So there we were in Gozo, an island off Malta- one of our favourite places so far on this trip! Malta is fantastic and Gozo is just as good, if not better. We had quite a pleasant flight (about 3 hours) to Malta from England with a very funny Captain who came out and introduced himself and his wicked sense of humour, and got lots of giggles out of everyone (people over 60 seem to find dry humour a lot funnier than the average....or was it because they were all British?), then we proceeded to have a few more wines and chat to the Canadian-Australian with Maltese heritage (who is a non-uniformed member of Vic Police) who seemed to not like flying but very much liked Jonnie Walker! We had lots of interesting conversations with our ... read more
(Kate) As you know, we had a marvellous time with Anne and Richard in the south of France and an awesome time in France as a whole- just under a month. I don't agree with the stereotype about Parisiennes- all the people in Paris we met or were served by were lovely, or supernice or just pleasant- we didn't really come across the arrogance or rude people. I do agree with Richard though- the French (or maybe just the French authorities?) love to confuse people or take some kind of secret pleasure in with-holding information....Road signs are the best example!!! Well, we made it to Charles De Gaulle Airport in the hire car in the POURING rain on Tuesday 8 May and battled Paris traffic in terrible vision to arrive at our destination after a few ... read more
BEAUTIFUL PART OF FRANCE (Leroy) Thanks to the lovely Jan McCallum Johnston for offering us her cottage in Nolay very early on in our trip planning, Katey and I ventured to the Cote d'Or region of France, which in essence is the Burgandy region. Rumour had it that they made a bottle or two of wine there. After a 5 hour drive north from the Pyrenees to Nolay we were keen to stretch our legs, so we opted for a stroll through town. We soon realised that Jan was very correct in telling us it was a pretty little village. Our stroll lasted 10 minutes and we ended up in the only place open on Sunday arvo - the bar. We manged to get some pizzas and wander home to the wine that Anne had packed ... read more
Well, we arrived in Barcelona after a scenic drive from Valencia, including a stop off for breakfast at a roadhouse where a bus-load of oldies (read 60+) hopped off and cracked open beers with their breakfast at 8am. Must be a cultural thing? We battled the Barcelona city traffic in our hire car to eventually find a 24 hour parking lot to keep our car in for a few days and spent the afternoon strolling around La Rambla, the antiques markets down on the harbour and ventured up the ** Column for 360 degree views of Barcelona. Very impressive but a little daunting watching the traffic hooning around the round-about we were in the middle of! On day 2 we decided that we had earned a bit of a sleep in, having gotten up before dawn ... read more
(Leroy) Finding our hotel was fun!!! It was in a little back street that was impossible to find by car and we spent about 45 mins driving around a 500m radius trying to find the bugger. So we ditched the car in a secure park and went on foot. Did I mention it was 10.30pm on a friday night and the place was going crazy with pommy stag nights and normal Spainish just doing their thing (aka eating and drinking in plazas). Katey was calm through the whole ordeal and was a gem, if it was me I would have cracked the sh&ts very early on. We only had 1 full day in Valencia and as Katey's a yachty at heart we spent the day at the America's Cup port. The Port was huge, I was ... read more