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Europe and More
Welcome all, family, friends, and those we don't know who have far too much time on their hands......... welcome to our dodgy travelblog, where we will attempt to upload some of our experiences over the next few months. The good, the bad and hopefully no uglies... Xuan and Adrian
Quick summary of where we're going: We will begin in the UK, then progress to some of the well travelled parts of western europe including Italy, France, Germany and a brief stop in the Czech Republic followed by a hectic week visiting family in Vietnam before finally heading back to Melbourne's welcoming winter...
Well that's it, feel free to send us a message (or donation) and we'll get back to you shortly :)
Cheers
Travel Blog Posts
November 28th 2008
Ok it has been a while since we've updated this blog. Mainly because we are no longer travelling and have now returned to the sad reality that is work and everyday life... On the upside, we do have some engagement photos recently taken last saturday - a consolation for the eventual end to the best holiday ever!! Thank you to those who came, it was a lovely day, and one we will never forget. Xuan & Adrian... read more
June 13th 2008
Sorry for the long delayed entries - after Paris it was a mad dash for the rest of the trip and Amsterdam was definitely no exception. We only spent 2 nights there so basically had to cram in a stack of stuff in one day. Anne Frank's house was pretty cool even though the queue to get in was outrageously long, still it was worth it. Just walking around the city is amazing, it is so relaxed and laid back, and we couldn't get over what they were selling in all the shops!! We definitely wished we had stayed longer, enough to maybe rent a bike and ride around the countryside a bit, although we were a bit late for the tulips this year. We did manage catch a few free outdoor music concerts and the ... read more
June 12th 2008
Ok from now on we are only going to write one blog per country - this is due to a mixture of spending far too much time on the internet writing this up when we're supposed to be travelling, and also our attempt to curb some spending at internet cafes. The latter doesn't apply here because we are in Paris staying at a relative's place so internet is free!! yay!! So France has been pretty awesome. Once again time has flown and we find ourselves wishing we had stayed longer in Paris. Nice was our first stop in France, where the weather was warm and we could relax away from the crowds of Rome. The city is so beautiful and so easy to walk on foot, very flat and pedestrian friendly. The famous beach was nice ... read more
June 7th 2008
After arriving at Termini station, we hopped in a taxi that took us around some narrow streets and finally dropped us off at our apartment. We stayed in a region called Trastavere. There was so many restaurants around, it reminded me more of Lygon St, just on a bigger scale. The first major thing we saw was Vatican City as part of a tour. Not knowing much about art, it certainly helped having an explanation of some of those famous paintings and sculptures. The Sistine Chapel was impressive and I can see why Leonardo Da Vinci was so annoyed when he realised the task that lay ahead. The next day we went on another tour. This time to the Roman Forum and the Colloseum. It was about 35 degrees so it was tough going out in ... read more
May 25th 2008
Goodbye UK, hello Europe!! What a change!!! First stop, Venezia, Italy. What an incredible city, despite our limited time there and the crummy weather on the first day. Our place in San Toma was very nice and the owner Marco was delightful. Our cold was still progressing so we couldn't take advantage of all our time there, but what we saw was stunning, it is definitely a sight to see, and the gelati was yummy!!!!!! We quickly found out that Italy is not a great place for sitting, except perhaps for random steps with a slice of pizza. Sitting at cafes and restaurants often come with a service charge to match. After leaving beautiful Venice and its canals, we took the 2.5 hour train to Florence where we met up with Ron again and stayed in ... read more
May 25th 2008
Well after more than a week of being sick with a very nasty bug, both adrian and I are finally on the recovering end... we were pretty much bed ridden for the entire time, it was like the worst hangover ever but without the alcohol... however we did tread on, and with a lot of horrid cough medicine and plenty of paracetamol, we are on track again. It's always crap being sick, but worse when you're on supposed to be on holiday. I missed out on the beautiful medieval banquet at Lumley Castle which the guys from Chester Le had organised way before we arrived. They had all planned a surprise for us on Friday night with a formal medieval banquet at the castle where Adrian and I were supposed to be the Baron and Baroness ... read more
May 13th 2008
It's 10.30pm now and we've been up since 6.30am this morning, so I will keep this short and simple. The last few days have been spent with loads of Adrian's family, most of the pictures were taken at Mandy's place about half an hour from Chester Le. Her place is gorgeous and backs into this lovely pathway leading to a farm with stream, sheep, and lots of beautiful greenery. They treated us to a traditional English meal of Yorkshire Pudding with meat and gravy which was quite nice actually. Once again, most of the family was there, and the weather was once again beautiful and sunny. Yesterday, we had a fantastic day out with Joe (big joe and little joe), Sue, Carl, Mim, Jack and Elsie who showed us around where Adrian's mum and nan used ... read more
May 10th 2008
Ok, so two days ago we met up with Ron who had hired a car to drive up to Durham to spend a bit over a week here and visit Adrian's family. The drive from London was a long 5 or so hours so we were hungry and tired by the time we arrived here. Adrian's family lives in Chester Le Street, which I later learnt is in fact a small suburb, not a street. This place is quaint and cute, with a very close knit village feel to it. Everyone seems to know everyone and there are plenty of trees and parkland everywhere. The weather has again been superb since we arrived, which we expected and were told to be much worse. The first night we arrived, we were greeted by the start of Adrian's ... read more
May 8th 2008
Today is our last day in London (at least for sightseeing, we will come back later as a stopover to somewhere else). Can't believe it's been a week, the time has flown by and my feet are paying the price for all the things we've done. We've managed to fit in so much this week and we've hardly had a chance to be home except to sleep for a few hours before the next day begins... but it has been such an experience, London has blown us away and the weather could not have been better. Monday 6th was a public holiday here, so we went with Astrid and Gareth to Tower of London - interesting history and the tour guide was kind enough to describe all the gory details of the executions that took place ... read more
May 4th 2008
Well we're finally here, the flight was tiring, and I ended up getting a bit sick whilst waiting for the plane to land in London - apparently all the planes go into a holding pattern which means they take a bloody long time to land!!! We even had a blast of lightning right when we were about to land, quite freaky... Anyway the last few days have been really eventful - we caught the Tube to Astrid and Gareth's place which is pretty cool and easily reachable by train. Completely buggered that night and meet up with Ron the next day for a day around London. Photos should be here... London is amazing and there are countless places to go, things to see, it was difficult to fit as much as we can into the limited ... read more
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