David & Catherine Thambiratnam
Join us on our trip as we explore ancient ruins throughout the world!dt99
Travel Blog Posts
February 7th 2009
We didn't spent all of our time eating food and taking pics of the Alhambra. One of our day trips was to traipse into the Sierra Nevada to see the snow. Now, we were under absolutely no illusions that we were going to go do anything physically strenuous like actually snowboarding or skiing or snowshoeing. Or no - that would be too much work. We were going to drive to the snowfields, LOOK at the snow, and come back. And yes, again, we are that sad :) Another sight in the Sierra Nevada is the Alpujarras. This region is inhabited by Berbers, and their dwellings are very similar to what we've seen in Tunisia (think white domed houses, with a large part of the house underground, kinda like an igloo with a basement). So we were ... read more
Perils of the Alhambra and the Monopolising Laundromat
Published: March 15th 2009Europe » Spain » Andalusia » Granada
February 6th 2009
It had been a very long day - we'd started the drive from Seville at 6am, and it was now almost 10pm as we drove into Granada. We were utterly tired but had that satisfied feeling that you get when you've got a lot accomplished. So our first impressions of Granada were in the dark. Tell you what - arriving at Spanish cities and trying to find your hotel in the historic centre at night is tough!! I have no idea where we would have been without Brenda telling us to keep left, turn here, do this... as it was I was still often dubious that our car would actually fit some of those ridiculously narrow streets. But hey, we made it. Hotel was dark and foreboding. We were staying at the Carlos V, which looked ... read more
On The Road to Granada - Cadiz and Gibraltar
Published: February 21st 2009Europe » Spain » Andalusia » Cádiz
February 4th 2009
Done with Seville! We had really enjoyed our time there, now it was time to head to Granada. It was only about 300km, but we were going the indirect way over the coast, planning to stop at Cadiz and Gibraltar and maybe Malaga on the way. To get the most out of the day, we checked out at 5:45am, and were on the road at 6am. One nice thing about having a baby is we are now very used to being up at that time, so it was really easy to get ourselves organised to leave on time! Like the last day trip - traffic was non-existent, fog was maximal, and we flew along the fantastic roads to Cadiz. Cadiz Cadiz is a little town on the coast, originally founded by the Phoenicians, and is the ... read more
February 2nd 2009
We were staying in Seville for 5 days, with intent to use it as a base for a couple of day trips into the countryside. We even had a tentative idea that we could go to Morocca - the boat goes across from the south coast and takes 35 min! - however further investigations revealed that it only went to Tangiers, and it would have cost us around $400 AUD for the day trip - not worth it to see Tangiers in my book!! An early morning in Cordoba But there is still plenty to see around Seville. The most obvious visit is Cordoba, which was an ancient capital of Al-Andalus back when the Muslims ruled the south of Spain. It was a freezing cold day and we left really early in the morning to beat ... read more
January 30th 2009
We hit the road at mid-day for our 500km drive to Seville. Having never driven in Spain, we were really not sure what we were in for. Armed with Brenda (our GPS) and a large map, we headed out of Madrid, excited about the adventure ahead. Were we in for a treat! The roads in Spain are unbelievably good. Well signposted, fantastic quality, almost always with 2 lanes for each direction, and both directions separated. And we got to do 120kmh, which is a treat for us Aussies who at best get 110kmh! On top of the roads being good, the countryside was gorgeous!! Lots of rolling green hills, with picturesque white houses stuck in the middle of them, just begging to be photographed. If Catherine had not been persistently firm, we would have never got ... read more
January 27th 2009
Madrid was always going to be a quick stop for us. Land, rent a car, get to hotel, sleep, wake up, go see the Guernica (that's a Picasso that Catherine really wanted to see), and then drive to Seville. We landed at 11am, exhausted but jubilant that we were finally there. Picked up the rental car and headed out to find our hotel. After her 3 hours sleep in 24 Sahara fell asleep before we had actually worked out how to start the car! I had forgotten to specify that I needed an automatic car, and so not only did I have to cope with driving on the right, I had to also remember to shift gears with the wrong hand!! As for directions - we had trusty Brenda (my GPS phone) there to help us ... read more
January 26th 2009
Time for another adventure!! Catherine is turning 30 this Feb, and since we were flush with Frequent flyer points, we figured we could fly almost anywhere, Catherine's choice. Of course, she then really struggled with the options for ages - after all, when you’ve got the whole world to pick from ,how do you make a choice? Our choices were complicated by the fact we are now the proud parents of our beautiful little 16-month girl, Sahara, and it would not be a holiday without her(!) - which meant the place had to be reasonably kid-friendly (ie: no adverse environments like war zones) and did not require any inoculations (Sahara is too young for them!) So with these limitations, we looked at what was on our list of places we wanted to see next: Morocco, Jordan, ... read more
August 15th 2006
We last left you guys with us bustling our way through busy Beijing. So far Beijing had been very exciting; we had eaten far too much food, shopped like maniacs (cheap clothes!!), and spent far too much time trying to figure out the public transport system... so it was time to get on to the real things we were there to see! The Forbidden City was one of the first stops. It's situated smack bang in the geographical centre of Beijing, which also means it's smack bang in the middle of the traffic and smog!! Thankfully on the day we went out to see it, we had beautiful weather; blue skies and all!! Little were we to know this was going to be our ONLY blue sky day. Anyway; let me set the scene for you ... read more
August 14th 2006
It had been a harrowing and difficult time getting out of the UK, and I was glad to be finally leaving the country!! Even more exciting was the fact that I would FINALLY get to see my girl!! It had been far too many weeks of just phone calls, the odd video call, and countless emails! I was also looking forward to Beijing for lots of other reasons of course :) To start with, it was yet another new place that I hadn't been to, and had lots of cool things to see, like the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. Then there was the fact that after 3 weeks of travelling for work, I was finally done and this was going to be pure fun yay!! Finally, I was very much looking forward to seeing ... read more
August 10th 2006
I last left you all with me traipsing through beautiful Boston, laughing it up with the locals. I've got lots of comments on the fact that I seemed to meet lots of friendly people and got out lots - well it wasn't always like that - I definitely did spend lots of rather boring nights stuck in a hotel room with my laptop and CNN to keep me company! My plans after Boston were to go spend a week in New Jersey and Denver, then fly to the UK for a few days, then Dublin, then Oslo, then Beijing. So I was thinking maybe I MIGHT write something in Oslo, if anything fun happened, else definitely Beijing would be my next story! After all, what could possibly happen of interest in between right? Ha. Tempted fate ... read more
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