Cream Tea, Sea, and Family, in Devon

At the end of September, Daniel's parents arrived for a two week stay with us. It was so great to see them after 3 years!

Time flies in some ways but, at other times, it feels like forever. We spent a week together in London where Daniel was able to take a couple of half days to be the tour guide, before we all travelled together to South Devon, Kingswear, to be precise. We had hired a house there for the week so it made a BIG change from all sharing our wee studio and the house was lovely and spacious and right on the ferry slipway where cars can drive across to Dartmouth. It is a lovely part of the country and we all enjoyed taking walks around the village and along the coast to see Dartmouth castle and to just enjoy the scenery of lapping waters, boats and yachts. The weather was quite changeable while we were there and on one evening was the high tides - some of the highest they had seen in years - us foot passengers had to take a leap of faith on to the ferry and then hitch a ride in one of the cars to get off the other side! We really enjoyed spending a day driving south along the coast, Slapton Ley, and some beautiful spots, picnic on the beach etc.

Later on, in the week, we also spent a fun day in the historic village of Cockington. That said, probably the highlight of the trip was the "round robin" excursion that went from Kingswear to Paignton on an old steam railway, then by bus on to Totnes, before catching the boat back up the Dart river to Dartmouth. Paignton has an amazing 99p store but otherwise is very much a typical seaside town with entertainment arcades and a packed pier. Totnes, on the other hand, is the original Transition town, with a huge number of independent shops, eco stores, quaint old streets and lovely cafes where we enjoyed a traditional afternoon team - devonshire cream and all. The boat ride back to Dartmouth was quite breezy but so beautiful. The driver had great knowledge of the area and kept up a commentary. Graceful birds and athletic oarsmen were just a few of the sights we saw as well as a wee glimpse of Agatha Christie's home on the bank of he river.

Sadly, the holiday ended all too soon and we were back in London taking John and Wendy back to the airport for their flight back to NZ via Raro. Enjoy just a few of the pictorial highlights.

Serendipity in Bristol

We had heard great things about this city from all sorts of different people so we thought it would be worth having a look see on a quick weekend getaway before Dan's parents visited. Our neighbour, Brendon, went to uni in Bristol so he provided us a good list of places to go and things to see.

National Express made us happy with two cheap coach seats and we travelled from London Victoria on an average London day to arrive in beautiful sunny Bristol only a couple of hours later! As luck would have it, we discovered it was the Organic food festival that weekend AND an open homes day where lots of historic homes and sites were open free to the public. So, needless to say we spent a really great day on Saturday sampling food, listening to music and talks and getting all sorts of great ideas at the festival. We then took advantage of the open homes day and visited the family home of Charles Wesley, the great preacher and Hymn writer. It was really interesting and a great way to spend the afternoon. In the evening, we went to one of the "must-see" places on our list and enjoyed dinner at the Watershed cafe which is part of a cinema complex as well.

On Sunday, we decided to walk up to the slightly upmarket suburb of Clifton where we did some great window shopping, garden gazing, and meandering before heading to Thali Cafe (another "must do") for lunch - Indian Thali meals and curry - yum! We walked off our lunch as we walked further to the famous Clifton Suspension bridge. We then meandered back towards the town centre by walking along the waterfront and then jumping on a river taxi. While meandering from our hotel, we also discovered there was some muscle/classic car road show on as well so we got to see some great cars in the streets too!

Bristol is one of the cities that we decided that we could definitely live in if we weren't in London. We were so fortunate with the weather and all the extra bonuses that were going on while we were there - would definitely recommend it.

Looking for the Folk of Nor in Norfolk

After the great time that we had last year, camping in the New Forest with our friends, Josh and Roz, we decided it would be great to explore some more of this great Isle together on the August Bank Holiday weekend. We headed up towards the much underrated, Norfolk, to take in some coastline, camping, and couscous (seriously, I think we did eat some - such a handy camping staple). Fortunately we had the loan of a TomTom GPS so, in our hire car, we were able to find the farm, not far from Sheringham, where were aiming to pitch our tent.

The farm allowed camp fires which was fantastic as the weather was NOT that tropical. On the second day there, after exploring the great seaside town of Cromer, we came home to roast Potatoes in the fire embers as well as Corn and, for dessert, Marshmallows. Mmmm. Despite the changeable weather, we managed to enjoy a great walk along the coastal marshlands and meadows as well as visiting Holkham beach (made famous by Gwyneth Paltrow in the closing credits of "Shakespeare in Love" - oh and the Queen has been known to walk her corgies there when staying in nearby Sandringham). The beach was this beautiful expanse of dunes but it was WINDy - Wellington's got nothing on this. One thing that we were annoyed about during our trip was that most car parks were pay and display - including Holkham. Never mind - good company still makes up for this! We were also able to see a lot of windmills and our fair share of "cute" villages. On the last day, we took the long way round and headed down to Suffolk. There we visited the incredibly well preserved Medieval town of Lavenham - an amazing Guildhall, heaps of Tudor houses, and cute shops to boot.

Isle of Wight - Spit Happens

After recovering from our springtime forays on the continent, we decided to explore closer to home - oh, and Dan's work needed him and his quota of volunteers (read: Susanna) to come down and help at a huge music festival - the Isle of Wight Festival - and get more people signed up to the Antony Nolan bone marrow donor register.

The weather was hot, the acts were hotter and so were the team - we all chipped in each day getting people to spit up and sign up - that's right, they had to give a spit sample for the lab team to enter in to the database. One problem, you can't spit if you have had something to eat, drink, or smoke within the last half hour... and we are at a music festival in summer.... hmmm. Still, the Antony Nolan charity registered over 900 new potential donors. We also got to see some great acts: Crowded House (well Neil Finn and some band members), Pink, Blondie, the Strokes, and some other newer acts as well. Susanna had to leave earlier on the Sunday evening to get back to work on time but Daniel was able to stay and also caught Sir Paul McCartney. Here are some pics for you to see what's what!

The Big 3-0 – Central Europe, here we come.

At the end of May, the UK has a second May Bank Holiday, which coincided perfectly with Daniel's birthday. We took a couple of extra annual leave days off to make the most of this opportunity to celebrate in style. We flew to Bratislava (courtesy of Ryan Air) and jumped straight on the bus to Vienna. We have to say that, sadly, Vienna was somewhat anti climatic after our romantic visions of baroque splendour a la Zagreb and Salzburg. That said, there was still some amazing parts of the city that we enjoyed visiting. The Hapsburg palace in the old town as well as visiting the Hundertwasse-Krawinehaus (think public toilets in Kawakawa, NZ). We also enjoyed hobnobbing in the famous Cafe Centrale with a beautiful slice of birthday cake.

From Vienna we travelled by bus to Budapest. This is an amazing city but do NOT by the Budapest City card - it is barely worth it, especially if you are only there a couple of days. It does not give free entry to many sites - only discounted entry. This down fall, though, was really the only blight on our time here. The weather was perfect, the buildings were amazing, and the night life buzzing. Our sojourn coincided with the Barosa Festival - lots of free open air music gigs and events for all ages so we enjoyed a couple of the bands as well as doing loads of people watching.

The next day we enjoyed the amazing views with our afternoon tea on Fishermen's Bastion (that is one big hill to get up on foot though!). The public transport in Budapest is very good and we managed to get around a lot - Heroes Square was interesting and another highlight was Margaret Island in the middle of the Danube river where locals and visitors alike go to hang out, work out, chill out etc. It was a shame to leave Budapest (especially the amazing accommodation - 35 Euro a night for a 1 bedroom self contained apartment in a VERY central location) but our holiday was fast coming to an end so, back to Bratislava.

We only had one night in Bratislava but we managed to make the most of our time there while still avoiding all the British Stag parties! We even got to see a ballet performance at the amazing new theatre (grand total cost of £4). The ballet was a modern children's folk tale, Popolar, all in Slovak but we got the gist of it. The food in Bratislava is also really nice - a highlight being the yummy hot chocolate and an ice cream parlour with Chili-Chocolate flavour! Dan also enjoyed a really yummy dish of snails! It was a great way to end the holiday and the journey back to London, while uneventful, came all too soon.

Visiting Nessie in Scotland – May 2010

As much as we hate to say it, we flew (!!!) up to Aberdeen on the first May Bank Holiday as we had some air miles that needed using up before June. From Aberdeen, we picked up our hire car and drove up the East Moray coast towards Inverness. We enjoyed stopping on the way in the great little towns of Banff and Cullen (the latter we particularly liked) before arriving at our accommodation on East Grange Farm, near Findhorm. This was our first experience of "glamping" (glamorous camping) - we slept in a wooden wigwam, which was heated and had it's own kettle and fridge. There was then a shared bathroom and kitchen, which worked perfectly for us.This part of Scotland is lovely - well, it all is - but we were amazed afresh by the wild beauty of this area. The next day we by-passed Inverness in favour of Fort Augustus where we stopped for a while to see if we could see ol' Nessie while we ate our lunch. En route, down the western side of the Loch, we went to Glen Affric and walked around the woods there and then visited one of the local cafes in Cannich. Then, on our return journey, we drove up the eastern side of the Loch and saw it from a different perspective. We also stopped on the way to see Foyers waterfalls.

Day 3 and we took in some of the local castles. The famous pink Craigievar castle was a bit pricey for us but we enjoyed wandering over the extensive grounds and wood before heading on. The holiday was over all to quickly for us - last day and we drove back to Aberdeen the scenic way over high passes and low roads still covered in snow in parts. We also visited the ruins of Kildrummy Castle before reaching Aberdeen to return to London. Here are some of the photographic highlights.

Western Balkans: Slovenia – Lowlands, Lakes, and Ljublijana

After our time in Croatia, we jumped on a train in Rijeka to return to Slovenia's capital, Ljubljana. This is a great city - sure there is an element of communist era concrete, but in the old town, you can see the Hapsberg influence. There is some magnificent architecture, a happening cafe culture and markets to boot. We only spent a couple of days here before heading out to the countryside but, during that time, we were able to fit in a classical music concert in the Town Hall, a visit to the Castle (not really worth it except for the nice setting), and some Easter Shopping at the market

It was a bit colder than we anticipated but we survived. We picked up our hire car and headed south. We visited Lipica to see the amazing stud horses, Postojna caves - amazing karst countryside - and Predjama castle, former home of nefarious robber baron, before taking the VERY scenic route to Lake Bohinj, the much under-rated big sister to the over-advertised Lake Bled. Bohinj was amazing. We had booked a 1 bedroom self-contained apartment which was perfect for us and only a short walk to the lake.

We had a great time circumnavigating the Lake (14-21km) on foot, checking out some waterfalls, and just generally chilling out. We spent a day visiting Lake Bled as well - it is beautiful but they have one of those cheesy tourist train bus things that drives around the lake. We still managed to spend a pleasant day there though and have the pics to prove it!