Madrid

We celebrated Nathan's birthday by spending a long weekend in Madrid.  It was very chilled out (read sleep-ins) but action packed with tourist activities.  We did a 3 hour walking tour around Hapsburg Madrid with a local guide, and along the way came across the oldest restaurant in the world! We started at Plaza Mayor, the main square in Madrid, and finished outside the Royal Palace. From here Nath and I went to San Miguel markets to find some lunch before returning to do a tour through the Palace.  The Palace is magnificent and it is a shame it is not used anymore by the Royal Family.  The most impressive display was all the armoury, especially all the protective armour for the horses!  We were recommended a Mexican restaurant for dinner but it didn't open until 9 so we had some drinks in the square close to our hotel until the restaurant opened.  Weird eating so late. 

Today we were up earlier as we were going to Toledo.  Toledo is a UNESCO heritage site and they are always worth visiting.  Toledo used to be the Capital city of Spain and is known for its co-existence between Christian, Muslim and Jewish cultures.  There were many religious buildings (churches and synagogues) devoted to the three religions around the city.  We visited the very impressive Cathedral and walked up the bell tower of another church to get a view over the city.  There were very narrow alley ways that were fun to explore but it was easy to get lost and lose our position on the map.  As we visited on a Sunday many of the museums and galleries had free entry.  We visited the Army museum which gave the history of the cities battles which was interesting.  On walking back down to the train station we saw esculators that we could have taken up in the morning to save us walking up the hill to reach Toledo.  We both commented on how hot it was, when I spotted a digital sign saying 38 degrees! Time for a beer as we waited for our train back to Madrid.

Our last day was filled with another walking tour - this time we were our own guides as we had picked up a map from the tourist office and walked around the more modern areas of Madrid.  We walked past some pretty impressive architecture, including City Hall, and spent some time relaxing in the park.  We found the best tapas bar for a long lunch - €3 bucket of beers and €3 calamari sandwich big enough for the two of us. Bargain.
An excellent summer of travels has come to an end for me as I'm back at work next week.  This coming weekend will be my only weekend at home for the whole of summer so I guess that is pretty awesome.  We might walk along the Southbank or check out the Pompeii exhibition at the British Museum.   

Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro & Italy

I had some summer travel adventures with Anna & Borrie in Sarajevo, Mostor, Kotor and Sveti Stefan.  Nathan then flew out to join us for our Italian leg of the trip.  This was to be our last travel adventures with Anna and Borrie as they are now on their way back to NZ via Africa. While the travel was fun it was also sad knowing we wouldn't be seeing them again for a long while. 

Sarajevo was interesting with bullet holes still visible in some buildings.  We weren't here long as we flew in late at night and left at midday the following day.  Really only enough time to walk around the old town and find some breakfast. 

On the bus trip to Mostar we saw some beautiful scenery - lots of lakes where people were swimming and holidaying.  Anna was certain the accommodation was 1km from the bus station so in the middle of the day with travel packs on and 37 degree's we decided to walk.  After an hour of walking we were not so sure of Anna's 1km and wished we had taxied.  Upon arrival the host laughed at us and said they do a free pick up from the bus station as it's so far away! Borrie and I shot Anna a few death stares at this point.  The big attraction in Mostar is the old bridge that people jump off (after they have collected enough money from tourists!).  The bridge was totally destroyed in the 1990s conflict and rebuilt in the exact same style and is now UNSECO protected. 

Our next bus trip was the bus from hell.  It is a very short distance from Mostar to Kotor so we naively thought the bus trip would be 3 hours max.  A little research on the internet the night before informed us there was only one bus departing at 7am and the journey would take 8 hours.  This is impossible we thought.  Turns out there are 5 boarder crossings (Bosnia-Croatia-Bosnia-Croatia-Montenegro) and at each boarder crossing we had to wait roughly an hour, although crossing into Montenegro we waited 2 hours.  There were no toilet stops or food breaks along the way so this definitely was a Nazi bus trip.  Also, we had to literally change buses 4 times, having to shift our own luggage from one bus to the next.  Arriving in Kotor was relief at finally being off the bus.  Kotor is surrounded by city walls and we had to find an opening to walk through to get to the city - very cool.  Medieval styles.  This is a UNESCO protected city that was fun to explore, lots of narrow alley ways that open up into large plazas.  We took a boat trip to an Island Monastery and also another small town called Perast.  We didn't see much of Perast as it was so hot the unanimous decision was to have a beer stop and cool down rather than explore the town.  We spent the afternoon at the beach swimming and relaxing.

Our bus trip from Kotor to Sveti Stefan was a breeze - only an hour and before we knew it we were at the beach swimming and enjoying the beach bar. This was the extent of our stay in Sveti Stefan.  Sleep in and head to the beach. 

The next leg of our journey was a ferry from Bar in Montenegro to Bari in Italy.  It was an 8 hour journey and 2 hours in we thought we would hit the restaurant but alas it was closed, and would remain closed for the journey.  Just as well Anna and I had foresight to buy pringles, oreo's and milky way at duty free - as these got us through our starvation.  The ferry was deserted and was kind of creepy, the perfect set-up for a horror movie. 

From Bari we bused to Naples which is the shittiest city in Italy, and definitely worth avoiding.  Unfortunately we had two night here!  We did a day trip to Pompeii and drew out our time here to avoid spending too much time in Naples.  We were up early the next morning to get our train to Sorrento which was beautiful and a stark contrast to Naples. 

We took a bus out to the beach and after doing a spot of rock climbing we eventually found some where to swim.  The following day we took a ferry to Capri and spent the day marvelling out how expensive everything was.  We took a chair lift up from Ana Capri and had amazing views looking down on Capri. This was our last day with Anna and Borrie.  From here they continued down the Amalfi coast, and then were getting a flight to Sicily.  From Sorrento Nath & I caught a train back to Naples to get our 15 hour night ferry to Sardinia.

In Sardinia we stayed with Zane in an area called Costa Rei, and met our 7 month old nephew Kai for the first time.  Here we went to the beach in the morning, arrived back at the house for lunch, then went to another beach in the afternoon.    It was fun, but pretty full on, staying in a house with 8 adults and 4 children!  We were glad to have the weekend in Cagliari with just the two of us.  We had a big sleep in, watched the All Blacks smash Australia and went to the beach.  A really nice way to end a long holiday on the road.

Greece

I am really behind in my blog updates.  The next few days I will attempt to catch you up on all our summer travels - starting with Greece.

Nath and I had a day exploring Athens which we jammed packed with all the big tourist sites - Acropolis, temple of Zeus, Hadrians arch, and my favourite the Panathenaic stadium (home of the first modern Olympic games).

We enjoyed our Sail Croatia experience so much last summer we signed up with the same company to do Sail Greece.  We spent 6 nights sailing around the Saronic Islands. There were so many highlights from this trip that I will try to narrow it down to one highlight per Island we visited. 
Perdika - first night on the boat and big night out to start the trip.  Anna found a tambourine and wouldn't stop shaking it.
Ermioni - a rough days sailing for those that went a little too big the night before.  We had a welcome cocktail party thrown by medsailors. Nath got a nasty eye infection that warranted a trip to the doctors.
Spetses - when hired quad bikes to circumnavigate the 23km Island, stopping at beach bars on the way around.

Hydra - having a delicious gyros for dinner and watching the amazing sunset while drinking strawberry daiquiri at the sunset bar.
Poros - spending the afternoon on the water sports pontoon getting free beers  I went parasailing and really enjoyed the serenity of the experience. 

Aegina - spending the afternoon at a pool bar, getting my nails done and swimming in fresh water.  The Greek dinner and dancing finished the trip off nicely.

We arrived back in Athens with heavy hearts as our yacht trip was over.  Luckily Nath, Laura, Scott, Anna-Marie and myself were off to Santorini.  Nath and I stayed on our own and spent Saturday afternoon exploring Oia and Fira.  We walked down the 500 odd steps to the Old Port of Fira avoiding all the donkey poo as we went.  The donkeys smelt so bad the we decided to take the cable car back up rather than ride on a donkey.  On Sunday we rented a little red rocket car and picked the others up to explore the rest of Santorini,  We started with the prehistoric town of Akrotiri, before swimming at red beach.  We then found went to Pyrgos before finishing the day off at Santo Winery. 

For Nathan and I this was the end of our Greek Odyssey as we flew home the next day. Greece was my number 1 destination I wanted to visit before we left NZ so I am glad we got there.  It was amazing and I would love to go back.  I miss swimming in crystal clear waters, eating gyros and tzatziki, and the friendliness of locals is so welcoming.  

Wimbledon

I just found this blog in a drafts folder.  This was written in early July.
We had a fantastic day at Wimbledon.  We watched an epic 5 set match with Djokovic winning over Del Potro.  We then watched Murray v Janowicz which wasn't nearly to the same level of play.  Murray was the crowd favourite and won in 4 sets. 
It was very much a white England class system, which led Nath to ask if the tickets were balloted based on colour. 
At the beginning of the day we needed to drink out wine and beer as you aren't allowed glass on the show courts. So we found an empty court to sit beside and then you wouldn't believe it but Janowicz came onto the court to warm up.  Boom, winning at Wimbledon.  Also, by banking with HSBC we were entitled to free strawberry's and cream.  Nath & Mich 2, Wimbledon 0.
It was a long day out, we were at the tennis for nearly 10 hours, plus an hour travel each way.  Definitely worth the trek.  Now we are watching the final in the summer sunshine in our backyard, with the tv facing outside.  Summer has arrived in London.
I have one more week of work until my summer holidays begin.  I am so excited for our sail Greece holiday, cannot wait!

Waiting for ferry - Montenegro

Well we allowed ourselves so much extra time this morning we have arrived 3 hours before our ferry is meant to depart! Luckily we have found a cafe with wifi so we have been entertaining ourselves on the Internet.  Our ferry is taking us from Bar in Montenegro to Bari in Italy.  It is an 8 hour journey.
The last couple of days we have spent at the beach in Sveti Stefan.  A little town with an Island for the rich and famous that we weren't allowed on.  The beach was lovely - warm crystal clear water.  We are still melting in the day with temperatures hitting 37 degrees.  Sleeping at night can be difficult as we have the air con on and some are really loud!
We have found the food to be fairly average and expensive in Montenegro.  Looking forward to a decent pizza in Italy and especially fresh ravioli! Nathan flies into meet us in Naples on Friday night where we then go off to explore Pompeii, Sorento, Isle of Capri, and finally Sardinia.  I'm hoping the temperatures will be cooler in Italy.
When I get back to London I need to write a blog for our amazing Greece trip and fill you in on what we got up to.