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!
Sunday, September 16, 2007
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!
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.
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
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 :)
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 :)
Monday, July 30, 2007
Ireland
I spent last week in Ireland doing an 8 day tour of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland with Shamrocker Tours. Getting to Gatwick airport for my flight Gatwick - Dublin was a real mission! With all the crazy weather and floods that England had on the day that I left (Friday 20 July) meant that connecting trains and flights were all massively delayed but I won't get started on that!
The Shamrocker Tour started off in Dublin and headed towards Killarney. Stopped off to see the Rock of Cashel, Blarney Castle and kissed the Blarney Stone!
Killarney - Dingle: explored the Dingle peninsula home of Fungi the dolphin, seeing stone walls, ruined famine cottages, beehive huts and took a boat out to Blasket Island to experience the scenery.
Dingle - Galway: we visited the Cliffs of Moher, saw loads of Limestone rocks and saw some traditional Irish dancing in Galway city.
Galway - Inis Mor: spent the day and night on Inis Mor (the largest of the Aran Islands). Biked around most of the island, climbed up to the fortress of Dun Aengus a 3000 year old ring fort perched on the edge of a 300 foot cliff. You could walk to the edge of the cliff and look over, check out my photos when I get them uploaded - me at the edge of a cliff looking over, a little freaky but amazing!
Inis Mor - Kilcar: this was a big driving day through Connemara through County Sligo to County Donegal, staying the night on a country farm.
Kilcar - Derry: we visited the Donegal cliffs - as we were leaving the cliffs our bus was stopped by a radio researcher and asked if a few of us would speak to him to give our opinions on the scenery. Our tour group was made up of heaps of Australians, a few Americans, a few Canadians, a German girl and me the only Kiwi. So of course I was roped into representing NZ!! I basically told him that the cliffs and the scenery was nice but I didn't think that they were anything 'spectacular' .... I guess I wasn't as impressed by the scenery as some of the others in the group as we are lucky enough to have amazing places in NZ. It really makes you appreciate how beautiful NZ is! After Donegal cliffs we crossed the border from Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland and into Derry City. We did a walking tour of Derry city to learn about Bloody Sunday and the troubled past of Ireland, checking out political murals around the streets.
Derry - Belfast: we visited Dunluce Castle, Giant's Causeway and got to cross Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge Indiana Jones style.
Belfast - Dublin: we took a black cab tour of Belfast city learning more about the history and troubles, visited a ruined monastery and finished up back in Dublin.
A GRAND week away, definitely learnt more about the history of Ireland and it's troubled past, ate enough potatoes/chips to last me for a year and drunk my first whole pint of Guinness!!
Fan-Feckin-Tastic!
Photos - http://picasaweb.google.com/njshew/Ireland?authkey=4CP1a4NeCNA
The Shamrocker Tour started off in Dublin and headed towards Killarney. Stopped off to see the Rock of Cashel, Blarney Castle and kissed the Blarney Stone!
Killarney - Dingle: explored the Dingle peninsula home of Fungi the dolphin, seeing stone walls, ruined famine cottages, beehive huts and took a boat out to Blasket Island to experience the scenery.
Dingle - Galway: we visited the Cliffs of Moher, saw loads of Limestone rocks and saw some traditional Irish dancing in Galway city.
Galway - Inis Mor: spent the day and night on Inis Mor (the largest of the Aran Islands). Biked around most of the island, climbed up to the fortress of Dun Aengus a 3000 year old ring fort perched on the edge of a 300 foot cliff. You could walk to the edge of the cliff and look over, check out my photos when I get them uploaded - me at the edge of a cliff looking over, a little freaky but amazing!
Inis Mor - Kilcar: this was a big driving day through Connemara through County Sligo to County Donegal, staying the night on a country farm.
Kilcar - Derry: we visited the Donegal cliffs - as we were leaving the cliffs our bus was stopped by a radio researcher and asked if a few of us would speak to him to give our opinions on the scenery. Our tour group was made up of heaps of Australians, a few Americans, a few Canadians, a German girl and me the only Kiwi. So of course I was roped into representing NZ!! I basically told him that the cliffs and the scenery was nice but I didn't think that they were anything 'spectacular' .... I guess I wasn't as impressed by the scenery as some of the others in the group as we are lucky enough to have amazing places in NZ. It really makes you appreciate how beautiful NZ is! After Donegal cliffs we crossed the border from Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland and into Derry City. We did a walking tour of Derry city to learn about Bloody Sunday and the troubled past of Ireland, checking out political murals around the streets.
Derry - Belfast: we visited Dunluce Castle, Giant's Causeway and got to cross Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge Indiana Jones style.
Belfast - Dublin: we took a black cab tour of Belfast city learning more about the history and troubles, visited a ruined monastery and finished up back in Dublin.
A GRAND week away, definitely learnt more about the history of Ireland and it's troubled past, ate enough potatoes/chips to last me for a year and drunk my first whole pint of Guinness!!
Fan-Feckin-Tastic!
Photos - http://picasaweb.google.com/njshew/Ireland?authkey=4CP1a4NeCNA
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Change of Plans
Last week I was feeling really restless and was unsure if the living and working in London scene was really me so I've cancelled my job search, packing up and going travelling!!
From next weekend I go to Ireland for 8 days, come back to London for a few days to pack up my flat and then head to Europe for 3 weeks!
The change of plans was a little unexpected but very exciting - not really sure what I'm going to do with myself for the next week and a half ... luckily Geoff and Vince are around for another few days before heading home. I might try and use next week to see a bit more of London (on a tight budget now that I'm not looking for work anymore and have paid for my tours without having any more income between now and then!)
Will keep you posted ...
From next weekend I go to Ireland for 8 days, come back to London for a few days to pack up my flat and then head to Europe for 3 weeks!
The change of plans was a little unexpected but very exciting - not really sure what I'm going to do with myself for the next week and a half ... luckily Geoff and Vince are around for another few days before heading home. I might try and use next week to see a bit more of London (on a tight budget now that I'm not looking for work anymore and have paid for my tours without having any more income between now and then!)
Will keep you posted ...
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