Hiking the Cinque Terra

Day 1 - London to Milano (Underground, Plane, Bus, Taxi, Train)

Up at 4:40am and off to Milano from Kings Cross station, just made it to the first underground train at 5:30am to the airport. What a rush and Melissa runs with me as well. The plane trip over was uneventful and we caught a bus into Milano central station, once there Jim and Carmel arrived shortly thereafter.

A quick snack followed by a long taxi ride to the Green residence our random accommodation, it was OK and we ventured into Milano. We didn't really know exactly where we wanted to go and ended up walking around looking at shops and bits and bobs. We stumbled into a cafe where no one spoke English, the people there were very friendly though and we had a good time gesturing and being shown the food which we were ordering.

That night we had a cold pizza and a quick room party before nodding off to a well deserved rest.

Day 2 - Milano (Underground, Tram & Shanks Pony)

The underground in Milano was three Euro for a day pass and we navigated our way into central Milan once again. The girls managed to find all the shops and from all accounts the clothes were expensive. Luckily though we got lost and found ourselves in a park, well that's what I figure happened anyway, I was just taking the photo's. More shopping followed and Jim decided we should go see the Canals in the late evening well worth it, see photo's.

That night we found out that restaurants open at 7pm in Milan and we hit a diamond of a restaurant which served up a fabulous meal and we had a quick chat to an American who's wife had ditched him for the day as he went to see the Grand Prix for the second day in the rain.

Day 3 - Milano to La Spezia (Underground, Train, Shanks Pony)

No power, no laptop, in our rush to get on the London train I simply didn't have time to get our European adapter so Melissa and I walked around the local shops and found one. Unfortunately I'd also forgotten my camera cord so the photo's are a little lower quality and I had to be a little selective in taking them.

The commute was about 4 hours to La Spezia and the overground train system was easy to navigate, we arrived at La Spezia and took the long way to the 'My Hotel'. The hotel was very nice and the only gripe I had was the shower which was tiny and burnt my chest(ouch) and the hot water lasted about ten minutes at a burst.

We managed to find an OK restaurant that night and had a couple of bottles of wine between four which was very nice. I was excited about walking the Cinque Terra the next day and didn't sleep well that night.

Day 4 - La Spezia to Cinque Terra (Boat, Shanks Pony)

That morning we woke up early to catch the morning ferry - 21 Euros / person and 5 Euro / person for a walking pass. The boat was great and stopped at each village on the way there, the views were fabulous and I'd recommended taking it, it was well worth paying extra for it. We got off at Monterroso (5th village) and took a look around the village, then walked through to Village four Venerzalla, the walk the hardest of the track (3 hours?).

And once we arrived we were all tired and ready for food, we stopped at the first restaurant in the village which turned out to be a really good pick. We shared two pizza's (surprise) and a couple of drinks. The ferry time table was a little confusing and the ferries didn't run to time which didn't help, so in our rush to get on the ferry we got on the wrong one.... whoops. Well I can tell you being on a boat in the Cinque Terra for an extra half an hour is actually a good thing :) So everyone was happy with our fortunes.

That night we went back to the same restaurant in La Spezia and had a really crap meal and service, perhaps because we didn't tip the night before. If you do this try another restaurant the following night.....

Day 5 - La Spezia to Cinque Terra (Train, Shanks Pony)

This was by far the best day, the sun was around 24 degree's in the day and the walks were really easy with a good amount of time to take in the breath taking views. Melissa and I walked together through 'lovers lane'(aka the 'via del amore') and dropped some money into the accordion man's satchel. It was very romantic and we were waiting for Jim to re-propose to Carmel but he held out :) We walked around village one to four and met a couple of groups of Kiwi's from Wanaka and Wellington, I was happy with this as for the majority of the trip we met Aussies and was told that the Kiwi's were being bred out!

At the 3rd Village we had a really nice lunch were the service was fantastic so we gave the man a trip, he was from Sicily and is small, slightly balding and looking for older women, so if you happen to be in town be sure to give him heaps. He even managed to do a fake spill of espresso on me and intentionally not bring Jim his beer I was well impressed and he agreed with me when I said Australians were crazy :)

Once we'd finished our walk it was time to take a swim in the Mediterranean, the swim was great and the water was greater. Jim managed to splash a few ladies who were gingerly entering the water, an elite athlete by all accounts, these ladies simply should have just seen him coming.

We saw the sun set while dining alfresco the pizza left a little to be desired though... perhaps the Earls Court Pizza house had spoilt us and we weren't that impressed with Italian pizza's but it should be noted the dough is pretty good as they make it themselves.

In bed by 11pm for a 6:20am wake up.

Day 6 - La Spezia to Milano to London Town (Train, Tram, Bus, Plane)

Writing the travel adventures on the train, have managed to tweak my laptop to survive for 8 hours.

Edinburgh and Nessie

Day 1 - London to Edinburgh

Terminal 5 didn't' loose our bags, thanks British Airways. We made it to the hotel half an hour before Jim and Carmel and had a couple of drinks n Nacho's. Then we had a walk around the city to check out the place, ended up walking through the shops, that night we had dinner at an Italian restaurant across the road from the Hotel. The hotel we stayed in was right below the impressive castle, we had a great view.

Day 2 - Edinburgh to Loch Ness

Since we were in Scotland and Jim and Carmel had a car, Melissa decided a trip to Loch Ness was in order, she organised it Contiki styles and had a day sheet drawn up and all. So up early back late, what a day, Scotland was grey but getting out and about was good fun.

Inverness had a local fund raiser on and we walked through a pretty island park, very relaxing and the town provided the country pace. At lunch we'd made it to Loch Ness and stopped off at a restaurant, in the hope that we'd spot Nessie over lunch but we found a place without a view :/

I ordered steak at an outrageous cost and everyone had crusty hamburgers, they all felt sick and decided to have two milk shakes to make up for it. I joined them in their indulgence, which was to my detriment as I felt very car sick later on as we really haven't gone for a car journey in quite sometime. The Scottish Loch's are very skinny and the country side was a refreshing view to the contrast of the grey grim London streets.

That night there was a wedding on at the hotel and Jim had to park the car a couple of blocks up the road, it took him half an hour to get back so he must have enjoyed a pint at the local or something...

Day 3 - Edinburgh Castle and fireworks

The castle was by far the best part of our trip, the tour guide was very impressive and rattled out a whole lot of information which I won't repeat. The staff inside the castle looking after the place also spoke about each room as you walked in, it wasn't their job but they did it anyway. It added to the tour and we had a great time, even if it was raining on me all day and I was in a t-shirt, the weather made me feel like I was at home ^^

That night Jim and Carmel met up with a workmate for drinks and Melissa and I had a swim in the pool and a steam in the Sauna, for some reason in Europe we haven't found a proper spa yet... very un-impressive really. I think you need to pay heaps to go to a spa resort, I don't think my mother would survive a year without a spa....

We all met up eventually and watched the fireworks which went for an hour played to a Hungarian opera's conductor or something, it was very impressive and we'd seen all the fireworks at the castle earlier, all four tons of them.

Day 4 - Edinburgh to London

Melissa and I had such a good time here we're coming back!!! Watch this space for the Isle of Skye(Mist) and Isle of Bute, where Melissa and Jamie explore a few of the western Isles.

Other Stuff

Some of our fun times in London can be seen via the slide shows here.

The squirrels



Kew Gardens

Engaged!

Jamie and I were very excited about a weekend away in Paris. We had been there once before however didn't have the opportunity then to see the Lourve or the Notre Dame and so decided to have a return visit. Instead of flying over we took the Eurostar. It was a much shorter journey and by 10:30 we were checking into the hotel, before heading into the city for some site seeing.

The Lourve was amazing and well worth the return trip, it has so many wings and floors full or sculptures and paintings it's hard not to get lost. As we left the Lourve and were walking along the Champs Elysees Jamie suggested that we have a look for a really nice resturant for dinner that night. After having a rest and getting changed off we headed for an amazing meal.

Following dinner we decided that it would be nice to go to the viewing platform across from the Eiffel Tower so we could see it all lit up and sparkling in the night. As I was looking out at the Eiffel Tower, Jamie suddenly got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. It was very unexpected and he was over the moon when I said 'YES of course I will'. It was then that I realised why we had the flash dinner and the bottle of Champagne waiting for us at the hotel. I have to say he did an amazing job of surprising me.

The next day we continued our site seeing of Paris and headed of to the Luxembourg Park and the Notre Dame. The gardens were amazing as was the architecture at the Notre Dame. All in all it was a weekend neither of us will ever forget.

Sunday Cookup

For the last couple of weeks now, Sarah (a friend from work) and I have been talking about trying to find some new recipes to make to improve our cooking skills. So Jamie and I invited her over and with some inspiration from 'Foodie Calls' we re-created one of Mel's dishes, Bloody Mary Chicken with Cantaloupe Salsa.

As we had a mixture of ingredients (both from the original and Mel's altered recipe) we proceeded to combine the 2 and I must say it was delicious. However, instead of serving with a nice wine, we thought a frozen mango daquiri would add a nice touch.

Sarah bought over some 'instant scone mix' (courtesy of the Irish and ASDA - a low cost supermarket) which we whipped up for desert, served with strawberry jam and vanilla cream it was the perfect finish to a great meal.

Weekend away in Dublin

Parties and planes

Friday night was birthday night, 4 people at Melissa's work had their birthdays in July and had decided to celebrate at the local bar and I was invited. It was a fantastic night, I met most of Mel's workmates and floated around like a social butterfly. Missy had a great time too, but she had a little trouble getting me home early, eventually we ended up at home at about 11:30pm.
I dozed to sleep I remember Missy packing 'te he he'

Beep BEEP BEEP BEEP, 5am came and Missy was up and at em, I wasn't so sprightly....
ahhh well I got their eventually and we jogged to King's Cross station, the saying running a little late came to life. After an hour of the tube and train(£34 - inc return)) we arrived at the Stansted airport ticket desk ten minutes before check-in closed. I had forgotten to print the tickets(£103 - inc return) but I had the confirmation number and my trusty laptop with the e-mail on it.

However the check-in lady said we'd need to go to the ticket desk and pay for our check in- well we weren't in a mood to argue or discuss so sixteen pounds later we got our boarding passes and headed off..... the booking lady was a bit shocked and gave us an address to get a refund, I think the check in lady was messing with us.

The flight was uneventful but it was raining when we arrived and the plane did full on slides upon landing. Missy and I found the buses and headed off to Malahide(1.50EU/each), it was easy enough but we needed the exact change for the bus as no change is given. The sun came out as we alighted from the bus and Missy couldn't wait to get to the local castle, so off we trotted.

It turned out to be a lovely wee walk and I took a few photos, we decided not to go in and instead headed back to our bed & breakfast (140EU/total). On the way back we checked out the village which had a Starbucks, park, marina and lots of places to eat. It reminded Missy of Port Macquarie and I was also reminded of Tauranga, though it was a tad bit cooler at about 15 degrees in the summer!

After a lovely 20 minute walk around the beach we arrived at the B&B, there was a lovely room and there was promise of a full Irish breakfast yum, yum. The bed was superb and we deserved a cheeky little rest so we treated ourselves, that night we went to Giovani's in town, the place was packed. It was a good meal and I couldn't help but notice the American influence on the culture in Dublin, the waiters came over about 3 times in 2 minutes to ask if we were having desert.

The next morning Missy found the showers a little cold and low on pressure however breakfast made up for this minor impasse. So we made our way into Dublin via bus, Dublin was pretty quiet on Sunday morning however as we navigated our way across town we walked into a whole load of horses. It was a little strange, I'm guessing it's Dublin's Sunday horse market, in New Zealand we have flee markets :)

The chimney look up was closed which turned out to be for the best as the Guinness factory had a beaut lookout at the top of the Guinness glass. The Guinness glass being the building of course, designed in Chicago and one of the first Dublin sky scrapers... at about 7 floors I didn't think it that much of a sky scraper.

The view and the bar at the top of the factory was good fun, everyone was having a complimentary Guinness and Missy and I nearly fell asleep at the bar.
So much travelling wears you down and it's important to just chill out, if you get the chance.

That night it was back to Malahide for dinner a romantic pizza in the park and a walk back along the coast to the B&B for an early night. There was some Irish TV on and a chef show, we had a giggle at the chef's accent three sounded like tree and woah woah weee waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah they really have a huge accent.

The following morning at 6am we were in a Taxi to the airport and made for an early check in, as I type people are standing awaiting to board the flight... I just always sit and wait till most of them are on. I figure the more time off the plane the better, speedy check-in is a con :))

The damage for a cheeky weekend in Dublin
- Flights return £103
- Trains return Stansted - £34
- Accommodation 2 nights- 140 EU
- Travel in Dublin bus & taxi - 30 EU
- Food in Dublin yum yum - 115 EU
- Attractions in Dublin Guinness factory - 30 EU
- Total £137, $315 EU