashing

I also went to Wales the week before to watch the WRC - World Rally Cars - in action in the Brecon Beacon Mountains. Spectacular scenery but miserably cold and wet. No doubt there was still hundreds of crazy people standing in the forrest's and hills watching the racing.

4 times WRC World Champion Frenchman Sebastian LeobSome Sideways action in the FocusThe group of insane people who will stand on a hill in 2 deg conditions with sideways rain!Former world champion Petter SolbergShowing Cardiff how its done

london silhouettes

2007-12-13T13:52:00.000-08:00

I've been really enjoying the london winter since i've been back. the low light, the naked trees the frosty clear mornings. i've also been really enjoying my new camera (thanks dad!), so thought i'd share a few.this was taken out our bedroom window this morning around 8:30 even all the puddles are frozen. brrrrspectacular sunrise and bright blue skies

some beautiful welcome back to london roses from lachie
loving my dried hydranges
really busy at work

Beer, Beer and more beer!

2007-12-11T08:54:00.000-08:00

After going to Belgium 4 times now you would think I would be totally sick of it, absolutely the opposite! I'm eager to book my next trip there already. Any excuse to go and I'm off. The excuse this time was a boys weekend away with 5 mates. And it didn't let me down, or my mates! When you go to a place for a second or third time or fourth! Its always a better experience. You know where to go, what to do, all the best places. I know the place like the back of my hand now. Antwerp is easily still the best place to go. Funky and cool, easy to navigate and great bars. Brussels is dirty and gritty, but still has a fun side to it. There was lots of classic story's to go with this weekend and I'll let you in on one. To cut a long story short...After somehow losing everyone, I fell asleep on the train back from Antwerp to Brussels on the last train home very late, I woke up to a pitch dark carriage with no one about at 1am, looked outside and I was in the holding yards! The train was empty, locked and I was in the middle of no where. After a bit of quick thinking and a little freak out I found a nice large fire extinguisher strapped to the wall and smashed out the window and climbed out. Now having no idea what to do and wandering around for a bit I stumbled upon a guard who was finishing his shift, attempted to tell him what happened in hand signals, pleaded with him and he dropped me back on the main road. I found a cab, made it back to the hotel and everyone was none the wiser. Imagine, this is what they serve at a club!
Funky Man
Taking in the sights over Brussels from the Palace De Justice Hanging out in AntwerpOllie by the Castle - AntwerpThe reason I keep going back. The famous Kulminator. That's a 1975 La Trappe we are drinking!Cheers

Chilled Out

2007-12-05T05:46:00.000-08:00

I cant believe its already December, its dark by 3.45pm, the shortest day of the year is not far off and its almost Christmas! What a year. So much travelling and so much more fun to come. I cant believe that we made it out of summer with still a few penny's in our pockets. Just having a quick look back on all the post and all the places we have been over the past year and a half, its amazing!
This is our plans for the winter season. And it obviously has a lot of skiing involved.
Nov 23rd - 25th Belgium (Brussels and Antwerp) 4th time now, any excuse I'm there! - Lac
Nov 30th - Dec 2nd Wales (World Rally GB Wales) Brecon Beacons and Cardiff - Lac
Dec 7th - 9th Wales - Weekend away with Sally's Friend - Lac and Sal
Dec 22nd - 29th Austria (Seefeld - In the Tirol) Skiing over Xmas - Lac, Sal, Paul, Sharon, Lyndon, Mirellie
Jan 18th - 20th Italy (Rome) - Lac and Sal
Jan 26th - Feb 2nd Austria (St Anton - In the Tirol) Skiing - Lac, James & Chris coming from Aus
Feb 8th - 10th Belgium & Amsterdam TBA
Mar 1st - 14th USA (Vail, Colorado) Skiing - Lac, Mum, Camilla, Ed

hello and goodbye

2007-12-01T06:02:00.000-08:00

it was quite an emotional visit home for me seeing my pop deteriorate so much even in the two weeks that i was home. but worth it more then anything else the world could offer me right now.
other then the pop visits i had pretty much the same experience as lachie. catching up with friends and family. i treasured getting know little scout some more. she's the brightest cutest funniest little girl i've ever met! and spending some quality time at home with my p's and in the pool. lovely.

old friend timmy scott. doing the movember thing. him, not me.

wee scout doing the auntie sally sunnies thing.

sisterly love plus one
the johnston-emmons butt-trio
loving the hydrandes
crumpets with liz schreiber
ry with his sort of stepson lachie
saying goodbye to my precious funny silly GRAND poppa

and to my generous lovable mumoshka

and to sydney...

Home and Away

2007-11-27T04:58:00.000-08:00

Sal and I have been fortunate enough to have headed back to Sydney for 2 weeks. Sal unexpectedly headed home to catch up with her Poppa and family and our paths crossed for a week. I had the best two weeks I could of possibly had. Firstly I managed to catch up with all my family. Had a huge party at home for my brothers 18th, a party to top some of sisters in-famous parties! Spent quite a lot of time enjoying the house at Palmy, had great BBQ’s and nights out with my mates and finally to top it off, 30 degree days every single day!!! Oh and lots of steak!! Which is a delicacy in London. It had been a year almost to the day since I had been home so there was lots to catch up on. Sal is still there and is due back in London this Friday. What a view! from the balcony at Florida Road, a few days to enjoy paradise
I was a little rusty, i hadn't surfed in 1 year
Palm Beach ferry wharf
All my mates eating ribs at Hurricanes at Bondi Beach. So yummy!!!

Sam stacking it high
Chris, Ryan, Willy and Holtsy hitting up Bondi
All the gang settling in for a big one, what a turn out for a Thursday night!
Ryan, me, Rohan and DitchLittle Scout with mama and grandmaShe is so cute! and so grown up!

My bro James on the left getting ready for his 'Tight & Bright' 18th birthday party

Venezia Bellissimo

2007-11-06T08:51:00.000-08:00

Wow! What a place to go for the weekend. It’s almost like you’re there, back in Renaissance. The whole city is like a work of art, everywhere you look. It’s truly amazing. One thing is, there is so much to see but not much to do. This is perfectly fine for a weekend away. You could sit on the side of the Grand Canal for hours on end and never get bored watching the world go by. You can loose your self in the myriads of small windy streets that make there way all over the island of Venice. Stop at hundreds of the tiny café bars that line the streets, or just stuff your belly full of wine, pasta and yummy pizza. This is Venice. The locals were extremely friendly which can’t be said about the hoards and HOARDS of tourist pushing past you. It’s almost overwhelming the amount of tourists but for some reason this didn’t bother us, we were in Venice! It cast a spell on us. It truly is a beautiful city that everyone must experience once in their lifetime.The bridge right near where we stayed at Ferrovia and a grand church next doorTwo gondolas waiting for their rides
Looking down towards Santa Maria della SaluteA small look into Venetian lifeThe lions guarding the military barracksL & S taking in St. Mark's Square with all the pigeon's
The Bridge of Sighs. It was named for the condemned prisoners who crossed it to meet their executioners.
The Grand Canal on a busy Saturday afternoon
Oldies out for a row on a nice sunny day
These funky street lamps are all over the island
Check out that blue sky! You don't get that in London My Favourite bridge in Venice, beautiful A very cool skull sculpture
Looking down the Grand Canal on a quiet Sunday afternoon. You should see peak hour! Chaos On the boat back from Murano Island. Famous for its amazing glass
Lac taking in the sights...of Sal... A beautiful glowing sunset over the Grand Canal Food for thought at the Peggy Guggenheim

tallyho alio!

2007-10-26T04:43:00.000-07:00

last weekend was all about the end of ali'o in londontown. being the rugby world cup final we farewelled/celebrated the girl in the malthouse-fulham broadway.

earlier in the day on saturday ali had a running race with her bro (pre-marathon) and under my guidance this is the t-shirt she had to wear on the england verse south africa RWC final. not a happy chappy!

with my girls - ali and anna

Ebony, Nick, Dan the man with the london tan, Sally and Ali.

Now that Ali's gone and left us for the big bad town of Calgary, Alberta - Dan is going to be our new flat mate. In the interim Anna is keeping us Aussified. Did I mention Dan's a Kiwi? As of sunday it will be all about fush and chups here at number sux the coach house.

Bavarian Bratwurst

2007-10-17T03:04:00.000-07:00

How do you describe Oktoberfest to someone? It’s like a giant royal Easter show with beer tents. That’s basically what it was. I would have to admit it was far from what we had expected. The size of the place was overwhelming and with so many drunken people it wasn’t that inviting. It didn’t take us long to get into the spirit though, chugging back beer after beer and stuffing our faces with sausages and giant pretzels. It was not my type of beer festival..Thinking back to the Grand Place, Brussels…but it was still fun and riotous.
Jenny and Vio can down from Lampertheim to! Definitely the highlight was the drive up through the Alps into Austria on Sunday to visit the touristy Neuschwanstein castle. The Alps were spectacular. Valleys of red and orange and pristine lakes.
I won’t forget to mention my F1 driving skills. On the way back to the airport we were stuck in 3 separate traffic jams stretching 14km’s on the autobahn. Our Sat Nav was telling us there was no chance of making it in time for our flight back to London. An average of 180-200kmh did it and we JUST made it, thankfully it was a tiny airport!!

A great start to the weekend!! As we were unloading our camp gear at the camp site our car almost got towed!! A quick visit to the local polizei station and some euros later we were back on the road.

Jenny and Sal warming up at a local restaurant

Our favourite of the whole weekend. On the beer merry go round

This is Oktoberfest, look at the size of it! We took this on a huge swings ride.

A good way to start the day, a giant pretzel and water

9.30am inside the Löwenbräu tent. Full!

Pure bliss. The Bavarian/Austrian Alps.

Autumn at Neuschwanstein castle

It even snowed while we where there! not...

Neuschwanstein castle. It looks much better from afar

Spectacular!

Moore @ Kew

2007-10-16T09:06:00.001-07:00

Who would have thought it was warm and the sky was blue in London, especially mid October! And on a weekend!!
We befriended an American who has lived in Germany for 10 years – Big Dave – at the Oktoberfest and by chance he was in London over the weekend. So off to Kew gardens we went on a sunny warm Sunday October afternoon. It was truly looking amazing in there. And to top it off Henry Moore has an exhibition with over 30 sculptures including most of his very famous works around the gardens.

I love the old glass houses

We stopped to smell the roses

This was really cool; there were so many holly bush hedges trimmed to perfection

Oval with Points

Reclining Figure: Arch Leg

Draped Reclining Mother and Baby

Reclining Figure: Angles

Large Reclining Figure

What a colour! Explosions of red and orange everywhere

Eivissa – Veličanstven Paraíso

2007-09-28T07:05:00.000-07:00

Looking back at my last post of Ibiza in July all I can say is that it’s still the place to be. If not more beautiful than ever. The only thing to let us down this time was the weather for a few days and our hangovers, owchie! It still felt like we didn’t have enough time, next time I think it will be 2 weeks. One thing I really noticed this time, and also last time that it seems that the whole island is full of amazingly beautiful people that ooze ultra chic style. This time there was quite a gang of us there. My friend Willy (Andrew Williams), Mealz and Tony (Mealz’s BF), and Anna, fresh off the plane from Australia who is now living in London. We stayed in our old haunt Vara Der Ray right by the old town. Like last time we choose the two best nights of the week to hit the clubs, Sunday and Monday night. On Sunday we saw one of the best sets ever from Andy Cato, real name Andrew Cocup, Aka the Dj from Groove Armada @ space and on Monday we headed for DC10. The rest of the days we spent lazing about eating amazing food, enjoying each others company, hitting the beaches, shopping and playing around. One day we will own a villa there. We love this place! The gang: Lac, Sal, Anna, Mealz, Tony and Willy

A Lazy day at Las Salinas beach

Out to Lunch....zzzzzz

Being a monkey on the draw bridge at the front entrance of the old townThe girls being 'beautiful' Ibiza style!The moon rising over the old town. The view from our room!Cocktail time at the hippy markets

Our old favourite Benirras beach at the north of the islandA few storm clouds rolling over on top of the old town This was a classic!! Showing Tony how to ride the cannon Aussie style.Willy and I enjoying a few quiet ones before we head out.Once again the most amazing boats EVER! We loved this stealth weapon called NinjaPosing at DC10. Getting into the actionOur favourite hang out the Rasta Bar, missing Thai the owner :( he was awayOne of the most spectacular views on the whole island over to Es VedraA nice view down the western part of the Island
Sun set at Cafe Del Mar, Veličanstven Paraíso!!!!The last night out and we splurged!! Willy and I even ordered snails!

Until next time!!

sallys girly weekend away

2007-09-19T04:00:00.000-07:00

While Lac was in Belgium loosing a few million brain cells I went away for the weekend to the New Forest (now an old favorite of ours) with Ali. A pretty tame weekend compared to Lachie's but nevertheless a perfect, much needed, chilled out weekend. picking strawberries! Ali had been talking about doing it all summer. a cool old pub in...Poole.
YAY! the seaside!

Alio in wren with lots of Heather behind her.

As always lots of horses. These ones seem to prefer standing on the road, go figure.

Country Cotswolds

2007-09-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it? Sal and I have been together for 5 years on 18th September.
Sal has been teasing me with this mystery tour holiday for over 8 weeks and finally the weekend came around. I was told to pack euros and my passport but after heading away from the airports I figured out she had fooled me big time! Only after seeing the turn off sign to Cheltenham I started to figure out what was going on.
Sal had planned a 5 star weekend in the Cotswolds, Wow!
What a beautiful part of the world. Tucked away in the rolling hills of North Western England lies a place straight out of a story book.
The first night we stayed in an amazing B&B tucked away down a tiny road in Longbourgh, Just near Moreton-in-Marsh. It reminded us so much of the farm at Sutton Forrest. The gardens were perfect!
We then slowly made our way round a few of the picturesque towns and stopped off in the touristy Stratford-on-Avon. We managed to see an amazing Shakespeare play the 'Twelfth Night' staring John Lithgow and then headed off to our next B&B in Cheltenham.
On Sunday we drove around the beautiful back roads through the hills and towns of Burford, Bourton-on-the-water, the Slaughters, Painswick, Bibury and many others.
A perfect weekend to top off a perfect 5 years.

The beautiful B&B in Longbourgh call Windy Ridge

The gardens leading down the pool and the out house

Sal poking around the Arboretum adjoined to the property
The busy water ways of Stratford-on-Avon

The disappointment on my face... France, USSR, USA, where is Cheltenham, Sydney, Australia? We have a sign for them!

Along the promenade at night in Cheltenham

Taking in the sights of Bibury Arlington Row in Bibury, the cottages were built in 1380 as a monastic wool store. The rolling hills of the Cotswolds

Brussels Beer Fest

2007-09-17T08:11:00.000-07:00

What a great excuse to cross the channel and head to Brussels! The great Brussels Beer Festival of 2007, strictly boys only! We even managed to throw in a little sight seeing on the city bikes. It was such a fun weekend with lots of stories to tell! Not to mention the beer was fantastic!

The fun mural's all around townIn front of the Mannakin Pis greeting the beer masters in the morningLyndon tucking into the local fare for breakky Lyndon, Dan and I gearing up to hit the beer tents. That's the beer list behind!!The parade that went through the Grand PlaceWhat a spot to spend the day drinking! The Grand Place BrusselsWhat we felt like after filling the table up many times!One of my favourite views in BrusselsWe all met up with a friend of mine, Dan, who lives in Brussels to go to my favourite restaurant, Les Brassins. Dan, Dan, Nick and meCheers to great times and a great weekend of beer!!!!!

Summer fun in Lampertheim!

2007-08-30T03:37:00.001-07:00

Another weekend, more fun! This weekend we went to our friend Jenny’s place in Lampertheim, Germany.
We splashed in the crystal waters of the local lake; cooked yummy BBQ’s, relaxed, went for bicycle rides and just had all round fun, fun, fun!
It was so nice for a change to be able to go away and not have to sight see and do all that touristy stuff.

Sal glowing in the afternoon sunshine by the lake

The ring of light, peace outJen and Sal enjoying each others companyWhats that lurking in the Rhine? Its perfect for riding around Lampertheim

We raided the vineyards for grapes after a picnic at Kichberghäusl Sal taking in the view of the surrounding mountains and towns

The traditional town of Ladenburg, its between between Mannheim and Heidelberg on the Rhine and dates back to 98AD with roman ruins and all

A rustic owl perched high on the ledge

Enjoying sunset in Germany's No.1 Park for 2006

A great weekend and great times all round, Thanks Jen!!!!

Princess Mary

2007-08-21T07:57:00.000-07:00

No, we didn’t get to see the Princess but we had a wonderful time in Copenhagen. It’s a city with a really cool vibe, a little like if you crossed Amsterdam and Antwerp together. Cool and laid back, trendy and arty, fashionable and smart. The Danish seem to have their own style going on. And all seem to be young and pushing massive trendy 1950's prams around! The canals and houses are beautiful and the city is small, the only down fall is that it’s really expensive.
We had fun going on a canal cruise around the city and the ‘free’ state of Christiania, seeing the Danish Orchestra and Opera singers playing for free in Fælledparken, rummaging through antique markets, playing in Tivoli Park and seeing some fine art at New Carlsberg Glyptotek. Oh and chilling out with some drinks on the canals. Makes for a perfect weekend!

The view from our hotel room on Nyhavn. Love the colourful buildings! And our view!Nyhavn on a Friday night
The Antique markets, we bought an old little clock for our kitchenSal on top of the round tower admiring the viewsStaking our claim before the concert started. We're actually at the very back!
The neon lights of Tivoli Park
We went on a massive swings ride that was actually a little scary. It went really high!The little mermaid. The number 1 thing to see in Copenhagen. I wasn’t impressed…The beautiful canalsA very different sculpture at New Carlsberg Glyptotek

A Little Ray of Sunshine

2007-08-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

On the weekend the sun finally came out and we enjoyed it at a friends BBQ and with drinks in the city with Paul and Sharon. I have been told summer is over in London. It's more like summer never started.

Having a laugh..

Enjoying Wandsworth Common on Saturday arvo

Looking at St Paul's from the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

The Land of 1000 Kasbahs

2007-08-15T02:22:00.001-07:00

Morocco is absolutely amazing! From the crazy square and souks of Marrakesh, the magical retreats of the Riads, the spectacular Atlas Mountains, the Berber towns dotted all over the land, the nomads roaming the desert, the everlasting dunes of the Sahara, the green Oasis’s flowing through the valleys, the ceder forests, the 1000’s of Kasbahs and the mind boggling Medina in Fez. Wow!
This was a trip that will always be remembered. Locals with always a smile on their face, little kids running over just to say hello, the tastiest tajines and couscous… everything!!!
We were totally blown away.
We started off our trip with 2 days in Marrakesh wandering the souks, doing a few tourist sights and just taking everything in. The square at dusk is one of the most amazing sights we have every seen, out come all the food stalls cooking the yummiest fresh food with wafts of Bbq smoke blowing over the square, snake charmers blowing away, story tellers pulling in the crowds, street boxing, woman doing henna, people trying to throw monkeys and snakes around you for a few dirham’s and hundreds of people just wandering around taking it all in.
I had organised a private guide, driver and 4 x 4 to pick us up, including my sister Camilla and husband Ed, in Marrakesh and take us out into the Atlas Mountains and desert for 4 days. What a magical experience.
Our guide Ali was full of knowledge; he speaks Arabic, Berber, French, English, Spanish and a little Japanese. Unbelievable!! Our driver Yousef was a Berber and was such a character and a highlight of the trip in himself!! We called him crazy couscous. We all had funny names, Aisha tajine (Sally), Sa’id (Lachie), Fatima (Camilla –all first born woman are called Fatima), Mohammad (Ed –all first born men are called Mohammad), Yousef Couscous, Ali Baba and the 40 thievesJemma el Fna square just starting to get going in the afternoonAt night this place is truly a sight to see!Yummy Tajine. The food was sooo good the whole trip.The Oasis in the middle of craziness. Our Riad in Marrakesh. A Riad is a traditional house with a central courtyard. Pure heaven...We took a horse and cart for a few hours which was really fun stopping off at some points of interest.L & S. This was at the gardens of Majorelle in Marrakesh.The first day of the trip we wound our way up the Atlas mountains and headed west towards Ouarzazat where we visited the exotic Kasbah of Ait Ben Hadou, the rose valley and spent the night at Kelat Magouna.There is only one road over the Atlas Mountains. This was built by the French Legion.The gang, Youseff is in the middle and Ali on the rightThe Kasbah of Ait Ben Hadou. A Kasbah is a fortified building where the locals would live to be protected. They were also used as forts to protect the camel trains back in the day.A cute shy little Berber girl Spectacular scenery, there is a little Kasbah in the middle The local bus. They were all off to a wedding in the next town, they were very amused that we were taking pictures of them and they started taking pictures of us!
The next day we headed to the spectacular Dades Gorges were a spring feeds the whole valley, we saw an amazing oasis called Boulman Dades and then off to Erg Chebbi and the Sahara desert to spend the night under the stars with the Berbers. It was so amazing, we took a 2 hour camel trek into the dunes and we were caught in a small sand storm on the way, indescribable and unforgettable!!Dades Gorges. A spring flows out under a large rock and supplies the whole valley. It was quite the local hangout for a Sunday afternoon.Cool looking rocks that looked like monkey fingers.Waving goodbye and about to head into the Sahara on our camel trekAbsolutely amazing, words cannot describe. The smallish sand storm that whipped up during our trek, it wasn't really dark its just the way the picture came out. We could see lightning out over the dunes to. What an experience! We didn’t get much sleep that night and early in the morning we climbed the highest dune around and watched the sun rise over the glowing dunes. Spectacular!That's our camp site.
We then took the camels back to meet our car and off we went again to visit the Black Gnawa village which is known by their Spiritual Music. This is a small town on the edge of the Sahara, they're dark Africans and their village has survived since the slave trade days. After that we drove to Midelt via Erfoud, Ziz Valley, and Errachidia and spent the night there. Having so much fun!!!!Just amazing, this is the second longest palm tree valley spanning over 150kms.On our last day of the tour we visited a rare cedar forest where there were lots of monkeys, this is the area where you can ski in Morocco, we then drove through the middle Atlas then down to the plains where we arrived at Fez. Nomads staking their territory, they are all over Morocco. Not much has changed in a few thousand yearsThis beautiful girl and her brothers came running up to the car from their Nomad tent just to say hi and see what was going on. Some of them have amazing blue eyes. We were so sad to say goodbye to Ali and Yousef at the end of our 4 day tour. We had such a unforgettable time.
The last two days of the trip was spent in Fez. A massive Medina with over 5000 streets to loose yourself in. Which we managed to do quite a bit of!! We took a private guide for a day as it was much easier to just follow him and know exactly where you were going. It was impossible to know whether to turn left, right, or go down a little alley and then arrive at the smelly tanneries. The view looking over the Fez Medina, the smoke in the back ground is from the pottery kilns
Ed and I taking it all inThe tanneries were really a sight, same for everything else. You can see the chalk and the dye and the workers doing their thing.
The one thing that’s amazing with these counties is that everything is made by handThe Riad was out of this world. It was like a palace. The attention to detail in the tile work and wood roof carvings was unreal. Both the Riads we stayed in were owned by French ladies.Having our afternoon nap on the terrace of the Riad. Pure bliss.On the last night in Fez we had a slipper party on the terrace of the Riad. These are all our new slippers that we had bought during the trip. Crazy couscous!!!!!!!!!!

A truly amazing experience that we will never forget