Long summer days

It has been a wee while since I have typed a blog... a testament to the great summer we have had in London. OK, so it hasn't quite been the "BBQ summer" that some weather forecasters were predicting, but it has been pretty close! I have had plenty of opportunity to enjoy various outdoor activities, brunches, picnics, BBQs & parties in the long summer days.


This blog has a few photos from my shenanigans:
* Top: A night of random open-air theatre along Southbank, near the National Theatre. The night time shot is taken next to the River Thames, with St Pauls Cathedral in the background.
* Above: Enjoying an summer evening picnic at Fulham Palace while watching a performance of Shakespeare's "Midsummer Nights Dream".
* Below: Some pics from a Saturday walk in a Wivenhoe, Essex (about an hour north of London)
* Further below: A pic of Victoria's Victoria sponge taken at a friend's traditional English Coronation garden party!

On the road again... part four

We finished our summer holiday with a few days in the somewhat cooler climate of Southern Germany. We flew into Euro-Basel airport (which borders France and Switzerland, depending on which exit you walk out of) and then connected to the German rail only a few miles away. Our journey took us through the lush Black Forest, along the border of Austria and up to Munich. Places we visited on our journey included:

*Titisee – This town is home to plenty of adventure activities for all seasons with plenty of water activities on the small lake and walking in the surrounding forest.

*Triberg – There were two “places of interest” here, being the Triberg Waterfalls & the world’s largest cuckoo clock. To paint the scene, we had walked 50 minutes in pouring rain to reach the magnificent wonder of the cuckoos. We could only laugh in embarrassment that we visited the place after watching three ill-fated birds appear briefly and return to their sad enclosure. Perhaps it would have been more exciting at midday… but probably not! I rarely deter people from travelling, but I recommend leaving this place off the “to see” list.

* Fussen – We travelled on five different trains to reach the quaint town of Fussen, located only 3 miles from the Austrian border. Located in the hills nearby are two famous castles. We had great views of Hohenschewangau castle as we explored the exterior & interior of the fairytale Neuschwanstein castle. The castle has apparently appeared in many movies and was inspiration for the Disneyland castles.

* Munich – Our final destination was Munich, the third largest city in Germany. It was a shock to the system to be back in a city with plenty of buzzing activity & people. The photos are of the new city hall tower at Marienplatz, the Theresienwiese (a large open ground which holds of the official Oktoberfest festivities) and the Bavarian statue which oversees the festivities.

Well, this is the end of blog on my summer holiday. In a nut shell, it was a BRILLIANT holiday with plenty of unique experiences that I will be able to reminisce on for a long time to come. I am now back to reality and am looking forward to the next adventure, where ever that may be!

On the road again... part three

In Rome we boarded the “Legend of the Seas” for a 12 day cruise around the Mediterranean Sea. It was a great way to see the region & to have some dedicated relaxation time. Our cruise docked at several ports along the way. Below is a quick summary of the ports & the local sites:

Athens, Greece
Our first port of call was Athens, the capital of Greece and home of the first modern Olympic Games. The highlight of our city tour was the Acropolis of Athens, including the Parthenon, the Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus and the Propylaea.

Mykonos, Greece
Mykonos is a charming village of white houses with typically blue coloured doors and window frames. With a maze of narrow streets originally constructed to confuse attacking pirates, the town is now a perfect spot to confuse unsuspecting tourists. Once successfully through town, we had a peaceful day enjoying the sun & swimming in the warm sea temperatures.

Rhodes, Greece
The ship docked near the medieval Old Town of Rhodes where the Colossus of Rhodes (a statue of the Greek god Helios considered one of the seven ancient wonders of the world) once stood. After enjoying another dip in the sea we had a chance to wander through the World Heritage Site.

Kusadasi, Turkey
Kusadasi is a resort town on Turkey’s coast. From here it was a short drive to Ephesus for our “Biblical Ephesus” tour. The trip included a visit to the Basilica of St John and the house of the Virgin Mary, as well as a biblical lunch. Each menu item was referenced to a meal in the bible – great concept, but I’m glad I don’t have to eat what they did on a regular basis! The definite highlight of the day was visiting the ancient city of Ephesus. The photos include the 44,000 capacity open theatre and the public water closets. If you are thinking that the marble would have been cold to sit on in the winter days, don’t worry… they had slaves to warm them up before you attended to business!

Alexandria, Egypt
Alexandria is the second largest city in Egypt & is a popular Egyptian summer destination. We travelled in an escorted convoy for 2½ hours to visit the only ancient wonder of the world still in existence – the Pyramids of Giza. The largest pyramid is believed to be built around 2500BC for King Khufu. In front of the pyramids was the impressive Great Sphinx of Giza. Our tour also included a trip to see the first Egyptian Pyramid of Djoser and the ancient city of Memphis where we had a closer look at the Egyption hieroglyphs.
Corfu, Greece
Our last point of call was on the Greek island of Corfu. We had pleasant walk through town to see the old & new forts as well as admire some of the architecture.

In terms of relaxation, we had four days during our trip that were sea days. During this time we had plenty of opportunity to unwind in the pool & spa, read books, win the occasional key chain in trivia, enjoy the company of fellow travellers and eat to our hearts content – 110% relaxation!

The photo on the right is of an active volcano on Stromboli, a small island near Sicily, which we passed on our final day. Check out the smoke coming out the top!

A final novelty factor on the boat was to see what creature our room attendant would create each day…

On the road again... part two

Approx 60km south of Naples is the Amalfi Coast, a stretch of the Italian coastline renown for its ruggedness, beauty & picturesque towns. This is definitely a must for anyone travelling in this area! We chose to hike along 40km of the coastline, from Ravello to Positano, on an organised 5 day trip through Intrepid Travel. The best part was that our luggage was transferred to the next hotel for us, so we were able to just enjoy the coastline on foot with our day packs and a set of local walking instructions leading the way.










The track was pretty impressive – but definitely not recommended for the faint hearted or those who don’t like walking up/down stairs! I loved the serenity of the countryside, the sheer cliffs that drop into the sea, the little towns nestled in the valleys and the numerous vineyards & lemon tree orchids which hung to the hillsides.








After our Amalfi experience we caught a ferry from Positano via Carpi Island and Sorrento back to Naples and then a train to Rome, the capital of Italy. Our challenge was to visit all of the sites of Rome in an afternoon - & I think we did a pretty good job in the end! I can not remember how many churches we went into, but each one in itself is pretty impressive. I could have spent all day just looking at intricacies and individual beauties of these places of worship. Below are some photos of a few of the Rome sites… inside the dome of St Peter’s Cathedral, the Pantheon, the Colosseum and the Trevi Fountain.

On the road again... part one

I have been on the road again… this time for a month long holiday in the European summer sun. It is simply not possible to do justice to the places I travelled to on this blog… but I’ll do my best to give you just a mere taste of the journey & wonders we encountered. Our trip covered six countries including Italy, Vatican City, Greece, Turkey, Egypt and Germany.

Our journey started in Italy, a country that I was particularly looking forward to exploring. My expectations were exceeded. Venice was lovely. We stayed in a B&B on one of the 118 islands in Venice. Despite the fact the town is flat we surprisingly had to climb plenty of stairs as we crossed the 400 odd bridges that linked the islands. Below are photos of Venice, including the Rialto Bridge and the Piazza San Marco (with St Mark’s Basilica & bell tower in the distance).

From Venice we flew to the busy (& crazy town) of Naples. We checked out some of the local castles, admired Mt Vesuvius from afar, tasted the local traditional delicacy (aka pizza!) and wandered around the ruined Roman town of Pompeii.