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Well this is our last post card from Spain, sorry there hasn't been too many, but one needs to remember that Av was an early attendee (foundation stone Student) at the Jill Price School of Terrorism, oops that should be Tourism, and every minute is planned and commited (couldn't say this if l was in arms reach of Jilly but the Internet is a wonderful thing)!. This week we have been in the North of Spain on the Atlantic Coast in the Basque Region, fisrtly Sans Sebastian and currently in Bilbao which is home to the Guggenheim Museum. Have to say Spain has been a great surprise packet and gastronomic delight The bread has been on a par with the French; exquisite. Food and wine have all been 1st Class and amazingly cheap, (most of the time). Have ordered Vinos Blanco or Vinos Tintos without any idea of what might come, but haven't been disappointed once! Lunch today comprised, three courses, bottled water, bread rolls, bottle of rose and coffee's for two; all for 23 Euro........amazing (not so good for the waist line) and know doubt we'll notice a big difference across the Chanel. As would be expected Fine Dinning doesn't come at quite such economical rates but day to day is very reasonable. Truth be known the Spanish Government could seriously increase taxes on wine to help balance their books, but right now happy to visit wine utopia and let them go with their austerity package as voted in their Parliment today. Sans Sebastian; delightful smaller City, lots of blocked roads for pedestrian traffic only. Clean as a whistle, not crowed, no traffic, beautiful beach, warm enough to savour some of the local bathing beauties out for an early tan (uum!!), great Pintxos Bars (similar to Tapas) all in all not bad! Separately, although the Spanish time spectrum took some getting into; now vote with our feet and enjoy the daily afternoon siesta, what a great invention, don't know why it's not universal, but then again we don't have an austerity package...... (yet). !!!!!!!    Guggenheim LEFT: Flower Puppy outside the Guggenheim. Yes these are all live flowers growing to form a Puppy who has his own Supporters Club and all. He's a big bugger too! CENTRE: Guggenheim display, very colourful RIGHT: A Designers nervana, a Builders nightmare! External cladding is Titanium Shingles! You can just imagine the bargain they would have got these for! But they do look different as the light changes.     Well the trip around Spain continues and we are well into it. Now covered Madrid, Seville, Granada, Valencia and have our last day in Barcelona today, Sunday. Apart from the major cities, we've visited many other smaller towns and provincial cities and today is the first day we don't have an organised tour and could have a lazy start. Can't describe what we've seen and done suffice to say l've picked 5 noteworthy photo's taken on the iPhone to give you all a very small taste of what we've seen. We've got an early departure (6.30) Monday morning to catch the train to San Sebastian and we end up going onto Bilbao later in the week before flying across to London next Friday, volcanic ash permiting. The weather has been perfect, generally blue skies, temps in the mid 20's no rain (or ash) First day in Madrid was a bit hazzy having arrived direct from Melbourne via London, but after a good nights sleep currently early afternoon Friday (day 2), just finished our morning walking tour and settled with a cold beer in the Plaza Mayor and starting to feel like we're actually on holiday. Have walked the rest of the afternoon, surprise surprise back at our Hotel, at the roof top bar and it's drinks time again. Dinning at the Guiness Record oldest Restaraunt in the World tonight. Well hardly left Australia and looks like the Stock Market has crashed along with the Currency, unbelievable! Seems you lot aren't safe to leave with the keys! Temperature perfect whatever it is, but guess high teens to low 20's.  The restaurant Botín is located just off Madrid’s Plaza Mayor in calle Cuchilleros (knife makers street). Botín is written of in Hemingway’s ‘The Sun Also Rises’ and was one of his favourite restaurants, hence its popularity amongst tourists. The Guinness Book of records lists it as the oldest restaurant in the world (1725, the building dates from 1590) and it is said that the painter Goya actually worked as a dishwasher here. The restaurant is renowned for its suckling pig and roasted lamb and serves typical Castilian food. It has 4 floors and the woodfire oven is said to be the original from the 18th century.
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Julie & Bruce had the week-end at Werribee Mansion, including meals & massage treatments each day, compliments of employer Probuild after 10 years service. One highlight was upfront tour and patting of the rhino’s at Werribee Zoo and learning all about their mating (or lack of) issues.     The winter was not particularly severe this year – just a few days at –30 deg C back in November last year and not too much snow. Surprisingly, Spring has been very changeable – warm days followed by storms with snow, rain and wind. Nevertheless, we have made the most of the good weather and have been away on a few trips. We had a quick weekend trip to Jasper a month or so ago. The road there through the Columbia ice fields would have to be the most spectacular road that we have travelled in Canada – the scenery with the mountains, glaciers, rivers and so on is stunning. A few weeks ago, I took a week’s vacation and we went off to the Okanagan Valley. It is a 7 hour drive west from Calgary towards Vancouver. Again the road through the Rockies is terrific with lots to see and a number of major passes – Rogers, Kicking Horse. Eons ago, the Okanagan Valley had a massive glacier in it – the glacier is now long gone, leaving behind a series of lovely lakes with Lake Okanagan being the largest. There are lots of terrific B&Bs in which to stay – we selected the "Hopeless Romantic" and it was really great. The area is noted for its vineyards and wineries – we visited quite a few, sampled some excellent wines and managed to bring a few back with us to Calgary. The area also has many golf courses and we were able to play a few rounds in the warm weather – our form was not too good so we have both enrolled for further lessons with our coach in Calgary and hopefully will improve. I have attached some photos of our trip to the Okanagan Valley. They include our two favourite wineries – Quails Gate and Gray Monk, both or which are located on the shores of Lake Okanagan. There are also photos of the road through the Rockies – as you can see, there was not much snow although the scenery is still great. Adrian & Janet      I’ve just returned from a weekend in the Red Centre – what an EXPERIENCE! Travelling to Central Australia has been on my to-do list for a while, so decided to take advantaged of my accrued leave and go for it. And so glad I did – for those of you who haven’t been, it really is an amazing place. I saw Kings Canyon, Ulura, The Olgas, and vast open space that stretched as far as the eye can see. You tend to feel small next to the towering rocks I must say. One of the best experiences was sleeping in my swag under the stars with not an artificial light in sight – I almost thought about putting on my eye patch when the light from the moon was keeping me awake, but decided that was a bit ridiculous and I should just enjoy the experience! But don’t think it’s all fun and games. The flies will drive you nuts. I bought a very fashionable fly net just in case, and don’t think I took it off for three days! The heat is stifling, couldn’t imagine being there in the height of summer, and therefore you have to drink lots of water, but not great when there are no flushing toilets around! But despite the ‘roughing it’, it was a lot of fun. Met some great people, saw amazing views, and sipped beer (wish I could say champagne but we weren’t that fancy) watching the sunset over Uluru. Here are some of my pictures. Tried to keep to limit as many do look like the same 'red rock', and definitely don't do it justice!    |