Travel Blog Posts
Switzerland and the ride of a lifetime
Published: November 8th 2009Europe » Switzerland » North-East » Zürich
October 31st 2009
With our last long weekend ahead, we decided to take Friday afternoon and Tuesday as holidays to extend it even further. We hit the road for Zurich on Friday arvo. Saturday moring in Zurich was spent at an awesome flea market and the afternoon somehow vanished attending the ExpoVina. ExpoVina comprised 12 boats moored together and hundreds, maybe a couple of thousand wines available for tasting. You paid a one-off entry fee and walked from boat to boat, each with at least two levels and probably 10 or more different "booths" set up for each vineyard or region. You received a taste of anything you wanted. And boy, did those "tastes" add up!! At the Aussie booth, where we wanted to try some wines that were selling for about 40-60 Euros a bottle, we chatted to ... read more
October 24th 2009
Having enjoyed many fine glasses of bubbly over the years, it would have been extremely remiss to not visit the Champagne Region! Autumn is such a beautiful time to visit as the colours add magnificently to the rolling hills. We had Saturday in Reims in a really funky hotel, then drove over to Epernay on Sunday where there really is a Champagne Avenue. We did the tour at Moet & Chandon, which was very interesting. Who would have thought that underneath the streets were so many tunnels, caves and yummy bottles of champers!!... read more
October 17th 2009
Up to Amsterdam to see some local boys - Eskimo Joe, who were supported by another local fav, Bob Evans. Fantastic shows by both at a great venue and made me very proud that they were from our home town. The Amsterdam marathon was on Sunday, so that meant a few roads blocked off. I loved the way that they had tents set up along the route in town where people were playing different types of music. We called into The Hague on the way home to catch up the Maria, Andy, Lily and Cormac. Was great to see them all again and meet Cormac who was only just confirmed when last I saw them in Fremantle... ... read more
October 10th 2009
Cruised down to Luxembourg city for a weekend break. Sitting at lunch on Saturday arvo, we noticed heaps of supporters dressed in red and white. When we enquired, we discovered that it was a World Cup game there that night, Switzerland vs Luxembourg. Ah, that explained all the cow bells!! We followed the crowds to the venue and scored a couple of tickets outside the gate. It had been sold out for some time, so we considered ourselves pretty lucky. The game ended up 3-1 to the Swiss and I suppose that ratio also reflected the number of supporters. Heaps more Swiss than Luxies. After a sleep-in the next morning and late checkout, we returned to the carpark across the road to put away our luggage and to go for a walk through the valley. Alas, ... read more
September 25th 2009
Martin and I hooked up in Hamburg for a fantastic weekend. Wonders of the internet meant that we had been able to arrange a venue to watch the AFL Grand Final with the Hamburg Dockers!! We had a very early start - 6.30am at an Irish Pub, watching the game. We then took a harbour/port cruise which was very interesting as it is a large working port and has thousands of containers and a floating dock for ship maintenance work. This was very cool, the ship sails into the dock, which has been sunk, they then pump the water out of the dock and lift the ship out of the water to do the work. We also lucked out with the Rheeperbahn music festival being held the same weekend. So it was late, late nights catching ... read more
September 16th 2009
Martin drove through Denmark and caught a ferry from the tip of Denmark to Kristiansand Norway. Leaving home at 8am he arrived in Norway about midnight. He then drove around the southern fjord area of Norway for the next week - passing through Mandal (on the fegnya), Stavinger, Bergen, Voss, Song Fjord. He checked out the glacier near Jostedal and then onto Oslo. Heading home, he drove down the west coast of Sweden passing through Copenhagen, on the ferry again, this time landing in Germany/Hamburg to spend the next four days with his bride. ... read more
September 11th 2009
Martin and I were fortunate to be in Antwerp for the 2nd Indian Customers vs RTD cricket match. A couple of training sessions before the day meant we actually got to touch a cricket ball and for me, a couple of swings of a cricket bat in the nets... Despite my duck, I managed not to let any balls pass me when fielding, but alas, didn't get to show them my Sandy's special flipper as I didn't get to bowl. At least I faced a ball though, Martin padded up and his batting partner faced three balls and was then out. That was the entire RTD team dismissed! We then had a fantastic dinner/dance hosted by the Indian Customers and overnight stay at a hotel on a lake. Martin and I chose to spend the following ... read more
September 5th 2009
Beautiful forests, rolling mountains, this is another gorgeous part of Belgium. We spent Saturday night in Durbuy, a pretty little town that is very popular with the Belgies for holidays also. As it was a speciality, and in season, we tried some wild boar... It was in a stew and very tasty. Then on Sunday Marty had me cycling from Rochefort to Houyet and back. This is a round trip of about 40kms... The track was really cool though. They'd laid bitumen over a disused railway track, so it was away from the main roads and through some beautiful country. ... read more
August 29th 2009
What a buzz!! Superb location, amid the beautiful forest. It took a long time to find - all the signs leading off the freeway were great, but we had about half a dozen junctions after that to navigate purely by guesswork... Eventually we arrived and had a fantastic time. We lucked out with a B&B - accommodation is booked out usually, and stayed the night rather than drive home and back again on the Sunday. Earplugs are an absolute must and those cars fly!! We walked the outside of the circuit on the Saturday to determine the best place to sit on the Sunday, which is when the finals were held. We ended up on a little peninsular that was quite narrow, so you could go from side to side to see them approach the corner, ... read more
Edinburgh Festival
Published: August 28th 2009Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Midlothian » Edinburgh
August 20th 2009
After a brilliant Monday night outdoors mesmerised by Sinead O'Connor, Martin has a head start on our Edinburgh jaunt. He flew out today, Thursday, I follow on Friday after work until Sunday. Festival was fantastic, so many shows!!! Now I know why they say it is the best festival in the world. Standup comedy, theatre, cabaret, street performers, sword swallowers, over 300 venues and who knows how many acts to fill them? At any given hour, between 10 in the morning to 10 at night, you could see over 100 acts. But even outside of those hours, 24 hour entertainment with heaps of choices. All people working, whether in a bar or at a venue were so friendly, fantastic vibe!! Highlights for me were Will Anderson and Rich Hall, while Marty liked Jason Byrne. I passed ... read more
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