SKMantle

Like all good adventure stories, this one starts off like any other day. While going about our daily routine in the Shire of Balgowlah, I noticed that there was some new correspondence from a long lost Uncle, the great wizard James Snyder of Chatham Shire. He was boasting of his annual journey to the land of Hobbiton, known as New Zealand on the HobbitBook message board. After a quick discussion and a few Golummail’s back and forth to James, we decided to visit the lands of New Zealand and fit in a much overdue visit. We left armed with plane tickets, only our first two nights' accommodation, and a loose plan to meet James at noon hour of the 7that the central crossing of Queen Street and Vulcan Lane. Over the afternoon with James we loaded ... read more

First off, we have not been lost in Berlin this whole time. The lack of blogs may be directly correlated to the niceness of the weather here in Sydney, Australia, where we currently are. Also some deals were made regarding who was supposed to write this blog, however, someone dropped the ball. I won't name and shame because I have to continue traveling with her... Cape Town was an amazing two weeks of fun in the sun. You are all probably tired of hearing us say how blessed we are with wonderful, kind and generous friends. But we are so will say so again. We stayed with our friends Claire and Tim and their two little boys Hugo and Andrew. We also got to spend many fantastic days with our friends Sarah (Sarah and Claire are ... read more

Lots of people have said to us "how is it you lived in Europe for 5 years and never made it to Prague?" Our standard response was that we had saved it so we would have somewhere great to go back to when we came to Europe again. We can now tick Prague off the list. Kimmy found us an amazing apartment in central Prague, about 2 minutes' walk from the famous square with the overrated clock. Our apartment was a huge one bedroom and every morning we got served an incredibly large and delicious breakfast that was slightly different all three mornings. Typical menu: omelette, orange juice, coffee, tea, croissant, sweet pastries, fresh fruit, meats and cheeses, buns, yoghurt, and cereal. We were able to easily put together lunch from our breakfast leftovers!!!! The thing ... read more

It seemed like a good idea at the time... So we arrived at Napoli's main train station armed with google map directions to our hotel, that should take a total of 20 mins to walk to. It is absolutely chucking it down with rain and the station is filled with people waiting the rain out. However, we decided that since it was not far we would make for the hotel and hope for the best. In the blinding rain, unable to pull out the ipad, it took us almost twenty mins to get across the piazza in front of the station. Finally found the right road and started off, took us over an hour asking several people, who all agreed we were too close to catch a taxi, even though they didn't know exactly where to ... read more

It has been about five years since we've seen our good friend Leti and her husband Alex. Far too long for our liking!! And this is why I'm loving our trip. Shane and I got up extremely early on Saturday morning to make our way to Oundle, near Peterborough. This old market town of 5000 people is gorgeous, and is home to Oundle School, where both Leti & Alex teach. We are so lucky to have friends in such beautiful places. The school was established in 1556. Leti picked us up at the train station and we finally got to meet Emma, their daughter. What a sweetie! We found Emma at a coffee shop with Leti's friends, who were looking after her that morning as Leti and Alex had to teach. Shane and I had breakfast ... read more