Edinburgh for All Blacks match

This blog has been a long time coming.  I have been very busy at work, we are organising our Christmas holiday and our laptop charger died so we had to order a new one!

Nathan and I traveled to Edinburgh to show our support for the boys in black.  This was our second time at Murrayfield.  As we had been to Edinburgh a few times already we had a very relaxed weekend as we weren't trying to squeeze in any touristy things.  We arrived early Saturday afternoon on the train and did a spot of shopping on our way to meet up with Alex, Anna and Borrie.  Needless to say we went from pub to pub, to restaurant  to cocktail bar to bed.  We had a sleep in on Sunday morning then ventured out to  find some brunch. After brunch we started making our way to the rugby stadium, only stopping once for a drink.  We ran out of time and just caught the Scottish team running onto the field, and much to my disappointment the All Blacks were already on the field.  It was a convincing win 51-22 to the All Blacks but there were a lot of defensive mistakes made.  After the game finished we walked back to the train station and headed home.

It seems now that I am having problems uploading photos.  Apparently my storage space is full and I have to purchase additional storage!  Watch this space.....

Porto - Portugal

 

Nath and I had a fabulous 3 full days in Porto.  Our introduction to Porto was trying to navigate our way from our hotel down the hill to the Douro river.  Not as simple as it may sound as there were little narrow lanes running everywhere.  Along our way we came across a Cathedral that had great views over the city from its car park.  It was from up here we first saw the river.  From now our task of reaching the river was easier as we could see a way down to it.  Once we got to the river we booked ourselves onto the '6 bridges river cruise', named due to the fact we pass under 6 bridges!  On the cruise the rain started so the umbrella's came up, and as the rain got heavier we had to retreat inside the boat and see as much as we could from the rain splattered windows. 
After our cruise we ventured across the Ponte Luis I bridge to the other side of town where they make port.  We had lunch looking across the Douro to the UNESCO heritage Old Town of Porto.  After lunch it was only right that we support the local industry by sampling a few ports.  I wasn't really a fan, I found the port really sweet.  I guess thats why it is drunk while eating cheese in the evening after a meal.  Although, it is also very popular with chocolate.  We ventured back to the Old Town to find some dinner before the long uphill walk to our hotel.

The next morning we rose early and caught a train to Pinhao.  The train journey took us along the Douro River and gave us magnificent views of the hills where the port-wine grapes are grown.  Again this area, the Douro Valley, is protected by UNESCO.  We hopped off the train in Pinhao and in about 5 minutes had explored the area and were ready to catch a train back.  Unfortunately the next train was in 3hrs so we had some lunch washed down with 1 euro Super Bok beer. Back in Porto and we headed down to the Old Town for dinner.  We tried not to be too early for dinner as the previous night no-one was eating dinner when we were.  We tried to be like locals and eat later, so we stopped in a bar and had two cocktails before finding a restuarant for dinner. This plan worked as there were others eating with us.

Our last day in Porto started with a work out - much needed after the indulgences of the past two days.  We walked 225 steps up to the Torre dos Clerigos to get great views over the city.  We then gave our legs a rest by taking an antique tram out to the seaside suburb of Foz do Douro.  We walked along the sea front and found a beach side cafe for lunch.  Then it was time to make our way to the airport and back to London.  A very action packed few days but also relaxing and fun.    

Nath's 1st Flying Lesson

For Nathan's 30th I bought him a one hour flying lesson.  Even though his birthday was a while ago he finally took his lesson this weekend just gone.  He loved flying and enquired how much it would cost to get his pilots licence - £7,000 for a private licence.  It would take many more birthdays before he would clock up the necessary 40hrs!

It was neat that Nath's Mum and Niece were able to come to the airfield and watch Nath fly.  The lesson took place at RAF Henlow, a working airfield, so we had to show photo ID and get temporary visitor passes printed before we were allowed on the base.  We drove past tanks and army trucks (and a golf course) before reaching the airfield.  Very cool, was hoping war would break out and we could ride in a tank!

 

Canal Boat Weekend

Nathan and I spent last weekend on a canal boat.  Nathan's family had hired one for the week and we went over on the weekend to spend time with them and experience an English tradition.  We cruised along the Trent and Mersey canal, starting at Shardlow and spending the night in Willington, before turning around and finishing back in Shardlow.  The canal was built in 1777 and it blows my mind to think the canal is older than NZ, and that the Brits were being quite industrial and inventing different modes of travel before NZ was even on the map!
To be honest, it isn't my holiday of choice as it is rather slow going and there is not much to see from the boat.  I naively thought I would see grand country estates and rolling country side, but the reality was much less exciting - over grown grass and hedges along the river bank. 
To amp up the excitment I tried steering the canal boat.  Once I got the hang of moving the tiller left to go right and right to go left things went back to mundane.  As we were only travelling at 5mph there was no wind in my hair or rush of adrenaline. The next task I tried was opening the locks.  They are very heavy and much harder to move than I thought they would be.  Luckily Kylie and Ashleigh had been practicing opening them all week and could pass on expert advice. 
I really enjoyed parking up at the pub for lunch - a bit different having to tie your boat up and walking across the back yard to the pub.  All-in-all it was good to get out and do something different and its nice for Nathan to spend time with his family.

Sail Croatia

This blog has been a long time coming as we haven't had internet at home for a couple of weeks.  Currently we are "borrowing" it from the neighbours upstairs.  Lets not detract from the purpose of this blog - to tell you all what an amazing time we had in Croatia!  It was such an amazing and relaxing holiday that we would do it again in a heart beat. 

Multi tasking

We flew (delayed - never again Wizz air!) in to Split where we jumped abaord our yacht 'Angela' which was our home for the next 7 nights.  12 people on board a 49 foot yacht makes for a cosy living space.  Luckily we were all mates and had time on dry land where we went off and did our own things if we needed some time apart. What was neat about this trip was that we were able to get hands on and sail the yacht.  Jasper our skipper was good at letting us take the ropes and with his guidance we were able to sail the yacht ourselves. 

Our first port of call was Vis.  I think this was my favourite of all the Islands we visited.  In the afternoon we did a tour of under ground war bunkers left from the war of independence fought with Yugoslavia.  The tour finished with wine tasting at a local winery.  Random tour combination but very cool, especially as our tour vehicle was actually ex-army and used in the war.  I was kind of wondering how many people might have died in the vehicle.
All of our yacht took advantage of the free punch put on by Med Sailors (our tour company) and basically it started the night off in style.  Drinking from plastic cups and not knowing what was in the punch felt like uni re-visited.  The night ended up quite big for some, with one unlucky punter passing out on the dock (yes Mum that was me!).  We were so lucky the next day that our skipper made the decision not to leave the marina as there were a few hangovers that were bad enough to cope with on dry land, let alone the rocky sea.  We were supposed to moore up in a Bay for the following night but as the wind was meant to pick up we stayed safe and secure in the marina at Vis.  This gave us time to swim at the beach during the day and explore the old town in the evening. 



From Vis we sailed to a beautiful marina close to Hvar.  The name of the marina sounded like parmigiana cheese.  We had a great afternoon swimming then relaxing at a beach side cocktail bar.  Later that afternoon we took a water taxi to Hvar where we watched the sun set and then headed down an alleyway to find a restaurant for dinner.  We came across a great place that served delicious seafood risotto.

Stari Grad

From Hvar we sailed to Stari Grad which literally means Old Town.  The centre of Stari Grad is a UNESCO heritage site.  We had fun wandering around the narrow lanes of the old town and reading the information about the town.  We wanted to climb the bell tower of the church to get a view of the old town and the marina but it was closed.  We enjoyed some cocktails before meeting up for a group dinner wih the other yachts that were on tour with us.  We sailed in a convoy of 8 yachts.

Our last night was spent moored up in bay called Bobovisca. On our way to Bobovisca we anchored up in a small bay where we dived into crystal clear water and snorkeled before having lunch.  We had a couple of swims today as this would be our last chance for swimming.  Bobovisca town is so small there are only two restaurants and we had to be taken from the yacht to shore by motor boat. As it was our last night on board Angela we had a big night and some skinny dipping occured (not me this time Mum!). 

Supposed to be syncro diving

As we sailed toward Split the next morning it was with heavy hearts.  We did not want our holiday to end.  It was magical being able to jump of the yacht and swim to my hearts content.  Once we were back in Split we had a night out on Friday.  We ate at a restaurant that served us massive meals.  For £10 each we had a starter, main and drink and we were so stuffed our plates were barely half empty when we had finished eating. We then went to a few pubs/clubs which were so cool because the pubs/clubs are all outdoors and the weather was so warm we were out in t-shirts and singlets.  Good times. 
On Saturday five of us embarked on a river rafting trip which was fun but the rapids were tiny. Our guide was hilarious and kept us entertained.  We had just got back to our apartment before a heavy downpour of rain started.  This was the first rain Split had had since June so the locals were very pleased to see it.  Luckily the downpour lasted only an hour or so then we were able to head out for our last meal in Croatia.  The next day was spent flying in a propeller aeroplane to Zagreb, and then flying onto London.  I am disappointed I didn't get to Dubrovnik this trip, so I hope to return to Croatia one day.  We had such an amazing holiday and currently I still have my tan!!    

Edinburgh Re-visited

On Friday afternoon Nathan and I caught the train up to Edinburgh - even though the train goes fast it is still a 5 hour journey!!  We had our laptop to watch movies on but it didn't work too well when we are sharing an ear piece each - with the load noise of the train drowning out any sound we could hear from our singular ear piece.
On Saturday we headed to the Palace of Holyroodhouse which is the Queen's official residence in Scotland.  Holyrood Abbey was founded in 1128 and Holyrood Palace has been serving as the official residence of Kings and Queens of Scots since the 15th century.  We weren't allowed to take any photos inside the palace but I have some of the gardens and the ruins of the Abbey. 

Ruins of Holyrood Abbey to the right

After out tour around the palace we caught a bus out to the harbour where the royal yacht Britannia is moored.  We were able to take a tour through the boat and it was amazing.  As the Queen felt very relaxed on board there are lots of family photographs that are unposed and it was neat seeing a different side to the royal family.  Britannia was launched in 1953 and for over 44 years she served the Royal Family, travelling over one million miles to become the most famous ship in the world.   She was built with the dual role of becoming a hospital ship if needed.

On the sun deck of Britannia

Lounge room

After a day of royality it was back to our apartment to change into warmer clothes in preparation for the evening show of the Military Tattoo staged at Edinburgh Castle.  The show was fantastic, with the castle used to project images and lighting effects, and the fireworks at the end were a highlight to finish off the show. No military band from NZ performed, but there were representatives from Australia, USA and Norway - which has compulsory military consignment for one year.

Sunday was a lazy day with wandering around the royal mile, doing a spot of shopping around grass market, walking through princess gardens and meeting up with Alex for a late lunch.  From here it was back to the apartment to collect our stuff and head to the train station.  On our way back we travelled first class and had loads of seat space as well as getting served sandwiches, drinks and cakes.  A nice way to cap off a good weekend. 

Nath looking bored on the way home

Devon and Cornwall

Last weekend we had a lovely picturesque weekend in the surf capital of England - Cornwall. On our way down to the Cornwall region we spent a night in Weymouth which is in Devon. In Weymouth we met up with Nath's parents, sister and niece, who had flown to the UK for Nath's 30th birthday. From Weymouth we travelled to Abbotsbury where we had lunch with some relatives of Nath's family that he had never met before.

We spent the night in Torquay which was much bigger than we were expecting and had a lovely built up area of restaurants around the harbour.  Here we went out for dinner to celebrate Kylie’s birthday.

The following day we drove through Dartmoor National Park where we pulled over to look at wild horses, and drove through some fairly narrow country lanes. We arrived at Polperro which is a lovely fishing village.  Here we treated ourselves to cream tea and boy I piled on the clotted cream!

That night we stayed in Penzance which is a bit grotty compared to other villages along the coastline.  We had a tacky carvery for dinner which is very popular with the English.  Carvery is just a fancy word for buffet.  We got a selection of 3 roast meats then helped ourselves to veges, Yorkshire puds and gravy.  It was nice to have some vege even though we didn’t know how long they had been out for.
The next day was action packed with a morning trip to Lands End.  On our way we saw a sign for Minnack Theatre so we detoured to check it out.  It’s a really cool theatre carved out of the cliff face, with the audience looking down on the stage and beyond that out to sea.  The theatre can seat 700 and when we were there a local company were rehearsing a play.  The most popular play is Pirates of Penzance.  From the theatre we may our way to Lands End which was disappointing.  Firstly, having to pay £5 for car parking, then having to pay to have your photo taken with the lands end sign.  As usual the Brits know how to do tacky as there were arcade rooms and a 4D cinema!  Way to ruin the moment England.  We back tracked to Mt St Michael which wasn’t open earlier in the morning.  Unfortunately the tides weren’t in our favour and we had to take a boat trip out to the Island Castle/fortress.  When the tide is low you are able to walk out to the castle.  From here we wanted to go to St Ives but we couldn’t find car parking anywhere.  We were driving around and getting caught in one way systems with narrow roads lined with hoards of people. At one point we had to reverse back and try to get out of there.  It was crazy.  After the stress of St Ives we stopped at a Cornish Cider farm and relaxed with free samples and a pint of cider. 

We stayed the night in the cutest little village of St Agnes.  We walked around the village in 5min flat!!  Maybe not that quickly, but there were a couple of take away shops and a local pub, where we stayed upstairs, and not much else.    

Next day our first stop was Padstow where we made sure to keep an eye out for park and ride signs and not make the same mistake as St Ives.  Again this was another very picturesque fishing village with loads of pasty shops and chippies.  Our last stop on our Southern Roadie was Tintagel Castle.  This castle was built right on the edge of the cliff and must have been freezing in winter.  We were there in summer on a reasonably warm day but at the top of the castle the wind picked up and it was quite cold.  Bollocks to living there 200 years ago! 

We have 3 days back in London before our next trip – to Edinburgh where we have tickets to the Military tattoo.

Olympic games

I have really enjoyed gettting out and seeing as many Olympic events as I could.  I went down to Tower Bridge to see the Olympic torch arrive via the river on the royal barge Gloriana. Our Olympic events started off in Manchester where we watched the NZ mens team play football against Egypt at Old Trafford.  It was awesome to be able to support NZ and the team played really well drawing 1-1.  The end of the game was very intense as Egypt was trying everything to score a winner.  We also watched Brazil play Belarus afterward.  Good entertainment value for £20.

Next up was Hockey at the Olympic park. This was our only event at the actual Olympic site so we were really lucky to get tickets as this allowed us entrance to the park as well as the hockey stadium. We watched womens matches - Australia play South Africa followed by eventual gold medal winners Netherlands play South Korea.  After the hockey we walked around the park, taking in the athletics stadium, velodrome, swimming cube, bbc studio and park live where we watched live streaming of other events taking place.  We were just in time to see NZ win a bronze medal  in the rowing.

Beach Volleyball was our third event.  A temporary stadium was built in Horse Guards parade which was rather incredible.  The buildings in the background made a stunning back drop and added something to the venue. The games we watched were of a high standard as it was the mens quarter finals.  Germany beat Brazil while the Netherlands beat Italy.

Our last event was the womens football final where USA was playing Japan.  We went to a packed out Wembley where we made history by being the biggest ever audience to watch a womens football game (80,203!). The games was really intense with huge support for both teams.  USA ended up winning 2-1.  Afterwards I was a bit gutted the game was finished as it meant I had no more Olympic events to go to. 

Nathan, Aaron and myself also spent an afternoon at Kiwi House which is a support base for Kiwi fans to go along and watch NZ coverage, drink NZ beers and have a NZ bbq.  Little did we know but the day we had planned to go was the day the rowing medalists were coming down to thank and mingle with Kiwi supporters.  We scored big time with autogrpahs and photos of the athletes.  Later on during the Olympic campaign one of the bbq gas cylinders exlpoded causing a fire to break out and forced the closure of Kiwi House for a few days. 
I hope this is not the only Olympic Games I get to watch.