May 17 - 22 Barcelona to Bangkok Going to Barcelona was something of a whim, an alternative to paying for astronomically expensive London accommodation. To be fair, we had always planned to make another trip into Europe and had always wanted to go to Spain as Marty has had a wonderful picture of a Spanish city landscape (Madrid I think) on our flat wall for the past four years. Anyway, we had a look through various last minute deals and decided that the trip was a goer, particularly after a hearty recommendation from Gavin and Catriona. Once again making our way [View Full Entry]

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May 14 -17; London When I imagine city life, London fits the ideal type. New York is more renowned for its intensity, but for me London is where it is at (in the Western world anyway). The city is just alive with people of all denominations, all going about their business in an individual manner which is invisibly coordinated by city structures and unconsciously shared values. All intellectual pursuit aside, the city is simply alive. You cannot but get caught up by the intensity and the individuality of it all; it is a peculiar element of the human condition that one [View Full Entry]

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May 8 -14 London - Scotland - London It is with great sadness that we are saying goodbye to Scotland. It really has been a holiday away from a holiday. We have had long sleeps (9-10 hours each night) in comfortable beds, beautiful home cooked meals, and generally been looked after as family. After the intensity of the past three weeks, that is exactly what we have needed. Not to say that we have not got out and enjoyed Scotland, it has just been at a reduced pace and increased comfort level. The increased comfort started in London, where we upgraded [View Full Entry]

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Day 19: Amsterdam Amsterdam is a weird place, which automatically makes it a wonderful one. Although I don’t think that I am perfectly suited to the lifestyle. For a start, Amsterdam is a naturally beautiful city. Like many of the European cities that we have visited, it is based upon a river and takes full advantage of this resource. One of the highlights of the city was the highly developed house boats on the river and associated canals. I really fancy living on a house boat. Amsterdam also has a very pretty park. This is, of course, not what Amsterdam is [View Full Entry]

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Day 16: Prague to Berlin Another travel day. I didn’t fully appreciate the distances between countries in Europe until this tour. The travel days are getting tougher and tougher. Initially we were full of cheer, but as the bus gets sicker and the hangovers build up, the long drives are becoming quite difficult. Most mornings are very quiet as the vast majority of the bus is asleep. This morning was no different. Thankfully we did have an interesting stop at Dresden, a German city. Dresden was once regarded as one of the richest and most beautiful cities in Europe before it [View Full Entry]

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Day 12: Venice I wonder how long the novelty of having canals instead of roads, boats instead of cars, would last? As a one-off experience it is a wonderful novelty, tinged somewhat by the unpleasant spell of the canals, which are polluted with typical road rubbish. The romance of the city on water is palpable, but in terms of convenience I think it would probably be a nightmare. As tourists though, Venice was a througouly enjoyable city, both for the shear novelty of the cities layout (essentially a series of islands, loosely attached by bridges but ultimately connected by canals acting [View Full Entry]

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Day 6: Nice First impressions are so often the right ones; they give a real instinctual grasp of something before thought and reason take over. And so it proved with Nice. As I noted in my last dispatch (which was quite a while ago, but more on that latter), Nice and the French Riviera combined the sublime and the abject in remarkable proximity. First, the sublime. The most notable of this category is the landscape, particularly the distinctly Mediterranean beaches. Unfortunately these beaches had stones instead of sand and were too cold for all but the most hardly antipodeans to swim [View Full Entry]

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Day 8: Florence Victoria didn’t see much too much today, as she was too sick, as are many of the people on the bus; some people went to the doctor, others to the hospital. So Chris takes over the story; I was quite sick myself today, so didn’t have much enthusiasm for Florence. It is a shame that so much travelling dulls your appetite new experiences. Were we to visit Florence straight from Auckland I’m sure we would have been blown away. Instead, although we could appreciate the beauty and history of the city, it was difficult when the vast majority [View Full Entry]

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Day 3 Paris to Launterbrunnen A travel day today, so not much to report, apart from ten hours of sitting still and some beautiful Swiss countryside. The mountains are simply stunning; it is like a uncommericalised Queenstown on a larger scale - the Swiss alps run forever - although not quite as beautiful as Queenstown in my opinion. Two things interested me in particular; Swiss organisation and wealth and the organic positioning of Swiss villages and houses. I suspect that this is because many of the settlements have been around for much longer than organised roading systems, which tend to [View Full Entry]

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Paris, Day 1 & 2 Paris is a city of class and our tour here has allowed us to experience Parisian class is the widest sense of the term. Our trip began in London, having flown in from Sweden the previous day. I am mighty glad we don’t have to fly again for a month. Our Heathrow experience was a lot more pleasant this time around - the underground from the airport is very easy. The backpackers in London fine, nothing special but everything you expect from a hostel. Accommodation is expensive in London - the price we are paying here [View Full Entry]

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