Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Photos and more photos

Here's a selection of photos from some of my trips


Europe
http://picasaweb.google.com/njshew/Europe?authkey=Lx5Uw-RdEpI

Stonehenge and Bath
http://picasaweb.google.com/njshew/StonehengeBath?authkey=rTPxKZU1FiM

Stratford Upon Avon
http://picasaweb.google.com/njshew/StratfordUponAvon?authkey=vzHHB2yPqok

Oxford
http://picasaweb.google.com/njshew/Oxford?authkey=vUs4dXn19Js

Windsor & Eton
http://picasaweb.google.com/njshew/WindsorEton?authkey=ygDS2CtLKM0

Cologne & Bonn (Germany)
http://picasaweb.google.com/njshew/CologneBonn?authkey=mNKF_8LZXU8

USA
http://picasaweb.google.com/njshew/USA?authkey=sxmTt_n5Ybk

Sunday, October 7, 2007

USA

Well I'm back from my holiday in the States and had a great time.

I met Katie in Orlando and we did Universal Studios and Disney World, had a great time at the theme parks, really just big kids at heart!

Miami was nice and relaxing, we were staying at South Beach but unfortunately the weather wasn't that great with tropical storms, thunder, lightning and continuous rain so we didn't really get the chance to sit on the beach or soak up the sun! We did however go to see Stomp which was good entertainment - amazing what the can do with household objects :)

Chicago was awesome, really easy place to navigate around and it is a beautiful city at night. We went up the Hancock Observation Tower to get the best view of the city at night. Also went to see the Blue Man Group, this would have to be one of the best interactive performances I've ever been to, really fun and a great laugh. I definitely recommend this to anyone who has the opportunity to see it!

San Francisco provided us with the best weather! We did all the usual tourist attractions such as Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Alamo Square, Lombard Street - The Crookedist Street, Fishermans Wharf and walked up some of the extremely steep streets that San Fran has! And of course we managed to fit in a little bit of shopping when we had spare time!!

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Oxford and Stratford Upon Avon

Yesterday I took a day trip out to Oxford and Stratford Upon Avon.

Stratford Upon Avon is a lovely little town, best known for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare. The visit was made even better with a beautiful sunny day! We visited Anne Hathaway's cottage, the home of Shakespeare's wife, this cottage was really cute and surrounded by a beautiful garden. Took a walk along the River Avon and learnt that there is a Harvard House, where John Harvard lived with his parents before he set out to America helping found Harvard University!

Oxford, home to the oldest University in England. Oxford is an old city with quite a few things to see and do, had a look around the city but unfortunately we only had a few hours to look around so I spent most of my time visiting 'New College' one of the 39 colleges in Oxford. Mainly to see the dining room which was used as a basis for designing the dining room at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies!! It does surprisingly resemble what you see in Harry Potter movies, very cool!

Monday, September 10, 2007

Cologne, Germany

I spent the weekend in Cologne, Germany visiting Natascha who I met in July when we did our Shamrocker tour of Ireland.

Natascha and her boyfriend Sven were my personal tour guides and showed me the sights of Cologne - Cologne Cathedral, Old Town, Beer Halls, Cologne Observation Tower, Shopping district, Rhine River, Cologne Carnival Museum, Chocolate Museum etc.

We took a day trip out to Bonn, nearby University town where we visited Beethoven's birthplace and took a lovely walk along the Rhine River.

A lovely weekend away and a nice chance to experience more of Germany. Sampled the local beer, wine, tried lots of different breads, had a great goulash on Friday night at a local beer hall and Sven's friend Ryann cooked for us on Saturday night his special '13' dish :) I can even say that I have attended a German history lesson in a local German school ... Natascha is a training college teacher so I accompanied her to school on Friday morning and sat in on her teaching her history class. Couldn't understand a word of it but sat at the back of the class room and watched!

Friday, August 31, 2007

Stonehenge and Bath

Yesterday I took a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath.

The visit to Stonehenge was really interesting, learning about its history and surroundings with an audio tour. We were lucky to get reasonably nice weather, windy but not raining :) (apparently it's quite often raining out there and being such an open and exposed site walking around in the rain would not have been fun!)

Bath was really lovely, unfortunately we didn't get a lot of free time to explore the city and see all the attractions that Bath has to offer but did get entry into the Roman Baths which was interesting.

Got to see Bath Abbey from the outside - didn't have time to look through but have seen my fair share of Cathedrals through Europe to last me a while ..

The River Avon and Pulteney Bridge with all the shops and streets around it reminded me a bit of Italy, parts of Florence and Venice.

Bath has some beautiful parks and gardens and a pretty good main street for shopping! It would have been nice if we had spent longer in the city to see it in more depth but the couple of hours we had there was worth it.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Photos

Various photos taken over the past few months

http://picasaweb.google.com/njshew/London?authkey=yk-6GEonsTU

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Europe Unplugged

Spent three weeks travelling Europe and had a great time. My three week Europe tour started in London and took us through Paris, Lyon, Nice, Monaco, Florence, Rome, Vatican, Venice, Vienna, Prague, Munich, Liechtenstein, Lauterbrunnen, St Goar and Amsterdam.

Highlights for some of the places we visited -

Paris - The Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral, Arc de Trumph, Eiffel Tower and eating snails

Lyon - A lovely picnic lunch

Nice - Beautiful beaches and a great punch party

Monaco - Casinos

Florence - Stopping at the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa and wandering through Florence

Rome - St Peters Bascillica, Colloseum, Roman ruins and the best pizza

Vatican - Sistene Chapel

Venice - Gondola down the canals and an awesome toga party

(I found cobb crunchies, also known as tatties in Italy!!! This was so exciting, even better than finding lays - you can buy them in big bags like chippies oohhhh sooooo good, like pringles - once you pop you can't stop!)

Vienna - Schnapps Museum, Massive theme park and Orchestra concert

Prague - Loved this quaint little city, shops, babuschka dolls and puppets everywhere

Munich - Beer halls, steins, sausages, pork knuckles

Lauterbrunnen - Jungfrau Mountain and Ice Palace - hot chocolate has never tasted so good after being in a complete white out at the top of Jungfrau

Had a great night in Switzerland, for dinner we had massive sausages, they might even beat the size of the sausages that Amy, Rodney and I had in Chch!! And, I found a beer in Switzerland that I actually enjoy and had a few with dinner!! Eve beer, litchi flavour - shame that Dave, Vince and Geoff weren't there to share in this moment with me ;) !!)

St Goar - Cuckoo clocks and Hermie the crazy German who made our stay at the campsite an interesting experience

Amsterdam - Clogs, cheese, red light district, coffee shops

I'm now a little more tanned, maybe a few kg's heavier thanks to all the baguettes, crepes, pasta, pizzas, icecream, strudel, sausages, tatties etc we ate, glad to have a bed to sleep in again and a little over camping for a while but it was all fun :)