Next morning we had brekky then went to Central to try to get our tickets to head to Lake Como also referred to as Lario. This is the third largest lake in Italy and the deepest, with a maximum depth of around 410 mtrs. While the Como section is relatively narrow and the mountains behind are somewhat uniform, the Lecco branch is more rugged and rocky. The northern part features deep valleys and tall mountains, and is the most dramatic. The central section of the lake, based around the triangle of Bellagio, Menaggio and Varenna, is where the scenery is most [View Full Entry]

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It was then time to move on so we went for a wander and decided to look for Castello Sforzesco which we finally managed to find… turns out when we were at the Dumo we were within a few minutes walk but because we wandered the other way we ended up having to trekked half way across Milan to find it!! I like to call it the scenic route!! Ok, so the castle, have to say Nat and I were too busy talking to do the full tour of the castle (but hey that’s why we were in Milan, to catch [View Full Entry]

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15th September We went for a walk to Piazza della Scala, home to the city's famous opera house which was designed by Giuseppe Piermarini in 1776-1778, to hold up to 2,000 spectators. We decided that rather than take a tour through the theatre, we would try and get last minute tickets to the final performance for the month. The deal was you had to come back at 6pm. We went for a walk, had lunch then went back for the tickets, after working out the system we finally managed to get some (which were close to the last ones!!) and then [View Full Entry]

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Whilst waiting at the airport I got a message from Nat saying she was delayed by 1.5hrs… but that’s the way it goes with us!! Nat had set about planning it perfectly so that our flights coincided with each other, but alas it wasn’t to be!! After checking through and a long wait and a relatively short flight, I finally arrived in Milan where it was raining, glad I had taken out all my long sleeve item after checking the weather in Milan for the last few weeks!!! Argh!!! It took over an hour for my bag to appear at baggage [View Full Entry]

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The next day I went for a walk through the streets and look at all the shops and the donkeys making their way through the steep winding hills as they made their way up the stairs... Sarah thought that there was an overwhelming smell of pepper, turned out to be donkey pepper!! Awesome view, awful smell!! Next day woke up and it was cloudy, after Arty told me that it’s NEVER cloudy in Santorini!! What’s going on there?!?!?! Had brekkie (with cake at the end!! Love holidays!!) and then to Maria to have the obligatory frappe who is just adorable and [View Full Entry]

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Hi All!!! Well the start of the next adventure had finally arrived!! I hadn’t been excited in the slightest in the lead up to the trip as work has been twice as hectic as usual!! Mum took me to the airport and we had some lunch then it was finally time to go to boarding and my gate was half way to China, or at least it felt like it anyways! The minute I boarded the plane I knew that it was going to be all bad, there was absolutely no in-flight entertainment - I was sooooo cursing Thai Airways and [View Full Entry]

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Made my way to the Royal National Hotel to meet up with Elisa. We boarded our open bus tour. First thing we went past was Trafalgar Square, which I’m sure any self respecting Aussie, had no interest in being near, since the English were celebrating their Ashes win against he Aussies, all wearing their ‘Kangaroo Bashers’ shirts… we then went past Leister Square, The Ritz and we jumped off at the Hard Rock - The world’s first, as we were starving!! But they were closed due to a fire that had been through there 2 months earlier so we continued up [View Full Entry]

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Wonderful Copenhagen The pre-arranged cab guy from the night before turned up when he was supposed to and we made our way to the airport, luckily it was Saturday morning and the traffic was quiet. I managed to check my bag into storage which was a relief. I bought some Australian wine - one of my favourites together with some Cadbury’s chocolate (which you can’t get in Denmark) for my chocolate monster friend, David, who collected me from the airport. After dumping my stuff off, we caught a train down town, and started checking out the city sights. It was an [View Full Entry]

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Caught the bus into town and made our first stop Anne Franks House. Really wanted to see that as I plan on reading the book when I get back home. Arty, Rohan and I met up and had a drink later before checking out one of the many sex shops, some very interesting stuff!!! We wanted to find the supermarket one!! But didn’t managed to unfortunately! Hehe!! Rohan and I headed off to do the Heineken Experience and see just how many of the free beers we could skull in the shortest amount of time… which turned out to be not [View Full Entry]

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We travelled past Cologne and crossed the border into the Netherlands. We passed canals and windmills. Apparently there are only about 1,000 working windmills left in Holland. The countryside is amazing, with green fields and crops and cows and people on tractors. There are a lot of dairy farms here, guess it goes to make the cheese they are famous for. All of the paddocks are divided by canals!! They say that Holland is 2.5m below water level and Amsterdam itself is 4.5m - hence the water everywhere on the sides of the roads and between houses etc. People around here [View Full Entry]

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