French Alps

I turned 30 on the 18Th of July and to celebrate we went to the french alps for a long weekend away. We based ourselves in the town of Chamonix which is in the valley below Mont Blanc. We had and amazing time and the mountains were spectacular.
We took a Gondola up to 3800 meters and saw amazing views of Mont Blanc and surrounding Glaciers and mountains. Even though it was summer and 20 deg in the village it was -1 at the top and there was lots of fresh snow.

We decided to take another gondola across the Glacier to Italy. It was an amazing half hour journey and the scenery was some of the most stunning I have seen. We had lunch in Italy and then took the Gondola back to France.

We also enjoyed the French food and had some great pastry, chocolate and coffee. For dinner we went to try the local cheese fondue specialty. It was great, basically a big pot of melted cheese under a burner and a big plate of bread for dipping in the cheese.

Our hotel was nice and had a balcony that overlooked a little church and square and had a view of Mont Blanc. One afternoon a large crowd gathered at the stage in the square to watch an international folk festival. We had the best seats in the house and watch amazing musicians and dancers from Peru, Mongolia and Romania perform in full costume.

We also did a small hike to Blue lake and it made me want to stay longer as there are so many montain biking and hiking opportunities available. Chamonix is definatly somewhere I would like to return one day and I had a fantastic birthday! Being 30 is not so bad after all.

Pics Here

Germany with Family

My Parents and sister Hannah came over to visit in may/June this year. It was great seeing them again after almost two years and we had some great times catching up and showing them around.
One of the highlights was a trip to Germany to visit the Wuensch family who are our cousins.
We stayed in there beautiful house and enjoyed their hospitality and wonderful German food.
We took a day trip to the Harz mountains to visit other relatives and stopped on the way at a great little German town called Quedlinberg.

My Grandmother was born in Bohemia in the Czech Republic and her childhood house is still there. So we took a drive over the border and found the house. It is in a pretty little town with green rolling hills and wildflowers and I can see why she liked it so much. We had a huge lunch in the town and were surprised at how cheap the Czech Republic was compared with Western Europe. The way back to Germany was very picturesque and we stopped at the German city of Dresden on the way. Dresden was bombed heavily in WW2 but has been rebuilt and is a very pretty city on the bank of the river Elbe.

On our final day we took the train to Berlin and spent the day wandering around and enjoying the sunshine. We would have liked more time but still saw some of the great buildings and soaked up some of the history.

Pics here

Easter in Edinburgh

We made our way to the Scottish capital on Easter Saturday for a 3 day trip. We were once again blessed with great weather (a rarity in Scotland) and really enjoyed our time.
A highlight on the first day was hiking up Arthur's seat which is the hill that overlooks the city. The hike takes about an hour and the top affords views across Edinburgh and the surrounding hills and bays.
After working up an appetite on the climb we headed to a pub and had Haggis, Neeps and Tatties for Lunch. Neeps are turnups and Tatties potato (mashed). Haggis was better than I expected and was kinda like mince. For dinner we took a bus down to the waterfront area of Leith and had a nice dinner on a boat moored in the canal.

The next day we took an all day trip to the highlands and Loch Ness. The scenery was spectacular and very green with some snow still on the hills. We did a cruise on Loch Ness and did notice a few unexplained ripples in the water which I am convinced were the Monster.
We stopped at a ruined castle on the banks of Loch ness which was very picturesque and then headed back to Edinburgh via Fort William and Clen Coe. We had a great time but it was a really long day on the road as we were away about 14 hours.

On Easter Monday we checked out Edinburgh Castle and strolled the royal mile. We had some Scottish cuisine for lunch including a soup called 'Cullen Skink' which much to my disappointment is made from fish rather than small lizards.

We really enjoyed Scotland and were glad to have now seen a bit more of the UK.

Pics Here
Nessie can be seen making ripples behind me in one of the pictures.

Spanish Sunshine

After a long English winter we were in need of some sun. We had heard good things about Barcelona and had been wanting to check it out for a while. The weather was great, it was technically still winter but the day time temps were around 18 deg and it was all blue sky and sunshine; a big deal when you have spent 2 winters in London. Barcelona was the home of Gaudi, an architect who belonged to the modernest movement. He designed many unique buildings in Barcelona in the late 1800s and early 1900s. We visited the famous church the Sagrada Familiar and also the park where he designed many interesting features and mosaics.

Barcelona is well renowned for its cuisine and we feasted on various tapas including spicy sausage, prawns and calamari. We also had a delicious seafood paella to share and drank local beer and wine. Renee particularly enjoyed Cava (sparkling Spanish wine).

The beach just a few minutes from the city and we spent most of our last day just lazing in the sun. It was too cold to swim but I did manage to get some sunburn on my arms as I hadn't worn a T-shirt in months. Barcelona was easy to get around on the metro and had a chilled and relaxed vibe.

Pics Here

Morocco

We spent 6 days in Marrakesh Morocco between Boxing day and New years eve.
For those who don't know Morocco is in North Africa but is still only a 3 hour flight from London.
Its probably the closest place to find some warm weather near Europe around Christmas time. Most days were clear and warm during the day and crisp at night.

We stayed in a Riad(a traditional Moroccan house) which had a roof top terrace and our room overlooked a central courtyard.
Morocco was a very different experience for us and was both challenging and exciting. We had some nice food, enjoyed shopping and bargaining in the Souks (markets) and had a day trip to some waterfalls in the Atlas Mountains. One highlight was the Djema el Fna (main square) where at night about 100 restaurant stalls are set up and chefs BBQ all kinds of fresh meat and seafood. The square always has something going on and we saw Snake charmers, acrobats, guys with trained monkeys, women doing henna tattoos set to the sounds of drums and music.
Pictures here

Renee's 30th Birthday

Renee's 30th was on December the 2nd 2008. So on Monday the 1st we caught the Eurostar (train) to Paris so that we would be there for her to wake up in the city on her birthday.
We booked a really nice hotel just off the Champs Elysees near the Arch De Triomphe.
Renee had a great birthday and although it was cold it was a nice clear day. We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, had a nice lunch, and did a bit of shopping.
Pictures here

Malteser

Well Summer was rubbish, we had only a hand full of decent days and I don't think it got close to 30 deg once. We really wanted to get across to Europe for some beach and sunshine but we didn't get around to it. We left it pretty late and finally decided to book 5 days in Malta in late November.
Malta is south of Italy and not that far from north Africa and enjoys lots of sunshine and decent temps all year round.

When we arrived it was about 20 deg and a nice bit of humidity in the air. We had booked most of our stay on the smaller Island of Gozo as it is quieter and a bit more relaxed. We stayed in a great hotel that overlooked a small harbour and was just a 10 min boat trip to the small island of Comino which is home to the crystal clear waters of the blue lagoon. We headed there on our second day and had the remote island almost to ourselves. It was warm enough to swim (water temp about 23 deg) and we took full advantage of this after not having had the chance to swim in over a year.

The weekend was very windy so we stayed away from the beach and checked out Victoria (capital of Gozo ) and Valletta (capital of Malta). They were both really pretty towns with a mix of Italian and British Influence. The buildings are Italian style but as Malta was a British colony until the 60's they still have red British post and phone boxes and old Bedford buses everywhere. The food was a mix of Italian and local with great cheese and pastries. Malta adopted the Euro this year but was still very cheap compared with the UK and western Europe.

For our final night we stayed in a big hotel in Valletta, it was built in the 30's and had a real old world colonial feel to it. On our last day we visited some ancient ruins on the coast of Malta that are over 5000 years old and were built before the Pyramids. We also checked out the Town of Mdina which was fortified around 1000 years BC. Malta has an amazing history and has been occupied by the Phoenicians, Arabs and Romans to name a few. It is also where Saint Paul was shipwrecked in 60 AD.

We really enjoyed our time in Malta and Gozo, Beautiful Islands, warm sunshine, cheap and everyone speaks English. We are off to Paris next for Renee's birthday then to Morocco over the Christmas New Year period. Check out the pics below.

Pics here