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Janet and I are currently in Greece. We left Calgary Wed last week and and spent a few days in Athens. For reasons unknown to us, Athens has been trashed-talked by many people but we had a great time. Our accommodation was good, we took in all the sights and enjoyed some excellent restaurants. It was a great start to our vacation. We then flew to our feature destination - Santorini. We are staying in the town of Oia, which is perched on the cliffs of an ancient volcano. The setting is incredible with stunning views of the remains of the volcano, the Agean Sea, great sunsets, lovely villas and other dwellings, blue skies and hot weather. Oia is away from the main town of Fira, which is the focal point for all the cruise ships and the masses of tourists. We are staying in a traditional Santorini 'cave' villa and look out onto the water with Fira and the cruise ships across the way. The atmosphere is very relaxing - the biggest decisions of the day are when to get up in the morning and which restaurant to select for dinner. I keep passing out in the afternoon at siesta time and will be totally comatose by the time we leave, regretably, next Sunday. The remainder of our vacation next week will be spent in Amsterdam. The main reason for the visit is to catch up with my aunt - my father's sister, who is our last remaining Dutch relative. She lives in a small town north of Amsterdam and I haven't seen her for over 20 years. No doubt, it will be an interesting visit.   
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Make sure you check out the additonal piece in the previous post as I had missed some of the travels in the UK.  Well our last night in Glasgow, it's on the plane to Heathrow tomorrow afternoon and straight through to Melbourne from there. Since our last communique we've done about 2500 kms and pretty much circumnavigated Scotland. After leaving Edinburgh we headed north over the Forth Road Bridge (ar'la Golden Gate Bridge size and style) to St Andrews, through Dundee and ended up at Pitllochry which is about in the center of Scotland and absolutely gorgeous. Once again we've done a million things seen about as many Castles and been into many nooks and kranny's including Balmoral Castle. Well folks that's about it, l think we're nudging about 2800 photos in the Cannon so yes there is a fair pictorial diary to be sorted on return home. After 6 weeks it's time to head home, you can only sightsee and dine out so much. Home is sounding a pretty good option! AL & Av. LEFT BELOW: Falkirk Wheel. An absolute engineering marvel to move Canal Boats between the height difference of two Canal systems. RIGHT BELOW: Dunottar Castle on East Coast south of Aberdeen pictured below. I've concluded that wherever was the most inhospitable, highest, out of the way place is where you'd build your Castle back in them there old days.   The UK bitOur trek continues and we have today arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was a 7 hour drive from the Costwells North on the M6 through the Lakes Districts. Fortunately we didn't deviate off the freeway given reports of shootings that were coming through on the radio, and now we know why there were some rather high speed Police cars whizzing by us on the freeway. Anyway pleased to report that despite 12 dead and many wounded we're OK and not involved, terrible.......enough said. Well our few days in the UK were enjoyable, but personally l was happy to move on. We arrived into Bath on a long weekend along with the rest of the best of the British! So nice though it was the crowds were overwhelming. Fortunately we were staying in the superb Bath "Priory Hotel" which was an oasis, and a haven to return to. Bath is certainly well worth a visit, and the old Roman Baths a must see. However the Cotswell area was far more laid back and the country side beautiful. We stayed at a small town called Broadway in the Lygon Arms Hotel, pronouced Liggon! Having been built in the 1500's the building has to be seen to be believed. I got up a gallop getting from the bed to the bathroom, such were the floor angles, before tripping over the 18 x 6 piece of timber acting as the original entry step and cracking my head on the 5 Ft something head clearance doorway. Anyway all good stuff, but so old it was spooky, with sealed off doorways and thin narrow corridors and wooden latches still on the doors. I think it's called atmospheric, but my vote was medieval scary; and l'm sure haunted! A dinner venue was a drive to Castle Combe and dine at the local pub. Regretably there was only ONE miserable parking space left in town so l had no choice but shoe horn the Mondeo in, in true European "touch parking style", it was a fine effort but l still wince at the thought! Back touch, forward touch, l'm sure you get the picture......... agh! Anyway all in a good nights fun but my crew at home would be shaking there heads and l'll no doubt be chastised on my return, and rightly so! Visited Shakespeares birth and burial place (another bloody Cathedral) of Stratford-upon-Avon yesterday, and had our first rainy day in 4 weeks but can't complain. Currently 10.30 pm Wednesday June 2nd and now twilight in Edinburgh. Speaking of which Mrs Co-pilot had her 5 minutes of glory when we reached the center of Edinburgh CBD and road works prevented entry. The GPS WAS STUFFED, so out came the map and the navigator checked her Longs & Lats before taking temporary command, thank god this was only short lived and sanity soon returned but l'm sure the storey will go down in the annals for ever after!   Well 4 nights, 3 full days in Edinburgh and we've given it fair coverage. According to the locals we struck the best weather week of the year, with warm clear days and temps in the low 20's. You could pick the locals, they were the ones in Shorts and T Shirts, and were either white, red or two tone and nothing in between. The parks were full of people laying in the sun, however the rain did move in on Saturday afternoon with some heavy showers. This morning (Sunday)forecast is for a high of 13 so seems we did get the best of it as we head off to explore the North of Scotland, which is completely unplanned and nothing booked. We've covered most of the key attractions in Edinburgh. All in all we've enjoyed our time in Edinburgh. However the roads are terrible and they could do with better cleaning of the City. In summary, visited Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace once Charles moved on, Rosslyn Chapel (Da Vinci Code fame), Royal Yacht Britainia, Botanical Gardens, Tour of the old Underground City, Scotish Parliment, the Nelson Monument, the Firth of Forth suspension bridge, (stunning and on a par with Golden Gate Bridge), walked the Royal Mile, and visited a plethora of other assorted places including the odd Scotish Bar or two!    LEFT: Entrance to Edinburgh Castle which is being setup for the Tattoo.
CENTRE: Royal Botanical Garfens, the Water Lillies were amazing, infact the whole gardens were superb and an absolute credit. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there and it was free. RIGHT: Thought we'd have a few friends on board Britainnia for dinner, Dinned onboard for Lunch and even used the Royal Loo ! 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.
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!       I had been meaning to write something for a while about the Olympics, I guess better late than never! :) I have also attached some photos too that you can use.
I was lucky enough to be in the thick of the action, both in a work and fun capacity. During the olympics, I worked at Canada Hockey Place where all the mens ice hockey games were played as a concessions cashier. So I was basically getting paid to pour pints. The atmosphere at each game was amazing and I managed to get a glimpse or two of it. I also had a main job working for a temp agency where I was assisting with co-ordinating some of the workforce responsible for the transportation of all involved in the olympics i.e. athletes, spectators, media, sponsors etc. Just as awesome, before the olympics had even started, a few friends and I were fortunate enough to see some of the torch relay through Vancouver and shake hands with the very handsome Canadian singer Michael Buble, it was amazing. During the olympics the streets were packed with patriotism not just from Canadians but everyone who had flocked here. It was awesome to see. There was nothing like it when the men's ice hockey team won the gold, it almost made you wish you were Canadian. There was lots of entertainment on and lots of places to check out. We lined up to get into the Canadian Mint to see some of the olympic medals on display and to get to hold them. Such a great design. Also on the night of the opening ceremony we watched it in a cinema for free and then hopped to a bar next door where we even managed to hold a torch from the relay. I could talk about the experience and go on and on, but all in all it was so good to be a part of it and something I will never forget. Kristy    Well, it is 5am here on the computer, being in a recovery mode from jet lag after a stimulating two weeks spent in Arizona USA.
Main purpose of our visit was to unite with our daughter Erin who is studying at Tucson University Arizona for a six month 'Study Abroad' stint. What a fabulous experience for her, as well as ourselves, in such a stunning part of the world. Yes, Arizona is just like the Clint Eastwood or John Wayne movies with arid landscapes dotted with 'mesas' and 'buttes' - they are those spires and flat-top formations that dominate the backdrops in movies. And those dominant Saguaro cacti provide natural habitat for roadrunners and coyotes - just like the cartoon. Also found are the prairie dogs, one of which decided to scamper to its peril under our hire car being driven by Jenny. Grand Canyon is very much that. A helicopter view assisted to get the proportions in perspective being a mile deep and about ten miles wide! Great time to visit now, over the transition from cold desert winters to stifling hot spells in their summer to come. Much snow still on higher peaks with Flagstaff in the north having about 300 days each year of sub-zero nightly temperatures. Tucson is quite Mexican in form and culture. Big attractions included a baseball game at the University of Arizona Wildcats versus Oregon Ducks competition. Yes, those pom pom girls, bulk burgers and other high cholesterol foods abound. Erin, our daughter is relishing the experience of US college life. Sorority parties are a bizarre rage; football is American of course; college sport is huge! Do consider Study Abroad program through University if family or friends are tempted. Ian Stevenson    Mel & Mark have returned from Tassie full of praise for the West Coast of the island. Highlights were Gordon River cruise, historic Strahan railway and the beauty of Cradle Mountain have left them with some wonderful memories. I am sure Mel can give us plenty more comments. One of the challenges for the sceptics amongst us were the ghost tours done in Launceston and Port Arthur. The photo below was taken of a solid grey sheet steel door on the Launceston tour. The image of a stage is only visible in the photo !!! I will leave it to you to form your own opinion. Mel has plenty more stories.  Plenty of hiking, biking, training, sailing and generally a full on adventure.    |