East Meets West

There's 2 sides to every story - not least the story of Berlin. Many of our fellow antipodeans living in London (and elsewhere) have rated Berlin as one of their top European destinations. Initially we had not thought of visiting Germany but after such rave reviews we decided to add it to our "must see" list and when better to see it, other than when Susanna's friend from NZ, Danielle, was going to be there as part of her European holiday? We flew (at silly o'clock on a Saturday morning with Ryan Air of course) in to Schonefeld Airport and met Danielle then took the S-Bahn into the Eastern side of the city. After dropping our bags at a random but good value hostel, we met up with other friends in Alexanderplatz. We then meandered down Unter den Linden, towards the Western part of the city, past Checkpoint Charlie, and on to the (in)famous Judisches (Jewish) Museum - a history of all things Jewish - including a particulary grizzly special exhibition on the Eugenics programs that were researched and practiced during WWII. It is an amazing building and very interesting exhibitions but left us feeling a bit downhearted - nothing, however, that a hearty meal and good German sing-a-long at the oldest pub in Berlin, Im Letzen Instance, couldn't fix. We met a great group of German guys who were singing merrily away and invited us to join them. We parted with a rough but heartfelt performance of the haka and really felt this was the highlight of our time here. Other good points:

• Seeing the original wall at the East Side Gallery with some cool murals and grafitti;
• Catching up with old friends,
• Visiting K'dam on the west side;
• The German parliament building, the Reichstag; and..
• The food!

Enjoy the pics....

Living it up in Luxemburg

Susanna's cousin's Hugh and Yvi had made numerous offers to come and visit them in the wee Grand (ironic isn't it) Duchy of Luxembourg. With another bank holiday long weekend in May, we decided to take them up on it. Hugh and Yvi are great hosts and we had a lovely time catching up with them, hanging out, having a BBQ, and playing with the dog, Nellie. It really reminded us of a NZ summer!

It may be a small country (you can drive the length of it in a couple of hours) but it is big on character. We really enjoyed exploring the historical part of Luxembourg city, driving along the Moselle and seeing all the vineyards, and exploring the North East with a visit to Vianden and the gorgeous old castle. The weather was amazing too! On our final day there we just nipped over the border to Germany and spent the day in Trier, an old Roman town with a great amphitheatre, Roman bath ruins and a huge basilica, which was originally part of the Roman palace. Here are some of the pics

Family Visit Numero Tres!

In May, Dan's Uncle and Aunt and two cousin's visited London. While they were here we got to catch up for a meal and, later in the week, a picnic in the park. It was great to catch up on their travel experiences, swap stories, and just hang out. Here are some snaps.

Ciao, Bella Italia

In April we thought it was about time we did something more than a quick weekend break. Add to that great flight deals, and a few of our friends from The Banjul Rally going to Milan, we settled on Italy for our big break. And what a break it was... Italy is a big country so we settled on the Lake region North and East of Milan. We spent most of our time on Lake Garda in the East, then Lakes Maggiore and Orta in the North. We also squeezed in 2 full days in Milan, which is where we met the rally boys. The weather was a bit mixed but, for the most part, warm and, for the second half of the holiday, gorgeously sunny. It was just as well as we had decided to get out and about (and reduce our budget!) by camping. Lake Garda is known for its lemons and we visited an old Lemon house in the gardens of a Palazzo in Gargnano, where we were camping on the West Coast of Lake Garda. We also did the famous “Four lakes drive” while we stayed here. This involved driving up the hill above the Lake and winding our way down the other side, round 3 other lakes before meandering back to Lake Garda. This drive also included one of the many highlights of our trip in the wee town of Bagolino where we had espresso and dulcetti in a wee Pasticceria cafe and listened to the local church bells ring. After Lake Garda, we headed back to Milan and, we confess, did not camp but rented a “bungalow” at the campsite with the rally boys as it was VERY wet! Milan is, in many ways, just another city but the Duomo is absolutely amazing and the weather cleared enough that we really enjoyed clambering over the roof and taking in the views over the city. We also hit the Monza race track on the outskirts of Milan while we were there. Then, it was North from Milan to Lake Orta and the gorgeous historic town of Orta San Giulio. We camped at a family run place on the edge of the wee town and used this as a base to explore the local area. This meant several trips to Stresa, on the western coast of Lake Maggiore, from where we explored the Borromeo Islands, and ventured round the Lake and up to Locarno in Switzerland by taking the Lake Maggiore Express – a train and ferry ride that takes a full day. It is very hard to say which lake we liked the best as each one had different attractions and were all very special in their own way. Some of the highlights though, other than the great weather, were the Sirmione peninsula in southern Lake Garda, and the Borromeo Islands in Lake Maggiore. We also really enjoyed the Sacre Monte de San Francesca in Orta San Giulio. Check out the pics for a taste of some of the things we saw.

The Hills are alive... in Salzburg

Yes, that’s right, we went to the town of Mozart, singing nuns, and baroque lavish splendour. The weekend after Easter, we went to Salzburg, Austria. We hit the town running and with the 48 hour Salzburg Card, it was easy work to visit a whole load of sites and places of interest while saving heaps on entrance fees. It is difficult to pick the best points as we enjoyed everything from visiting the Mirabel Gardens to Mozart’s birthplace, and the Toy Museum to the Salzburg fort but if we had to pick, the main highlights were probably the Cable car ride we took on the outskirts of the city, the amazing water trick gardens in Schloss Hellbrun, and the concert we went to on Saturday night in the University Mozarteum. It was also quite fun cycling along the river and seeing some of the sights from a certain well known movie... see if you can recognise any in the pics

below....

Irel-AND Us

After deciding not to make the move over to the Emerald Isle last year, we at least wanted to visit the country of Susanna’s ancestors. We also wanted to catch up with some friends from Waikato Uni days, Kat and Matt, who now live in Dublin. With this in mind, we took the train from London to Holyhead, spent a few sleepless hours in the ferry port, and then on to the ferry that took us to Dublin City early Good Friday morning. Although a lot of things were closed, Matt and Kat did a great job as tour guides and we walked down from their apartment in Christ Church past the Castle, down through Temple Bar, along Custom House Quay (see below for a pic of “Famine,” a bronze sculpture installed outside Custom House by Rowan Gillespie, a second cousin of Susanna’s), and through Trinity College and Stephen’s Green. For once (we were told) it wasn’t raining! In fact we had great weather the whole time we were in Ireland and even got sunburned. We really enjoyed noseying around the city, and, in the evening we went to the Good Friday at Matt and Kat’s church, which was hosted by the Church’s deaf community... a very different experience, but very interesting.
The next day, we picked up our hire car and all drove west to County Claire, the Cliffs of Moher (definitely recognizable as the Cliffs of Insanity from the movie, “The Princess Bride”) and the rocky landscape of the Burren. We stayed in a hostel in Lisdoonvarna, a wee town famous for its annual match-making festival, held every September! In the evening we went down to the local for a hearty evening meal and then on to a small local close to the hostel full of good craic and great music. We woke up to yet another fine day and took the boat from Doolin to the Aran Island, Inish Or (East Island), where we rambled around, got a bit lost, got found, and had a great time altogether. Sunday night saw us driving back to Dublin.
On the last day in Dublin we enjoyed the views from the top of the largest building in Dublin. We then had to make a mad dash back to the ferry port to catch the boat and train back to London.