Well westarted Sunday morning off by heading to an Irish Pub downtown Rome to watch the Aussie/NZ game....yey AB's!! Then we managed to get to the Colosseum and have a look around inside, and then went through the Roman Forum which is next door. It is pretty impressive to see how much of it is still in tact and the way modern stadiums are based very much on the same principle.
The streets around the Colosseum were still blocked off by the police when we went through so it had somewhat of a carnival atmosphere with people wandering around the streets, street sellers and entertainers. They had done a great job of cleaning up after the riots as there wasn't really any signs there that they had happened.
We enjoyed our last night in Rome just cruising and found a really cheap restaurant just down the road which was a nice family run business we would say....very old school Italian.
Monday morning we were up super early to catch the train to Florence. Only a 2 hour trip on the high speed train and our first class tickets got us a free paper, drink and a snack for the ride - just like being on an aeroplane. From there we headed straight for the car rental place to pick up our rental car and have a first attempt at Italian traffic - holey cow! You definitely take your life into your hands driving here....we don't think there are actually any road rules, pretty much just a free for all, try and make as many lanes as you can, weave in and out of traffic at will without indicating, and the one way streets make no sense at all! There are scooters everywhere, and we actually saw one just after it had been hit by a car....not surprising! Logan has had lots of fun driving on the wrong side and trying to figure out how it all works.....definitely an experience.
After getting a little lost in the countryside we managed to get most of the way to our villa, and the owner came and escorted us the remainder of the way....about 25 minutes out of central Florence and we were really in the middle of nowhere. The house were have been staying in is a medieval tower house, there are lots of them around Florence, and it was built around 1100. The apartment we are in is the top 2 stories of a 4 story tower, and is adjoining to the main house which the family who owns it live in. It is actually and active farm that produces Olive Oil as a main income with a whole heap of sideline products including honey and saffron.
Within several minutes of parking up a squirrel ran across in fron of us, and the property is elevated so we have a fantastic view over the Tuscan countryside with a castle on the hill opposite us. The tower is all stone, with a stone floor on the main level, and a wooden floor on the top. Everything has been kept very classic Italian villa and even the windows have wooden window covers. The kitchen bench is solid granite, and we have to boil the kettle over the gas hobs......very cool and it is like taking a step back in time.
We had to do some grocery shopping at the local town of Pontassieve......that was quite fun! Everything is CRAZY cheap here food wise. Wine is 2 euro per bottle and the really good stuff is 3.50 euro.
We spent the day in Florence on Wednesday looknig around the Accademia Gallery and Uffizi Gallery, we saw the Statue of David which is huge and extremely impressive! Then yesterday we headed out to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower and Lucca which is a little Medieval town about an hour or so from Florence. On our way back down the driveway to our villa we had a deer run across in front of us, they seem to be everywhere as well, and we are picking the frequent shots we hear through the valley are people out deer shooting. Beats the horse meat we have seen in the supermarkets!
Unfortunately this is our last blog as we received the sad news that Saras Gran passed away on Tuesday so we are now heading home a little earlier than planned. A wee bit of a sharp jolt back to reality, but we have had a wonderful time over here!
Friday 21 October 2011
Saturday 15 October 2011
Chaos in Italy
Well our forst two days in Rome have been fantastic! We absolutely love it here, and apart from the traffic you don't really feel like you are in a big city at all. The streets are all cobbled with really old stones, and the buildings are lovely. The food is fantastic as well, quite simple but really tasty and so much to choose from! Yesterday we went for a walk around the city and did the outside of the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps and then had a general wander around the city in and out of all of the little streets. Today we had an early start and headed straight for the Vatican City........absolutely beautiful! We ended up getting a tour to avoid the massive queue but we are really glad we did as we got a lot of background on the actual paintings in the Sisten Chapel and on Michaelangelo himself that we didn't know and it was very interesting. The scale and beauty of the paintings right throughout the Vatican are indescribable. St Peters Bascilia is also quite mind blowing, and the have tombs in there for all of the deceased Popes.
We then headed to catch some other sites taking in the Piazza Novona and the Pantheon. After heading further into town to find the Metro station we noticed a massiv Polce presence and then eventually all of the streets were emptying. We found they Police had the streets blocked off for quite and area, and when we asked them what was happening they informed us there was a demonstration. We were around the area the demonstration was happening and needed to get through the block to get to the Metro station so they directed us around the block to get there. At that point we saw the crowds gathered about 100 metres away at Piazza Della Repubblica and the speaker was sounding fairly serious. We decided between that and the riot police and helicopters circling it was best to get out of the area as quickly as possible.
Once we got back to the hotel, about 20 minutes later, we turned on the TV to see riots had broken out in that very area so we watched it all unfold as we listened to the actual sirens and helicopters only about 3 or 4 blocks from our hotel. It all got pretty serious with cars on fire, tear gas, mini bombs and masses of people and Police going head to head! We will definitely be avoiding central Rome at dinner time tonight.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f19_1318694493
We then headed to catch some other sites taking in the Piazza Novona and the Pantheon. After heading further into town to find the Metro station we noticed a massiv Polce presence and then eventually all of the streets were emptying. We found they Police had the streets blocked off for quite and area, and when we asked them what was happening they informed us there was a demonstration. We were around the area the demonstration was happening and needed to get through the block to get to the Metro station so they directed us around the block to get there. At that point we saw the crowds gathered about 100 metres away at Piazza Della Repubblica and the speaker was sounding fairly serious. We decided between that and the riot police and helicopters circling it was best to get out of the area as quickly as possible.
Once we got back to the hotel, about 20 minutes later, we turned on the TV to see riots had broken out in that very area so we watched it all unfold as we listened to the actual sirens and helicopters only about 3 or 4 blocks from our hotel. It all got pretty serious with cars on fire, tear gas, mini bombs and masses of people and Police going head to head! We will definitely be avoiding central Rome at dinner time tonight.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f19_1318694493
Friday 14 October 2011
Salvé from Italia
Well after a full day of travel yesterday we have touched down in Italy! So far Rome is pretty good, took a while to get from the airport into the city but we eventually sussed out the right bus to catch. We are having a bit of a catch up day today....and have finally found somewhere that is a Laundromat/Internet Café, about time! We had a lovely dinner last night in a little restaurant just around the corner from our hotel, and got some free Limoncello with our bill......Logan likes it as much as the Grappa (well after beer anyway). Once we have clean clothes to wear we are off to do some sightseeing around the city.
Ciao for now :)
Ciao for now :)
Last of Greece
Well we enjoyed our dinner at the Italian Steakhouse on the ship thanks to Logans poker win! It was fantastic, the service was great from start to finish and the food was devine. We had been avoiding Italian food for the whole trip saving up for the 2 weeks worth we would be getting in Italy, but this was well worth it! Logan even tried a bit of Grappa (agreeing to something he didn't understand) and boy did he regtret it! A combination of wine, turps and gasoline we would say. Definitely not havng that again......Logan asked to be stopped if he was caught agreeing to it in Italy out of politeness, I guess the smile and nod if you don't understand theory only has a 90% success rate :)
Still can't get used to the fact that everywhere over here the dairies sell individual cans and bottles of beer that you can buy for €1.50 and wander down the street anywhere drinking it! The other thing is that you never pay for anything as you go like you do in NZ....even just a simple coffee at a café you sit at a table and someone will come to you....you never pay until the end, and never have to go to the counter to pay they always bring the bill to you. They are just really well set up for it as they ALL have mobile eftpos machines that they will bring to the table for you as well. Its stuff that is the exception to the the rule in NZ that has obviously been standard here for quite a while. They really like you to relax and take your time when you are eating and drinking, and it is like a major event in your day. It is actually really nice and something we really miss out on at home!
Our last port of call for the cruise was Crete. We were docked in Souda which is about 7km out of Chania. They had a heap of buses just transfering people all day but it ended up taking over an hour to get into the city as the traffic was crazy! We noticed all of the buildings in Chania had the upright steel reinforcing rods still sticking up out of the rooves about half a metre. It was almost like a design feature of all of the industrial buildings in the city! We had a bit of a look around at the old Venetian docks that were built in the 14th century, and went for a wander around the old city but a lot of the place you want to see in Crete are out of the city quite a way so you really need to be there for a few days to get in everything worth seeing. We tried to get to the War Museum, but it was closed for rennovations so we just relaxed over a drink and headed back to the ship.
Our last day at see was nice and relaxing, and we went to watch the last show which was really average before getting in an early night as we had to be ready to leave the ship at 7am the next morning. Our cruise experience was great though, and we would highly recommend Celebrity to anyone going on a cruise. A lot of the people we spoke to onboard are experienced cruisers and they all said Celebrity was the best line they had travelled on.
Still can't get used to the fact that everywhere over here the dairies sell individual cans and bottles of beer that you can buy for €1.50 and wander down the street anywhere drinking it! The other thing is that you never pay for anything as you go like you do in NZ....even just a simple coffee at a café you sit at a table and someone will come to you....you never pay until the end, and never have to go to the counter to pay they always bring the bill to you. They are just really well set up for it as they ALL have mobile eftpos machines that they will bring to the table for you as well. Its stuff that is the exception to the the rule in NZ that has obviously been standard here for quite a while. They really like you to relax and take your time when you are eating and drinking, and it is like a major event in your day. It is actually really nice and something we really miss out on at home!
Our last port of call for the cruise was Crete. We were docked in Souda which is about 7km out of Chania. They had a heap of buses just transfering people all day but it ended up taking over an hour to get into the city as the traffic was crazy! We noticed all of the buildings in Chania had the upright steel reinforcing rods still sticking up out of the rooves about half a metre. It was almost like a design feature of all of the industrial buildings in the city! We had a bit of a look around at the old Venetian docks that were built in the 14th century, and went for a wander around the old city but a lot of the place you want to see in Crete are out of the city quite a way so you really need to be there for a few days to get in everything worth seeing. We tried to get to the War Museum, but it was closed for rennovations so we just relaxed over a drink and headed back to the ship.
Our last day at see was nice and relaxing, and we went to watch the last show which was really average before getting in an early night as we had to be ready to leave the ship at 7am the next morning. Our cruise experience was great though, and we would highly recommend Celebrity to anyone going on a cruise. A lot of the people we spoke to onboard are experienced cruisers and they all said Celebrity was the best line they had travelled on.
Monday 10 October 2011
γειά σου from Greece
So far Greece is fantastic! We are almost at the end of the Greek leg and catching up on blogs from a little cafe in Mykonos on a disgusting stormy day.
Rhodes is absolutely beautiful......the old city wall is still completely in tact - well with a bit of restoration work, but the city inside it is extremely charming. All of the streets inside the old city are made from riverstones turne on their side and cemented in, not very confortable to walk on in bare feet. The first thing we noticed was that you don't get hassled hardly at all compared with Turkey. In Rhodes you can order a boot of beer, which is literally beer served in a 1L boot shaped glass. We had a look at the ruins of a few churches and the Temple of Aphrodite in the old city and then had a wander around the Palace of the Grand Masters (Palace of the Knights of St John) which has over 300 rooms.
Once we got out of the Old part and into a more modern Rhodes we took a little train which drives around the streets to see some of the main sights around the city. It is a minature model of a steam train, but doesn't run on tracks, it works just like a car (we have since seen that this is a common form of tourist transport in Greece). We found a cute little pub in a quiter area where we tried the local beer - Mythos - and a Greek coffee. It is very much like the Turkish coffee but not as sweet, it has a definite texture to it, and is made the old fashioned way over the fire.
We checked out the site at the harbour entrance where the colossus used to stand before finding a place to try some Greek takeaways....Pitta Gyros (Pork cooked on kebab, chips, tomato, onion and taziki wrapped in a pita bread) is the best! The Greek pita bread is quite different to what we have at home, it is quite thick and squishy.......and its really good!
The next island in line was Santorini. This wasn't quite what either of us was expecting, it is a lot higher. Most ofn the pictures you see of Santorini are taken from above the roof tops looknig down to the sea, but the cliff you jhave to get up is around 300m high all the way round, and it is straight up! From the water you can tell it was formed by volcano, and the buildings on the top just make it look like snow capped mountains. The ship was tenered as there is no real port, and you get tender boats to ferry you in to shore.
To get to the top you have 3 options....cable car, walking up the 600 steps (and these are not normal steps, they are about half a metre deep) or getting a donkey to the top. Of course we decided on option 3, but not entirely convinced they were donkies as some of them were huge. We lined up with the group that had gathered thinking they would tie a line of donkies together and lead them up the hill. Not quite how it works.....they get one of your feet in the stirrup, push you onto its back, then wack the donkey's backside and you're off! We actually thought we were going to die! There is no order to how they go up, the donkey just knows the track and makes its way up as it feels like it. There were about 8 that they sent up at the same time so they kept having little races and trying to fight with each other, or stopping for a feed. Logan got a crazy donkey that kept wanting to be at the front of the group. It also had small man syndrome and was the smallest donkey in the group, and kept trying to take on the big one, that was a similar size to a horse! The path they go up zig zags up the side of the cliff, one side it rock and the other is a shear drop. Of course they donkies take the easiest route and go right up to the cliff side when going around the corner, and then right up again the wall on the other side. Logans one pushed him into the wall and gave him a bit of a graze on his ankle, and Sara nearly got squashed between 3 of them, but after hearing other peoples stories when we got back to the ship we got off very lightly. There were a lot of falls, arms in slings and twisted ankles that night!
We decided to go out to the volcano, which is a seperate island 15 minutes boat ride from the main island. We got a lovely yacht across to to the island, and hiked to the top of the volcano (only about 20 minutes). It is still active and our guide dug away 5cm of dirt to let us feel the heat in the ground which was amazing. The whole island is just volcanic rock, but it is quite different to the type of lanscape you get at Ruapehu, as there is not lava flow.
After that we had a bit of a wander around Thira town, which is very cute. They hire out ATVs rather than cars to get around as there is really only 1 road on the top, all the rest are really noly suitable for walking or scooter. There are millions of stairs and meandering walkways everywhere.
That night back on the ship Logan had the final for his poker tournament where he got to play some of the ships officers. He ended up getting 3rd overall - 1st and 2nd were officers, and won dinner for 2 at one of the pay restaurants on the ship!
The next stop was Athens........complete contrast to the islands! Athens is a lot busier and in your face, but wasn't as dirty as we thought it would be. We hadn't really been hassled in Greece until we got to Athens, and it was back into being hassled by every street vender, and beggers again! Really randomly we saw heaps of turtles. They just wader around in various parts of the city. There are heaps of stray dogs as well, and we actually saw one at the Acropolis that was munching away on a piece of turtle.
Logan got sucked in again - he likes to think people are being helpful when they offer to show you the way somewhere or give you directions. Eventually he will learn they always want money in exchange for their help.
We caught the Metro into the city - the ship was docked in Piraeus, about 20 minutes walk, then 20 minutes on the metro away from the city. We were lucky as we wouldn't have been able to walk the distance, and there was a public transport strike the day after we were there. The weather was forecast for thunder storms, but the day cleared up to beautiful sunhshine, so we managed to get in all of the sites at the Acropolis, and the original olympic stadium along with a few other things. There were flea markets everywhere that were bustling, and we managed to find somewhere in the centre to have lunch. There was a strip of cafes which looked like a really nice place to have lunch but the street sellers were in your face the whole time, just one after the other people shoving stuff in your face to try and sell it to you. Even little kids would come up and play the accordian or a home made guitar to try and get money out of you, so we ate and left as quickly as we could.
Once we got back on the ship the weather turned and the thunderstorms that had been forecast started. There was a little freak tornado that came across the ship - the band were playing on the deck, and all of a sudden they stoped and were pointing out the side of the ship. When we looked out you could see the wind moving in, then all the birds took off, and within about a minute it was on the ship flinging deck chairs everywhere. It lasted about 2 minutes and then it was gone and the rain started bucketing down.
This morning we arrived in Mykonos, and unfortunately the weather hasn't improved. Thunder and lightning all morning, and rain bucketing down.
We managed to get a little look around in before the rain started. The streets here are amazing - again not suitable for cars, the streets were designed like a maze to confuse attacking pirates, so it is really easy to get lost without adding int everything looks the same and the streets are really narrow. The streets are all paved with stone, and when the rain got really heavy they turned into gushing rivers! The sun has just started to show itself now so hopefully our shoes will dry out in time for tomorrows adventure in Crete!
Rhodes is absolutely beautiful......the old city wall is still completely in tact - well with a bit of restoration work, but the city inside it is extremely charming. All of the streets inside the old city are made from riverstones turne on their side and cemented in, not very confortable to walk on in bare feet. The first thing we noticed was that you don't get hassled hardly at all compared with Turkey. In Rhodes you can order a boot of beer, which is literally beer served in a 1L boot shaped glass. We had a look at the ruins of a few churches and the Temple of Aphrodite in the old city and then had a wander around the Palace of the Grand Masters (Palace of the Knights of St John) which has over 300 rooms.
Once we got out of the Old part and into a more modern Rhodes we took a little train which drives around the streets to see some of the main sights around the city. It is a minature model of a steam train, but doesn't run on tracks, it works just like a car (we have since seen that this is a common form of tourist transport in Greece). We found a cute little pub in a quiter area where we tried the local beer - Mythos - and a Greek coffee. It is very much like the Turkish coffee but not as sweet, it has a definite texture to it, and is made the old fashioned way over the fire.
We checked out the site at the harbour entrance where the colossus used to stand before finding a place to try some Greek takeaways....Pitta Gyros (Pork cooked on kebab, chips, tomato, onion and taziki wrapped in a pita bread) is the best! The Greek pita bread is quite different to what we have at home, it is quite thick and squishy.......and its really good!
The next island in line was Santorini. This wasn't quite what either of us was expecting, it is a lot higher. Most ofn the pictures you see of Santorini are taken from above the roof tops looknig down to the sea, but the cliff you jhave to get up is around 300m high all the way round, and it is straight up! From the water you can tell it was formed by volcano, and the buildings on the top just make it look like snow capped mountains. The ship was tenered as there is no real port, and you get tender boats to ferry you in to shore.
To get to the top you have 3 options....cable car, walking up the 600 steps (and these are not normal steps, they are about half a metre deep) or getting a donkey to the top. Of course we decided on option 3, but not entirely convinced they were donkies as some of them were huge. We lined up with the group that had gathered thinking they would tie a line of donkies together and lead them up the hill. Not quite how it works.....they get one of your feet in the stirrup, push you onto its back, then wack the donkey's backside and you're off! We actually thought we were going to die! There is no order to how they go up, the donkey just knows the track and makes its way up as it feels like it. There were about 8 that they sent up at the same time so they kept having little races and trying to fight with each other, or stopping for a feed. Logan got a crazy donkey that kept wanting to be at the front of the group. It also had small man syndrome and was the smallest donkey in the group, and kept trying to take on the big one, that was a similar size to a horse! The path they go up zig zags up the side of the cliff, one side it rock and the other is a shear drop. Of course they donkies take the easiest route and go right up to the cliff side when going around the corner, and then right up again the wall on the other side. Logans one pushed him into the wall and gave him a bit of a graze on his ankle, and Sara nearly got squashed between 3 of them, but after hearing other peoples stories when we got back to the ship we got off very lightly. There were a lot of falls, arms in slings and twisted ankles that night!
We decided to go out to the volcano, which is a seperate island 15 minutes boat ride from the main island. We got a lovely yacht across to to the island, and hiked to the top of the volcano (only about 20 minutes). It is still active and our guide dug away 5cm of dirt to let us feel the heat in the ground which was amazing. The whole island is just volcanic rock, but it is quite different to the type of lanscape you get at Ruapehu, as there is not lava flow.
After that we had a bit of a wander around Thira town, which is very cute. They hire out ATVs rather than cars to get around as there is really only 1 road on the top, all the rest are really noly suitable for walking or scooter. There are millions of stairs and meandering walkways everywhere.
That night back on the ship Logan had the final for his poker tournament where he got to play some of the ships officers. He ended up getting 3rd overall - 1st and 2nd were officers, and won dinner for 2 at one of the pay restaurants on the ship!
The next stop was Athens........complete contrast to the islands! Athens is a lot busier and in your face, but wasn't as dirty as we thought it would be. We hadn't really been hassled in Greece until we got to Athens, and it was back into being hassled by every street vender, and beggers again! Really randomly we saw heaps of turtles. They just wader around in various parts of the city. There are heaps of stray dogs as well, and we actually saw one at the Acropolis that was munching away on a piece of turtle.
Logan got sucked in again - he likes to think people are being helpful when they offer to show you the way somewhere or give you directions. Eventually he will learn they always want money in exchange for their help.
We caught the Metro into the city - the ship was docked in Piraeus, about 20 minutes walk, then 20 minutes on the metro away from the city. We were lucky as we wouldn't have been able to walk the distance, and there was a public transport strike the day after we were there. The weather was forecast for thunder storms, but the day cleared up to beautiful sunhshine, so we managed to get in all of the sites at the Acropolis, and the original olympic stadium along with a few other things. There were flea markets everywhere that were bustling, and we managed to find somewhere in the centre to have lunch. There was a strip of cafes which looked like a really nice place to have lunch but the street sellers were in your face the whole time, just one after the other people shoving stuff in your face to try and sell it to you. Even little kids would come up and play the accordian or a home made guitar to try and get money out of you, so we ate and left as quickly as we could.
Once we got back on the ship the weather turned and the thunderstorms that had been forecast started. There was a little freak tornado that came across the ship - the band were playing on the deck, and all of a sudden they stoped and were pointing out the side of the ship. When we looked out you could see the wind moving in, then all the birds took off, and within about a minute it was on the ship flinging deck chairs everywhere. It lasted about 2 minutes and then it was gone and the rain started bucketing down.
This morning we arrived in Mykonos, and unfortunately the weather hasn't improved. Thunder and lightning all morning, and rain bucketing down.
We managed to get a little look around in before the rain started. The streets here are amazing - again not suitable for cars, the streets were designed like a maze to confuse attacking pirates, so it is really easy to get lost without adding int everything looks the same and the streets are really narrow. The streets are all paved with stone, and when the rain got really heavy they turned into gushing rivers! The sun has just started to show itself now so hopefully our shoes will dry out in time for tomorrows adventure in Crete!
Merhaba from Turkey
Well we have settled ın well to the cruise and are quicly learning how everything works onboard. The ship ıs quite amazing and really has everything you could need. There are more bars than you could ever want, a full casino, a lıbrary, about 5 restaurants, indoor and outdoor pools, a nightclub (although we haven't really seen tht ın action yet, a gym and spa, a spots deck, a cınema, a theatre and all sorts of other bits and pieces. We have had a day at sea - thankfully there are only 2 on thıs cruise as we were bored by about 3pm. we had a go at Bingo.....what a pair of nanas, didn't win anything though! logan took part in the firts qualifying round for the Officers Texas Hold'em challenge and kicked but. He had the game won in 15 minutes flat! There are 2300 passengers on our cruise so the logistics of getting everyone through mealtimes (especially dinner) is pretty impressive. They certainly like feeding you....if you don't have 3 courses at every meal they ask you why! They frequently have frogs legs and snails on the menu, so Sara tried some snails on the first night. They are almost lıke mushrooms soaked in garlic butter, nothing particularly special. The show on the first nıght was a variety show that introduced all of the entertainers, and the second night was a show they had put together - really nothing special after spending a week on Westend, but still entertaining.
We are still getting used to the fact that everyone wanders around in bikinis and speedos regardless of age or appearance.....even dancing to the band in front of the pool in nothing but speedos....Logan is particularly enjoying that!
We are still getting used to the fact that everyone wanders around in bikinis and speedos regardless of age or appearance.....even dancing to the band in front of the pool in nothing but speedos....Logan is particularly enjoying that!
We ended up with a lot less time in Istanbul than we would have like as a lot of it got consumed with travel time, but managed to get out to look around İstanbul during the day on Sunday and managed to tick off a lot of the things you should see. Unfortunately some people we spoke to on the cruise told us that the Grand Bazaar was shut on Sundays so we dıdn't bother goıng there, only to fınd out thats not the case at all. We still managed to visit some mosques, and we went to the Hagia Soifıa, the Hıppodromme (which was very underwhelming) and a few smaller bazaars to see what the shopping was like. We found a lovely little tea garden on top of a hill that overlooked Bosphorus where we trid Turkish Black Tea out of a little copper double tea pot. The bridge leading over to the main part of Istanbul is pretty crazy, it is obviously a popular fishing destination, and the entire bridge (probably 500m long) has people shoulder to shoulder fishing off the side of it.
The eeire part about Turkey - and it is all of the places we have been in Turkey - is the prayer calls. All of the mosques have speakers on top of them, and at certain times of the day they do prayer calls. All of the Mosques have a person chanting and they are all chanting something different - it can be heard all over the city. All of the mosques also have wash stations outside them, and a lot of them were occupied with men washing their hands, faces and feet before and after praying.
We did finally find somewhere that sold Apple Tea, so had to stop and have some of that - once we found the first place everywhere we went had it......thank goodness as it is the only hot drink you can drink in a hot climate that is still refreshing....yum!
After a full day at sea we landed in Kusadasi, a little bit further down the cost of Turkey. Our main focus for this stop was to get to Ephesus, so we managed to jump on a tour to the Virgin Mary house and the ruins of Ephesus fairly quickly. On walking through the shops outside the port there was a guy hanging out of the window on the top story with a cigarette in one hand and a sign in the other advertising the tour.
The drive out to Ephesus was about 30 minutes or so and thankfully not as crazy as Istanbul. Our first stop was the Virgin Mary House where she lived til she died - it was absolutely packed! Then we headed to Ephesus. The ruins were a lot bigger than we were expecting - we thought is was just a couple of buildings, but they have excavated most of the significant buildings from the main part of the city. There was a population of around 200,000 people when it was inhabited so the actual city was quite big, although about 90% of it is still underground. The covered main street (not covered anymore) there that was built for processions for Cleopatra is made from solid marble!
It was a super hot day that day, and Ephesus was really jam packed with tour groups but still fascinating. Our Greek tour guide looked like he had been smoking hashish all morning, and at the end of the tour he asked everyone if they wanted to do a carpet demo and leather factory which is really big in Turkey. None of us were interested so all said no, only to fnid ourselves escorted to a carpet factory and shut in a room with a whole lot of carpet salesmen anyway.......what fun!
Our next stop on the cruise was Bodrum, which is a little further down the coast again. Logan fell in love with Bodrum. Again absolutely superb weather! We did our own little walking tour here as the town isn't very big at all, the ancient name for the town is Halicarnassus, and remnants of the old city wall and moat are still there. We headed straight to the Castle of St Peter the Liberator and had a look around, it sits right on the water front and is really well preserved. Bodrum has a very resort feel, a lot quieter than Istanbul and the shop keepers don't hassle you anywhere near as much. The marina was full of yachts made in Bodrum, absolutely beautiful old style wooden yachts that are called Gulets.
We headed up some impressive streets to the 2000 year old amphitheatre that overlooks the town and the water, it is a stunning view, and the amphitheatre has been restored and is still used by the town today.
We also looked at the Tomb of Mausolos and went to Myndos Gate which is one of the two gates into the old city of Halicarnassus.
After Bodrum we landed in Marmaris. Again a little further down the coast....there wasn't anything in particular we wanted to see in Marmaris so we decided it would be a good opportunity to take some washing off the ship and find a laundromat seeing as the ship do washing for about $3-$4 per item. We managed to find a place where the woman didn't speak any English so sign language prevailed and we managed to get her to do our washing, dry it and fold it for 10 Lira :)
It was a super hot day that day, and Ephesus was really jam packed with tour groups but still fascinating. Our Greek tour guide looked like he had been smoking hashish all morning, and at the end of the tour he asked everyone if they wanted to do a carpet demo and leather factory which is really big in Turkey. None of us were interested so all said no, only to fnid ourselves escorted to a carpet factory and shut in a room with a whole lot of carpet salesmen anyway.......what fun!
Our next stop on the cruise was Bodrum, which is a little further down the coast again. Logan fell in love with Bodrum. Again absolutely superb weather! We did our own little walking tour here as the town isn't very big at all, the ancient name for the town is Halicarnassus, and remnants of the old city wall and moat are still there. We headed straight to the Castle of St Peter the Liberator and had a look around, it sits right on the water front and is really well preserved. Bodrum has a very resort feel, a lot quieter than Istanbul and the shop keepers don't hassle you anywhere near as much. The marina was full of yachts made in Bodrum, absolutely beautiful old style wooden yachts that are called Gulets.
We headed up some impressive streets to the 2000 year old amphitheatre that overlooks the town and the water, it is a stunning view, and the amphitheatre has been restored and is still used by the town today.
We also looked at the Tomb of Mausolos and went to Myndos Gate which is one of the two gates into the old city of Halicarnassus.
After Bodrum we landed in Marmaris. Again a little further down the coast....there wasn't anything in particular we wanted to see in Marmaris so we decided it would be a good opportunity to take some washing off the ship and find a laundromat seeing as the ship do washing for about $3-$4 per item. We managed to find a place where the woman didn't speak any English so sign language prevailed and we managed to get her to do our washing, dry it and fold it for 10 Lira :)
Marmaris has one of the largest marinas in Turkey and it took about 20 minutres walk just to get out of the marina into the central town. There are cats everywhere all over Turkey, and in Marmaris we even saw a Cat Feeding Station with a sign and everything where people take food to feed the cats. After doing all of the essentials we found a nice waterfront cafe to enjoy a cold beverage where Sara got served Pina Coldas in naked lady shaped glasses and Logan tried some of the local Raki - a homemade brew even - that is a white coloured liquer that tastes like aniseed, but it is made out of grapes or plums. As this was out last port of call in Turkey we managed to squeeze in some Turkish Delight tasting....which was amazing, and we had dinner out at a little takeaway place, settling on a traditional Iskender - it was awesome, but qute different from what you would get if you ordered and Iskender at home. Our Turkish food is quite Westernised and has been blended with Greek food quite a bit too.
Saturday 1 October 2011
Turkeys the Word!
After our first experience on Easy Jet we made it to Istanbul. We now know that being at the front of the line is best - being polite Kiwis we thought we would join the end of the line boarding not realising that they don't alloocate seats...its first in first served, but we managed to get seats either side of the aisle together which was good - guess you can't expect too much for the price you pay. They are quite similar to the old nuts and coke flights, and it is only 3 1/2 hours to Turkey so we managed to sleep for a fair bit of it seeing as it was such an early start.
On arriving at the airport we just booked a trip with the first shuttle company we saw - after the 1 1/2 hour journey to the city we were glad we hadn't jumped in a taxi! After only a few hours sleep the shuttle ride was interesting to say the least, we were treated to blaring dance music (uncensored) and wow the Turks are MAD drivers!! We found it best not to look out the front window, they change lanse every few seconds, and tooting must be used in addition to inidcating!
The motorways closer to the city were nose to tail not moving and there were street sellers in between lanes in the middle of the 4 lane motoway trying to sell bread and water to the cars passing! As we got closer tpo Galata where we were staying the streets narrowed to one lane and the landscape is quite hilly. The roads are similar to Wellington only narrower, and hand cobbled. Our area was lovely - the buildings don't look like much fromthe outside but inside they are stunning. Our residence for the night was a full apartment, that was one whole floor of the building AMAZING! It included a full foyer, cloakroom, kitchen, lounge/dining, huge bedroom, massive bathroom with double shower and sunken bath, guest room/office, and a seperate guest bathroom......pure decadence!
We got taken out in the evening to the Galata Tower for dinner which was built as a lighthouse in about 576AD. We were about 55m up and it is on top of a hill so the panoramic view of Istanbul is fantastic. We enjoyed a 4 course traditional Turkish meal with silver service again, and a show comprising of really top belly dancers, male Turkish dancers, and band. It was a really good night out.
The area we had to walk through to get home (just around the corner) is where all the young ones like to drink, and there were partygoers out in the square everywhere partying. The place feels very safe and is very pretty as they have done all of the streets up with lights. So far we are really enjoying Turkey!
This morning we went out for coffee and Sara decided to try a real Turkish coffee....not bad. It is very thick and almosts tastes like treakle but it is still drinkable.
We had now boarded the cruise ship and are just adjusting to a different way of travelling for a while. We have oriented ourselves with the ship, it just has everything you could ever want! The lunch buffet is brilliant and we are just sussing out what is free, what is paid and how it all works.
We are planning to see a bit more of Istanbul tomorrow before we sail tomorrow night and spend a day at sea relaxing. From what we have seen so far we are fairly sure we will survive the next few weeks (Dad I feel your pain!) but our blogging will be limited as the internet costs 75c per minute!
Güle Güle for now:)
On arriving at the airport we just booked a trip with the first shuttle company we saw - after the 1 1/2 hour journey to the city we were glad we hadn't jumped in a taxi! After only a few hours sleep the shuttle ride was interesting to say the least, we were treated to blaring dance music (uncensored) and wow the Turks are MAD drivers!! We found it best not to look out the front window, they change lanse every few seconds, and tooting must be used in addition to inidcating!
The motorways closer to the city were nose to tail not moving and there were street sellers in between lanes in the middle of the 4 lane motoway trying to sell bread and water to the cars passing! As we got closer tpo Galata where we were staying the streets narrowed to one lane and the landscape is quite hilly. The roads are similar to Wellington only narrower, and hand cobbled. Our area was lovely - the buildings don't look like much fromthe outside but inside they are stunning. Our residence for the night was a full apartment, that was one whole floor of the building AMAZING! It included a full foyer, cloakroom, kitchen, lounge/dining, huge bedroom, massive bathroom with double shower and sunken bath, guest room/office, and a seperate guest bathroom......pure decadence!
We got taken out in the evening to the Galata Tower for dinner which was built as a lighthouse in about 576AD. We were about 55m up and it is on top of a hill so the panoramic view of Istanbul is fantastic. We enjoyed a 4 course traditional Turkish meal with silver service again, and a show comprising of really top belly dancers, male Turkish dancers, and band. It was a really good night out.
The area we had to walk through to get home (just around the corner) is where all the young ones like to drink, and there were partygoers out in the square everywhere partying. The place feels very safe and is very pretty as they have done all of the streets up with lights. So far we are really enjoying Turkey!
This morning we went out for coffee and Sara decided to try a real Turkish coffee....not bad. It is very thick and almosts tastes like treakle but it is still drinkable.
We had now boarded the cruise ship and are just adjusting to a different way of travelling for a while. We have oriented ourselves with the ship, it just has everything you could ever want! The lunch buffet is brilliant and we are just sussing out what is free, what is paid and how it all works.
We are planning to see a bit more of Istanbul tomorrow before we sail tomorrow night and spend a day at sea relaxing. From what we have seen so far we are fairly sure we will survive the next few weeks (Dad I feel your pain!) but our blogging will be limited as the internet costs 75c per minute!
Güle Güle for now:)
Cor Blimey
Our time in London was fantastic when we finally made it. We ended up missing our train from Paris.....they tell you to be there 30 minutes before and process the next train - and the one that doesn't leave for another hour together, so we ended up being held up through customs, then wouldn't let us on the train even though it hadn't left yet :( Thankfully they go every hour, so they just put us on the next one.
Our hotel was 1 block fromKings Cross so it was nice easy access to the Underground, and our time here was abslutely jam packed! As soon as we stepped out of the station we felt like we were in a game of monopoly :)
We dumped our bags at the hotel and headed straight to Leicester Square to get some cheap theatre tickets. There is just so much to pick from and it was a really tough decision to decide what we were goingto fit into our limited time. It is a shame that none of the shows do a Monday matinee, and very few do Monday nights so that limited our options a little as we had things booked for Wed/Thurs nights already but in a way that was a good thing as it limited our choice a bit. In the end we managed to see Les Miserables, Jersey Boys, Wicked and Thriller. They were all top knotch productions and we were thouroughly inspired!
It has been really nice just being in an English speaking country again in the middle of the trip and aplace a lot more like home, we have been able to relax a bit more - and everything is alot cheaper! We have absolutely loved it, it is a lot more laid back and quieter than Paris and and the weather has been superb. 28 degrees every day and brilliant sunshine - hotter than it was there in August.
After being in quite a few places with trams and double decker buses the novely wasn't there for the big red buses so we mainly got around on the underground - although we thought it was quite expensive compaired to the Metro, it was convienient being right by Kings Cross......and of course we had to go and see platform 9 and three quarters! We ended up travelling at peak times quite a lot and one of the stations actually locked its doors for safety reasons and would only let us in at certain times once crowds had cleared.
We managed to get to the London Dungeon which was great - quite a few screams and interesting facts to be learned.
It was great catching up with Jean, she did a show and a few dinners and drinks with us which was really good. The cocktails are 2 for 1 everywhere so they work out to about $5NZ each.....and there are cocktails bars for Africs in Soho (what a shame). There are a huge variety, so we did a cocktail bar, a dance club, and of course a gay bar seeing as it is right in the theatre district - but everything closes at midnight in the central city! A lot of the bars had attendants like everywhere in Europe, but they also had benches full of perfume they spray on you if you want some. Apparently perfume, flannels, and deoderant are all part of the service.
On Wednesday morning we headed to Camden Markets which are fantastic markets, but we couldn't really bu anything as our bags are right on the limit at the moment, and fromthe UK it costs over 120 pounds to send a package home! Wednesday night we got into our best gears and headed out to Claridges (one of Gordon Ramsays restaurants) for dinner. Wow......what a great night! Absolute top knotch silver service, and the food was amazing. We went for the 6 course tasting menu as we thought we could sample more that way, and it was all stuff we would never normally eat so were were a bit unsure, but it was all superb!! Some of the dishes included duck, sole, lobster, tuna, beef tartar, amuse buche, liquer profiteroles, quail egg, chickpea chips, truffles, curry butter, peach jelley with basil cream, and amazing dessert!
We ordered our wine on an ipad, and were pleased to see that they had a good NZ Malborough wine on the wine list.
Thursday morning we had our last chance to fit in some sightseeing so we went on a mission and managed to get in the London Eye, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Harrods, a drink at The Kings Arms and the Tower of London. The London Eye is a great way of seeing where everything is and it is quite an impressive feat of engineering! The Tower of London was well worth it just to see the Crowned Jewels...wow!! The vault you go into to view them is impressive, the doors alone are aroubd 75cm thick solid steels, not to mention the guards, army, police and general security around. Then with the massive gold collection and multiple crowns that have hundreds of thousands of diamonds in each crown you can understand why.
Thursday evening saw quite a contrast in dining, we went to a Medieval feats in a basement in St Katharines Docks. It was a really funb night and they pulled off an authentic feast and entertainmentreally well. We particularly enjoyed that you had to yell 'WENCH' as loud as you can to get you drinks refilled.....which were unlimited so consequently a bit nasty.
The fists were a bit sore by the end of the night from banging the tables out of appreciation but it was all in good fun. We had to take off once the official part was over as we had to be up the following morning at 2.30am to get our flight to Istanbul!
Our hotel was 1 block fromKings Cross so it was nice easy access to the Underground, and our time here was abslutely jam packed! As soon as we stepped out of the station we felt like we were in a game of monopoly :)
We dumped our bags at the hotel and headed straight to Leicester Square to get some cheap theatre tickets. There is just so much to pick from and it was a really tough decision to decide what we were goingto fit into our limited time. It is a shame that none of the shows do a Monday matinee, and very few do Monday nights so that limited our options a little as we had things booked for Wed/Thurs nights already but in a way that was a good thing as it limited our choice a bit. In the end we managed to see Les Miserables, Jersey Boys, Wicked and Thriller. They were all top knotch productions and we were thouroughly inspired!
It has been really nice just being in an English speaking country again in the middle of the trip and aplace a lot more like home, we have been able to relax a bit more - and everything is alot cheaper! We have absolutely loved it, it is a lot more laid back and quieter than Paris and and the weather has been superb. 28 degrees every day and brilliant sunshine - hotter than it was there in August.
After being in quite a few places with trams and double decker buses the novely wasn't there for the big red buses so we mainly got around on the underground - although we thought it was quite expensive compaired to the Metro, it was convienient being right by Kings Cross......and of course we had to go and see platform 9 and three quarters! We ended up travelling at peak times quite a lot and one of the stations actually locked its doors for safety reasons and would only let us in at certain times once crowds had cleared.
We managed to get to the London Dungeon which was great - quite a few screams and interesting facts to be learned.
It was great catching up with Jean, she did a show and a few dinners and drinks with us which was really good. The cocktails are 2 for 1 everywhere so they work out to about $5NZ each.....and there are cocktails bars for Africs in Soho (what a shame). There are a huge variety, so we did a cocktail bar, a dance club, and of course a gay bar seeing as it is right in the theatre district - but everything closes at midnight in the central city! A lot of the bars had attendants like everywhere in Europe, but they also had benches full of perfume they spray on you if you want some. Apparently perfume, flannels, and deoderant are all part of the service.
On Wednesday morning we headed to Camden Markets which are fantastic markets, but we couldn't really bu anything as our bags are right on the limit at the moment, and fromthe UK it costs over 120 pounds to send a package home! Wednesday night we got into our best gears and headed out to Claridges (one of Gordon Ramsays restaurants) for dinner. Wow......what a great night! Absolute top knotch silver service, and the food was amazing. We went for the 6 course tasting menu as we thought we could sample more that way, and it was all stuff we would never normally eat so were were a bit unsure, but it was all superb!! Some of the dishes included duck, sole, lobster, tuna, beef tartar, amuse buche, liquer profiteroles, quail egg, chickpea chips, truffles, curry butter, peach jelley with basil cream, and amazing dessert!
We ordered our wine on an ipad, and were pleased to see that they had a good NZ Malborough wine on the wine list.
Thursday morning we had our last chance to fit in some sightseeing so we went on a mission and managed to get in the London Eye, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Harrods, a drink at The Kings Arms and the Tower of London. The London Eye is a great way of seeing where everything is and it is quite an impressive feat of engineering! The Tower of London was well worth it just to see the Crowned Jewels...wow!! The vault you go into to view them is impressive, the doors alone are aroubd 75cm thick solid steels, not to mention the guards, army, police and general security around. Then with the massive gold collection and multiple crowns that have hundreds of thousands of diamonds in each crown you can understand why.
Thursday evening saw quite a contrast in dining, we went to a Medieval feats in a basement in St Katharines Docks. It was a really funb night and they pulled off an authentic feast and entertainmentreally well. We particularly enjoyed that you had to yell 'WENCH' as loud as you can to get you drinks refilled.....which were unlimited so consequently a bit nasty.
The fists were a bit sore by the end of the night from banging the tables out of appreciation but it was all in good fun. We had to take off once the official part was over as we had to be up the following morning at 2.30am to get our flight to Istanbul!
Sunday 25 September 2011
More From France
The pace in Paris is quite different to the other places we have been, especially coming straight from Amsterdam. The traffic is absolute bedlam, and they are constantly sitting on their horns! Around the train station there are beggers and drunks everywhere and there is rubbish everywhere. They dont have bins as such on the roadside, just metal rings with plastic bags strung through them - and because there are dogs everywhere, the rubbish bags don't stay in tact for very long.
There are street vendors all around the stations on the outskirts with shopping trolleys full of corn,and make shift BBQs made out of metal drums - they have converted them into little BBQs and they grill the corn on them and sell it - there was one on almost every corner.
We have been really lucky with the weather as it has been really hot and brilliant sunshine the whole time we have been here.
We paid a visit to ChocoStory which is a chocolate museum. It takes you through the history of chocolate right back from the Aztechs and the original preparation of the cocoa bean. We had no idea the pods were so huge! The museum was really well put together and really interesting, and of course the highlight is the demostration of making french pralines and the tasting. At the end you also get to do a hot chocolate tasting and choose the floavour of chocolate, so we tried the original Aztech and Spanish recipies, they give you the hot steamed milk, and the chocolate is on an icecream stick which you stir around in the milk to melt......yum! Interestingly the Aztechs used Chilli with their hot chocolate, so it is not a new concept, but a very old one that has taken fashion now.
We went to the Moulin Rouge on Saturday night and unfortunately our seats were right at the front and off to the side so the view of one side of the stage was completely obscured. (we didn't realise the seats weren't allocated and the line to get in was already spanning 2 blocks down the road by 30 minutes before the show) The costumes were fantastic (2 million Euros) and it was very sparkly and showy, but for the price of the tickets we expected the show to be more polished. The theatre seats 1000 people at tables and the setting of the theatre was very nice. They had a massive pool rise up out of the stage that had snakes swimming in it that they did tricks with, ponies, a cute little dog, a great vantriloquist and a Russian duo that did a very impressive contortionist act. The dancers were topless and in g strings for the entire show as we expected, but after the intial number you really don't notice, it is just part of the costume.
On Sunday we managed a bit of a sleep in which was nice, as the show at the Moulin Rouge didn't finish til after 1am. Logan was sick of omlettes for breakfast so we decided to try a creperie. We had seen huge jars of Nutella everywhere in Europe (1kg jars) and Sara decided that this must be popular so had a banana and Nutella Crepe - highly recommend it!! We tried to get a train to Giverny for the day to look at the artists garden, but after being sent around in circles for an hour by some very unhelpful information desks we found that the only remaining train for the day wouldn't be back in enough time for us to catch our evening dinner cruise, so we had to skip it.
We decided instead to head back into the city and attempt to get up the Eiffel Tower. We ended up queuing for about 40 minutes to get a ticket and up to the first level, then another 20 minutes to get to the summit, but we made it. The view from the top was incredible and it shows the expense of the city - buildings as far as the eye can see in every direction. They have a campagne bar at the top where they sell you champagne for 10 euros a glass (around $18NZ)!
Our last evening in Paris was spent on a dinner cruise on the Seine. The boat was lovely, all nice old woodwork with side lamps, wooden flooring and big old fashioned rugs. The upper deck was open air and was great for seeing everything as you cruise past.....really felt like Paris should. Around the river is really pretty, and there is a level part way down along all of the sides that appear to be a popular hangout for locals to have drinks, jam sessions and picnics as everytime we were around the river the lower banks were full of people.
There are street vendors all around the stations on the outskirts with shopping trolleys full of corn,and make shift BBQs made out of metal drums - they have converted them into little BBQs and they grill the corn on them and sell it - there was one on almost every corner.
We have been really lucky with the weather as it has been really hot and brilliant sunshine the whole time we have been here.
We paid a visit to ChocoStory which is a chocolate museum. It takes you through the history of chocolate right back from the Aztechs and the original preparation of the cocoa bean. We had no idea the pods were so huge! The museum was really well put together and really interesting, and of course the highlight is the demostration of making french pralines and the tasting. At the end you also get to do a hot chocolate tasting and choose the floavour of chocolate, so we tried the original Aztech and Spanish recipies, they give you the hot steamed milk, and the chocolate is on an icecream stick which you stir around in the milk to melt......yum! Interestingly the Aztechs used Chilli with their hot chocolate, so it is not a new concept, but a very old one that has taken fashion now.
We went to the Moulin Rouge on Saturday night and unfortunately our seats were right at the front and off to the side so the view of one side of the stage was completely obscured. (we didn't realise the seats weren't allocated and the line to get in was already spanning 2 blocks down the road by 30 minutes before the show) The costumes were fantastic (2 million Euros) and it was very sparkly and showy, but for the price of the tickets we expected the show to be more polished. The theatre seats 1000 people at tables and the setting of the theatre was very nice. They had a massive pool rise up out of the stage that had snakes swimming in it that they did tricks with, ponies, a cute little dog, a great vantriloquist and a Russian duo that did a very impressive contortionist act. The dancers were topless and in g strings for the entire show as we expected, but after the intial number you really don't notice, it is just part of the costume.
On Sunday we managed a bit of a sleep in which was nice, as the show at the Moulin Rouge didn't finish til after 1am. Logan was sick of omlettes for breakfast so we decided to try a creperie. We had seen huge jars of Nutella everywhere in Europe (1kg jars) and Sara decided that this must be popular so had a banana and Nutella Crepe - highly recommend it!! We tried to get a train to Giverny for the day to look at the artists garden, but after being sent around in circles for an hour by some very unhelpful information desks we found that the only remaining train for the day wouldn't be back in enough time for us to catch our evening dinner cruise, so we had to skip it.
We decided instead to head back into the city and attempt to get up the Eiffel Tower. We ended up queuing for about 40 minutes to get a ticket and up to the first level, then another 20 minutes to get to the summit, but we made it. The view from the top was incredible and it shows the expense of the city - buildings as far as the eye can see in every direction. They have a campagne bar at the top where they sell you champagne for 10 euros a glass (around $18NZ)!
Our last evening in Paris was spent on a dinner cruise on the Seine. The boat was lovely, all nice old woodwork with side lamps, wooden flooring and big old fashioned rugs. The upper deck was open air and was great for seeing everything as you cruise past.....really felt like Paris should. Around the river is really pretty, and there is a level part way down along all of the sides that appear to be a popular hangout for locals to have drinks, jam sessions and picnics as everytime we were around the river the lower banks were full of people.
Saturday 24 September 2011
Bonjour!!
Well Paris is a mixture of things so far! When we arrived on the late train everythnig was closed including the tourist office to get a map, so after being greeted outside to the overwhelming smell of urine we found our way to a txi that took us to our hotel. We found out after getting a map there that the walk from the station was only about 500 metres. Ah well.
Yesterday we got out to see the city...it is absolutely massive! You get no feeling from a map just how big it is and after spending a solid 6 hours walking we experienced this first hand. Firstly had a look around our area - and decided best to stay away from it as much as possible! Very handy to the train station and metro though. Once we got into the main part of the city it was really nice - still pretty dirty as they throw their rubbish anywhere, but still a certain charm in the nice parts.
Did a walk by the Notre Dame - but the queue was massive so decided we need to do an early morning for that one. The building is amazing from the outside, and agani massive.
We then headed over to the Lourve and went to look at the standards...the Monna Lisa and Venus de Milo, but there are heaps of other amazing collections that are very well done, probably spent an hour and a half looking around. The building itself is beautiful without any of the artifacts in it, and the scale of it is mind blowing - you could easily spend 2 days there and not see everything.
After that we headed towards the Arc de Triumph down the Champs Elysees but it never got any closer so we decided to change direction to the Eiffel Tower. The structure of this standing underneath it is very impressive to say the least! After looking at those queues we thought it would be nice to go and have some dinner and go up it at night - when we went back we discovered everyone else had the same idea and the queues were worse, so settled for watching the lights come on from the Trocadero which was lovely. They light it up and then put twinkling flashing lights all over it so it looks like it is glittering!
The wine and cheese here are gorgeous....but we thought Amsterdam was expensive for food - it has nothing on Paris! We went for a wander to suss out where the Moulin Rouge is as we are headed there tonight, and went through the red light district (which it is in the middle of) and thought it was pretty tame - felt safer there than around our hotel!
We ate at a really classy Karaoke Restaurant listening to a group of Asians singing 'Braze of Grory'!
Enjoyed watching the ABs game this morning over breakfast with a pub full of French... and a couple of other Kiwis. They are definitely passionate about their rugby!
So far the people have been relatively nice, Sara has been giving her very pigeon French a go, and we haven't eaten anything we don't recognise so must be doing ok. They speak crazy fast though so we are doing a lot of nodding, smiling and saying Oui!
Au revoir for now!
Yesterday we got out to see the city...it is absolutely massive! You get no feeling from a map just how big it is and after spending a solid 6 hours walking we experienced this first hand. Firstly had a look around our area - and decided best to stay away from it as much as possible! Very handy to the train station and metro though. Once we got into the main part of the city it was really nice - still pretty dirty as they throw their rubbish anywhere, but still a certain charm in the nice parts.
Did a walk by the Notre Dame - but the queue was massive so decided we need to do an early morning for that one. The building is amazing from the outside, and agani massive.
We then headed over to the Lourve and went to look at the standards...the Monna Lisa and Venus de Milo, but there are heaps of other amazing collections that are very well done, probably spent an hour and a half looking around. The building itself is beautiful without any of the artifacts in it, and the scale of it is mind blowing - you could easily spend 2 days there and not see everything.
After that we headed towards the Arc de Triumph down the Champs Elysees but it never got any closer so we decided to change direction to the Eiffel Tower. The structure of this standing underneath it is very impressive to say the least! After looking at those queues we thought it would be nice to go and have some dinner and go up it at night - when we went back we discovered everyone else had the same idea and the queues were worse, so settled for watching the lights come on from the Trocadero which was lovely. They light it up and then put twinkling flashing lights all over it so it looks like it is glittering!
The wine and cheese here are gorgeous....but we thought Amsterdam was expensive for food - it has nothing on Paris! We went for a wander to suss out where the Moulin Rouge is as we are headed there tonight, and went through the red light district (which it is in the middle of) and thought it was pretty tame - felt safer there than around our hotel!
We ate at a really classy Karaoke Restaurant listening to a group of Asians singing 'Braze of Grory'!
Enjoyed watching the ABs game this morning over breakfast with a pub full of French... and a couple of other Kiwis. They are definitely passionate about their rugby!
So far the people have been relatively nice, Sara has been giving her very pigeon French a go, and we haven't eaten anything we don't recognise so must be doing ok. They speak crazy fast though so we are doing a lot of nodding, smiling and saying Oui!
Au revoir for now!
Thursday 22 September 2011
Holy Smoke - We're in Amsterdam!
After an 11.5 hour train journey from Munich we finally arrived in Amsterdam. It went pretty fast - our first experience of an overnight train was pretty good. We ended up sharing a bunk room with an Aussie and a German, but it was a good trip. Very well set up and we both had a pretty good sleep. You have toilets at the end of each carriage and a cafe down one end of the train. Definietly a good way to travel the long ones as you don't loose any city time.
Amsterdam is quite different to Germany - they all speak superb english which has made this leg fairly easy. Our hotel is cute - in an old canal house with the steepest staircase (and spiral) you have ever seen. All of the stairs around the city are the same, they are almost like climbing a ladder and you can't actually get your entire foot on the step.
The city really is designed for biking, although there are plenty of smart cars, buses and trams as well. By Central Station there is a bike parking building that can have 3000 bikes in it at any one time.
We spent our first day here having a bit of a look around, and then decided to head straight to the Heineken Experience. This was really well done, and they actually do a beer tasting at the end. We did get lost a few times the first day as all of the streets look the same, and the road each side of the canal have the same name, not to mention the streets curve around, so it took a bit of getting used to.
The people here are so laid back, a much slower pace of life which has been really enjoyable. Of course our next stop was a 'Coffee Shop', which you can't miss out of a trip to Amsterdam! Again very cool the way this works, and we have seen no trouble or agro since we have been here!
There are plenty of bakeries and chocolataries around - beautiful stuff in them, and there are even snack shops that have burger and hot dog vending machines!
We went for the compulsory walk through the red light district on Tuesday night - it is pretty much exactly as is is always described. The girls in the windows marked with a red fluro tube above the door, mixed with the 'closed curtains'. So many people around it is almost more of a tourist attraction than reality, heaps of tour groups walking around as they offer this area as a tour also.
Logan is happy we are finally in a place he can get an English breakfast every morning....and the coffee is the nicest we have had so far, although it is much more expensive here than in Germany.
We have noticed that all of the canal houses are 3 windows across, and above the middle set of windows on every house is a big hook - we are assuming this is to pulley furniture into the house as you would never be able to use the stairs, but every single house has one.
Yesterday we started the day with Anne Franks House - another really well done museum, the house or secret annex is much bigger than either of us expected for a hide out. We then moved on to a bit of a lighter activity and did the House of Bols Cocktail tour. They take you thought the history of Bols liquer and do some taste and smell tests with you before finishing with a cocktail made all with bols and some liquer tasting...yum. We may have accidentally had some Bols fall into our bags to make some yummy cocktails when we get home.
We finished the evening with a lovely candlelit wine and cheese cruise through the canals which gave a completely different perspective on the city. From the canal you get to see into the house boats - from the street they look fairly grotty but the inside of them is stunning. They are worth millions of dollars each and are done up as really upmarket apaertment with all of the modern european fittings! Good value too, we thought we were going to get a cheese platter and one glass of wine, but they just keep topping your wine up for the entire 2 hours!
This morning we went for a bit more of a wander around the city and decided to go in and have a look at Madame Tussauds - amazingly lifelike!
Just killing a few hours now before catching the traing to Paris but Amsterdam has been a blast!!
Amsterdam is quite different to Germany - they all speak superb english which has made this leg fairly easy. Our hotel is cute - in an old canal house with the steepest staircase (and spiral) you have ever seen. All of the stairs around the city are the same, they are almost like climbing a ladder and you can't actually get your entire foot on the step.
The city really is designed for biking, although there are plenty of smart cars, buses and trams as well. By Central Station there is a bike parking building that can have 3000 bikes in it at any one time.
We spent our first day here having a bit of a look around, and then decided to head straight to the Heineken Experience. This was really well done, and they actually do a beer tasting at the end. We did get lost a few times the first day as all of the streets look the same, and the road each side of the canal have the same name, not to mention the streets curve around, so it took a bit of getting used to.
The people here are so laid back, a much slower pace of life which has been really enjoyable. Of course our next stop was a 'Coffee Shop', which you can't miss out of a trip to Amsterdam! Again very cool the way this works, and we have seen no trouble or agro since we have been here!
There are plenty of bakeries and chocolataries around - beautiful stuff in them, and there are even snack shops that have burger and hot dog vending machines!
We went for the compulsory walk through the red light district on Tuesday night - it is pretty much exactly as is is always described. The girls in the windows marked with a red fluro tube above the door, mixed with the 'closed curtains'. So many people around it is almost more of a tourist attraction than reality, heaps of tour groups walking around as they offer this area as a tour also.
Logan is happy we are finally in a place he can get an English breakfast every morning....and the coffee is the nicest we have had so far, although it is much more expensive here than in Germany.
We have noticed that all of the canal houses are 3 windows across, and above the middle set of windows on every house is a big hook - we are assuming this is to pulley furniture into the house as you would never be able to use the stairs, but every single house has one.
Yesterday we started the day with Anne Franks House - another really well done museum, the house or secret annex is much bigger than either of us expected for a hide out. We then moved on to a bit of a lighter activity and did the House of Bols Cocktail tour. They take you thought the history of Bols liquer and do some taste and smell tests with you before finishing with a cocktail made all with bols and some liquer tasting...yum. We may have accidentally had some Bols fall into our bags to make some yummy cocktails when we get home.
We finished the evening with a lovely candlelit wine and cheese cruise through the canals which gave a completely different perspective on the city. From the canal you get to see into the house boats - from the street they look fairly grotty but the inside of them is stunning. They are worth millions of dollars each and are done up as really upmarket apaertment with all of the modern european fittings! Good value too, we thought we were going to get a cheese platter and one glass of wine, but they just keep topping your wine up for the entire 2 hours!
This morning we went for a bit more of a wander around the city and decided to go in and have a look at Madame Tussauds - amazingly lifelike!
Just killing a few hours now before catching the traing to Paris but Amsterdam has been a blast!!
Monday 19 September 2011
'Prost' from Munchen!
Well we survived Oktoberfest!
The festival is absolutely amazing - so much bigger than we thought it would be......the park is massive and the beer tents alone seat 100,000 people. Then there are fairground rides covering the place - and they are proper rides that put the Disneyland in Hong Kong to shame! Full on rollercoasters, side shows, horror trains, log flumes, ferris wheels, carousels, and every type of food stall you can imagine. We were really lucky with the weather as it has been raining ever since Saturday but we had brilliant weather for the festival.
We had to try quite a few tents before we actually got let into one, then kept getting moved on as we couldnät get a seat, but you have to be in the seated area to be drinking. There we some pretty young ones three as the drinking age is only 16 over here! But it is a real family affair, people of alls ages are there enjoying themselves and all of the locals come dressed in their traditional costumes which really adds the the atmosphere. The first tent we were in was a real party tent, and the band were playing more modern songs, so people were up on tables singing.....kind of like the Seven's party without the rugby.
It was 1L steins all round - thats the only size you can get, at 9€ a stein it works out about the same price as NZ. The beer here is lovely - even Sara has been drinking only beer, its around the same price as water!
After enjoying a few rides we went into the traditional part of the festival, and the traditional tent was quite different. They had the traditional Oom Pah Pah band playing, whip crakcing, and all of the beer was served in ceramic instead of glass.
The train ride here was a different experience, we figured out the reservation system about half way through the trip and ended up sharing a seat with an Aussie. They have a full bar/cafe in one of the carts and you can just wander up and down as you please. They even have bar leaners in the bar area so you can enjoy a beer for the journey!
Sunday was quite a change in mood, when we woke up to find it was dreary, raining, and freezing we though it was fitting for our trip out to Dachau. Unfortunately we couldnä purchase and umbrella or raincoat as Bavaria is a Catholic state so everything is closed on a Sunday!
Our trip to Dachau was different, our tour didn't take us in a tour bus, but hearded 30 of us through public transport in the way of trains and buses to get there. It is only 30 mins out of the city, so an easy journey.
The place has been really well set up as a memorial and our tour guide had a fantastic knowledge of the material so it was a very graphic but interesting trip.
The camp is exactly how the concentration camps are depicted in the mvies - of course they were all modelled of Dachau which was the original, but we had no idea there were around 20,000 camps! The photos don' really show what some of the livinging conditions were like, the beds just open bunks that they all piled into - with a person dedicated to blowing a whistle every 30 minutes so they coulod all turn over together, as there was no room to turn over individually!
All of the original buildings that the inmates were kept in have been torn down as they were remodelled for the refugees after the war, but they have built some replicas, and all of the main building with the punishment rooms etc are all original - all really well preserved. It is an awful place, and some of the images are very graphic and disturbing, but it is a great way to ensure the horrors that happened in that time are never forgotten!
We headed to the Augustiner Biergarten which was recommended by a friend Logan made at Oktoberfest. They brew their own beer on site, and it is the oldest in Munich - 1348 (we think). The place is huge! Would probably seat around 2,000 people out in the garden and another few hundred inside. The garden creates a canopy of trees so it has the feel of being inside almost - but the trees create the surrounds. Really hard to describe as we have never been to anything else like it!
We finally managed to buy an umbrella this morning, so the trip to the train station should be a little more pleasant - catching the over night train to Amsterdam tonight so this is our last day in Germany, so for now Lebewohl.
The festival is absolutely amazing - so much bigger than we thought it would be......the park is massive and the beer tents alone seat 100,000 people. Then there are fairground rides covering the place - and they are proper rides that put the Disneyland in Hong Kong to shame! Full on rollercoasters, side shows, horror trains, log flumes, ferris wheels, carousels, and every type of food stall you can imagine. We were really lucky with the weather as it has been raining ever since Saturday but we had brilliant weather for the festival.
We had to try quite a few tents before we actually got let into one, then kept getting moved on as we couldnät get a seat, but you have to be in the seated area to be drinking. There we some pretty young ones three as the drinking age is only 16 over here! But it is a real family affair, people of alls ages are there enjoying themselves and all of the locals come dressed in their traditional costumes which really adds the the atmosphere. The first tent we were in was a real party tent, and the band were playing more modern songs, so people were up on tables singing.....kind of like the Seven's party without the rugby.
It was 1L steins all round - thats the only size you can get, at 9€ a stein it works out about the same price as NZ. The beer here is lovely - even Sara has been drinking only beer, its around the same price as water!
After enjoying a few rides we went into the traditional part of the festival, and the traditional tent was quite different. They had the traditional Oom Pah Pah band playing, whip crakcing, and all of the beer was served in ceramic instead of glass.
The train ride here was a different experience, we figured out the reservation system about half way through the trip and ended up sharing a seat with an Aussie. They have a full bar/cafe in one of the carts and you can just wander up and down as you please. They even have bar leaners in the bar area so you can enjoy a beer for the journey!
Sunday was quite a change in mood, when we woke up to find it was dreary, raining, and freezing we though it was fitting for our trip out to Dachau. Unfortunately we couldnä purchase and umbrella or raincoat as Bavaria is a Catholic state so everything is closed on a Sunday!
Our trip to Dachau was different, our tour didn't take us in a tour bus, but hearded 30 of us through public transport in the way of trains and buses to get there. It is only 30 mins out of the city, so an easy journey.
The place has been really well set up as a memorial and our tour guide had a fantastic knowledge of the material so it was a very graphic but interesting trip.
The camp is exactly how the concentration camps are depicted in the mvies - of course they were all modelled of Dachau which was the original, but we had no idea there were around 20,000 camps! The photos don' really show what some of the livinging conditions were like, the beds just open bunks that they all piled into - with a person dedicated to blowing a whistle every 30 minutes so they coulod all turn over together, as there was no room to turn over individually!
All of the original buildings that the inmates were kept in have been torn down as they were remodelled for the refugees after the war, but they have built some replicas, and all of the main building with the punishment rooms etc are all original - all really well preserved. It is an awful place, and some of the images are very graphic and disturbing, but it is a great way to ensure the horrors that happened in that time are never forgotten!
We headed to the Augustiner Biergarten which was recommended by a friend Logan made at Oktoberfest. They brew their own beer on site, and it is the oldest in Munich - 1348 (we think). The place is huge! Would probably seat around 2,000 people out in the garden and another few hundred inside. The garden creates a canopy of trees so it has the feel of being inside almost - but the trees create the surrounds. Really hard to describe as we have never been to anything else like it!
We finally managed to buy an umbrella this morning, so the trip to the train station should be a little more pleasant - catching the over night train to Amsterdam tonight so this is our last day in Germany, so for now Lebewohl.
Friday 16 September 2011
Hallo from Frankfurt
We apologise for any spelling or grammar in this post - a combination of apple wine and a european keyboard makes for interesting blogging!
Well we finally made it to Germany after a very long flight! Lufthansa don´t have your own in flight entertainment and we were trapped at our window seats with a German man that spoke no english and can apparently do 12 hours without ever leaving his seat!
We had to tackle the public trains on arrival which was interesting as there were no maps to pick up at the airport, but we managed to find our way to the apartment after a very friendly German man offered us assistance at the station. Even immigration stopped to have a chat with us about our holiday on the way through - everyone here is so friendly.
The apartment is amazing - would highly recommend it to anyone coming to Frankfurt! We step out the front door, and across the road is the Main River, its absolutely beautiful. We decided it was best to stay up once we arrived to get ourselves into the right timezone so we dumped our bags and headed straight out to find some German beer....and stumbled across a really cute little pub very much like the old Roxy. None of the staff spoke any English but Logan managed to get us some beer regardless!
The city is not really what we were expecting - not as metropolitan. It is a big city with a little city feel, the pace of life is so much slower and the place is just a lot more liberal than we are used to at home. There are bicycles everywhere, people wandering and eating, people drinking beer anywhere and at any time of the day, you can pretty much smoke anywhere you want to - and thats not just cigarettes - and on every street corner is a bakery, and gorgeous food smells! Thats not mentioning the architecture and just the great feel of the city.
Can't believe the number of dogs here, everyone has their dog with them, and outside shops and supermarkets they even have dog staions where you can tie your dog up to wait. They even take them into restaurants with them!
Went for a wander this morning to get oriented and ended up in the 'red light' part of town.....definitely a 24 hour operation!
After wandering for a while in the hope of finding bacon and eggs for breakfast I think Logan finally conceded they don't do that here and finally settle on schnitzel and potato salad. Sara stuck to the traditional bread with ham and cheese....yum!
(A note to Caleb......Logan found one of the 'special' vending machines in one of the public toilets ;) )
There are pigeons everywhere around here, and every time you look up there is a pattern of jet streams in the sky from all of the planes flying over head.
They have little shuttles by the train station that are like the Thai tuk tuks but they are covered bicycles - and the parking in town is crazy.....I can see why they have smart cars, we found a man this morning trying to maneuver out of a parking space where the car front and back were literally 10cm away either end if you are lucky.
We managed to find a little pub on the way to this cafe that brews their own apple wine (these are pubs with the green wreaths outside the front door) so we had to give it a crack......yum! So off for mor apple wine it is.
Auf Wiedersehen
Well we finally made it to Germany after a very long flight! Lufthansa don´t have your own in flight entertainment and we were trapped at our window seats with a German man that spoke no english and can apparently do 12 hours without ever leaving his seat!
We had to tackle the public trains on arrival which was interesting as there were no maps to pick up at the airport, but we managed to find our way to the apartment after a very friendly German man offered us assistance at the station. Even immigration stopped to have a chat with us about our holiday on the way through - everyone here is so friendly.
The apartment is amazing - would highly recommend it to anyone coming to Frankfurt! We step out the front door, and across the road is the Main River, its absolutely beautiful. We decided it was best to stay up once we arrived to get ourselves into the right timezone so we dumped our bags and headed straight out to find some German beer....and stumbled across a really cute little pub very much like the old Roxy. None of the staff spoke any English but Logan managed to get us some beer regardless!
The city is not really what we were expecting - not as metropolitan. It is a big city with a little city feel, the pace of life is so much slower and the place is just a lot more liberal than we are used to at home. There are bicycles everywhere, people wandering and eating, people drinking beer anywhere and at any time of the day, you can pretty much smoke anywhere you want to - and thats not just cigarettes - and on every street corner is a bakery, and gorgeous food smells! Thats not mentioning the architecture and just the great feel of the city.
Can't believe the number of dogs here, everyone has their dog with them, and outside shops and supermarkets they even have dog staions where you can tie your dog up to wait. They even take them into restaurants with them!
Went for a wander this morning to get oriented and ended up in the 'red light' part of town.....definitely a 24 hour operation!
After wandering for a while in the hope of finding bacon and eggs for breakfast I think Logan finally conceded they don't do that here and finally settle on schnitzel and potato salad. Sara stuck to the traditional bread with ham and cheese....yum!
(A note to Caleb......Logan found one of the 'special' vending machines in one of the public toilets ;) )
There are pigeons everywhere around here, and every time you look up there is a pattern of jet streams in the sky from all of the planes flying over head.
They have little shuttles by the train station that are like the Thai tuk tuks but they are covered bicycles - and the parking in town is crazy.....I can see why they have smart cars, we found a man this morning trying to maneuver out of a parking space where the car front and back were literally 10cm away either end if you are lucky.
We managed to find a little pub on the way to this cafe that brews their own apple wine (these are pubs with the green wreaths outside the front door) so we had to give it a crack......yum! So off for mor apple wine it is.
Auf Wiedersehen
Tuesday 13 September 2011
Greetings from Hong Kong
Well, Hong Kong is hot hot hot!
We have managed to see a pretty good chunk of the city for only having been here one day so far. Started the day yesterday walking the length of Nathan Rd to find a tailor for Logan to have some suits made. Finally made it to the one we were looking for after being pulled into half a dozen other tailors along the way. 2 suits are on there way to us tonight ready for the cruise.
We then took in some of the city life finding some fascinating things along the way....apparently there are no limits to what you can dry and sell in this place including shrimps, mussels and some odd looking creatures which we haven't figured out - maybe bats? Photos to come for this one!
Sussed out the subway and buses and after a fair bit of waling in circles on Hong Kong Island finally found our way to Stanley. The public transport over here is crazy - you even have to get on an underground at the airport to get from the plane to immigration. All of the buses and trams are double decker - so that made for an interesting journey down the island to Stanley.....like taking the road to Coromandel on a double decker bus!
Stanley markets were a dissapointment - a lot more expensive than the shops on Nathan Rd, but we ended up having a lovely dinner and drinks on the waterfront which was away from the hussle and bustle of the city - much more of a resort feeling. The locals flock to the beach down there however they can, and they even have huge areas surrounded by concrete where they have premade firepits every 2 metres to cook food on and roast marshmallows. These areas were absolutley packed in the evening!
We can't get over the lack of OSH over here - or non existence, there scaffolding on buildings (and we are talking 30 storey sky scrapers) is made purely of bamboo! It is everywhere, even in the flasher areas, and piles of it on the side of the road ready to be erected.
We have taken notice Grant that there really are no flys here - even on the dried seafood and fresh meat sitting on the roadside we only managed to spot one.
Can't get over how clean it is. We were expecting it to be a little more like Bangkok, but there are huge signs everywhere saying you will get fines for littering, so the streets are really clean. It is really pretty at night all of the buildings have special ligts for show, and the main street is just neon everywhere.
Disneyland was fun, but not as good as the one in LA. The only really good ride was Space Mountain, all the rest were pretty tame. We did go into a 4D show which was really cool - Disney of course with Donald Duck, and they did the normal animated 3D movie, but whenwater came towards you, they sprayed you lightly with water, when as apple pie went across the screen you could smell apple pie, and when you were riding on the magic carpet they had a breeze through the cinema. It was very well done, and they even used the surround sound differently by having a speaker in the back of every seat and making the sound come from different areas in the cinema depending on what seat you were sitting in. Another long flight awaits us tomorrow so we will update when we get to Germany.
We have managed to see a pretty good chunk of the city for only having been here one day so far. Started the day yesterday walking the length of Nathan Rd to find a tailor for Logan to have some suits made. Finally made it to the one we were looking for after being pulled into half a dozen other tailors along the way. 2 suits are on there way to us tonight ready for the cruise.
We then took in some of the city life finding some fascinating things along the way....apparently there are no limits to what you can dry and sell in this place including shrimps, mussels and some odd looking creatures which we haven't figured out - maybe bats? Photos to come for this one!
Sussed out the subway and buses and after a fair bit of waling in circles on Hong Kong Island finally found our way to Stanley. The public transport over here is crazy - you even have to get on an underground at the airport to get from the plane to immigration. All of the buses and trams are double decker - so that made for an interesting journey down the island to Stanley.....like taking the road to Coromandel on a double decker bus!
Stanley markets were a dissapointment - a lot more expensive than the shops on Nathan Rd, but we ended up having a lovely dinner and drinks on the waterfront which was away from the hussle and bustle of the city - much more of a resort feeling. The locals flock to the beach down there however they can, and they even have huge areas surrounded by concrete where they have premade firepits every 2 metres to cook food on and roast marshmallows. These areas were absolutley packed in the evening!
We can't get over the lack of OSH over here - or non existence, there scaffolding on buildings (and we are talking 30 storey sky scrapers) is made purely of bamboo! It is everywhere, even in the flasher areas, and piles of it on the side of the road ready to be erected.
We have taken notice Grant that there really are no flys here - even on the dried seafood and fresh meat sitting on the roadside we only managed to spot one.
Can't get over how clean it is. We were expecting it to be a little more like Bangkok, but there are huge signs everywhere saying you will get fines for littering, so the streets are really clean. It is really pretty at night all of the buildings have special ligts for show, and the main street is just neon everywhere.
Disneyland was fun, but not as good as the one in LA. The only really good ride was Space Mountain, all the rest were pretty tame. We did go into a 4D show which was really cool - Disney of course with Donald Duck, and they did the normal animated 3D movie, but whenwater came towards you, they sprayed you lightly with water, when as apple pie went across the screen you could smell apple pie, and when you were riding on the magic carpet they had a breeze through the cinema. It was very well done, and they even used the surround sound differently by having a speaker in the back of every seat and making the sound come from different areas in the cinema depending on what seat you were sitting in. Another long flight awaits us tomorrow so we will update when we get to Germany.
Monday 12 September 2011
We Are Off
Well a bit of a shaky start to the trip having to repack bags at the first check-in because Saras bag was 5kg over the limit :( Thankfully had the foresight to pack an extra roll bag in the suit case!
I have to say we are travelling in style so far - made it to the international terminal with a 5 hour wait between flights and we are experiencing the Air New Zealand Koru Lounge for the first time. This is how to travel in airports!!! Lovely atmosphere, comfy lounge setting, constant buffet and anything you want to drink...anything....all for free! Absolutely legendary, Logan even gets to watch RWC game replays :)
I think this will be our most pleasurable airport experience of the trip so we will enjoy it while it lasts.
Catch you in Hong Kong.
I have to say we are travelling in style so far - made it to the international terminal with a 5 hour wait between flights and we are experiencing the Air New Zealand Koru Lounge for the first time. This is how to travel in airports!!! Lovely atmosphere, comfy lounge setting, constant buffet and anything you want to drink...anything....all for free! Absolutely legendary, Logan even gets to watch RWC game replays :)
I think this will be our most pleasurable airport experience of the trip so we will enjoy it while it lasts.
Catch you in Hong Kong.
Wednesday 7 September 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)