Leeds

After our weekend in Bath we were pretty tired and took the week quite easy.
Once again we had another weekend away planned. This time it was to Leeds, about 2 hours north by train. We had an early train on Saturday, which was a challenge. We planned on having a quiet one on Friday night, but as often seems to happen, a few beers turns into a few more! The hostel was almost full tonight, with a few people checking in for the weekend.
After a late night we were up early, to take a bus to Kings Cross train station (once again the tube is not running!). We allowed plenty of time to get a bus which was lucky, as we waited about 25 minutes in the rain for a bus that is meant to be every 10 minutes, ugh London…

Our accommodation in Leeds was the Met hotel, apparently there are no hostels in Leeds. It was reasonably priced, and actually quite nice. A big old red brick building. Many of the buildings in Leeds are nice old red brick, a nicer city than london’s monotonous gray! We arrived fairly early but were able to check in which was handy and the guy at the desk gave us some tips on restaurants around town. We dropped our bags and went for a look around town. There is not a lot on the tourist trail here, a couple of public squares, old buildings and art galleries. There is a lot of shopping, which is what we spent the afternoon doing. We also looked at the Henry Moore Gallery, which sadly did not have any Henry Moore in it (one of Christine’s favorites), in fact all it did have was some white walls with pencils lines on it. Not very interesting or artistic!

After a rest back at the hotel, still recovering from last night, we headed out for dinner. We went to a steak house that the guy at reception talked up, I had been looking forward to this steak all day. When we got there we found out that without a reservation it was going to be a 3 hour wait for a table! Maybe in future they should also recommend making a booking! We then wandered around aimlessly for about an hour looking for somewhere to eat. Ended up just eating back near the hotel. Worked out ok, the waitress was nice, service was slow and the manager ended up giving us a discount because the kitchen had taken so long. Heading back to our room we watched a bit of the winter Olympics, which surprisingly hasn’t had a lot of attention over here. Maybe something to do with how bad England is doing, I think Australia even has more gold medals!
Sunday morning we had a bit of a sleep in and a massive breakfast at the hotel. We then headed to the Leeds Art Gallery. This was much better, quite a lot of different works and styles. We also walked around town a bit more and along the river. Then it was back to the train station in the afternoon for the ride back to London.

Bath and Stonehenge

This week has been quite nice and quite relaxed! After getting back from our snow trip on Sunday, we rested and had a sleep in Monday! We spent the afternoon doing a bit of sightseeing, heading to the Portrait Gallery and an underground crypt for coffee (converted to a cafe).
The next two days Christine worked a day and a half at the hostel where we are staying (currently school holidays). Its another one of these London jobs that only hires girls! I spent a bit of time starting to look for another job, but not looking promising, given I need 2 weeks off in April! I also did a 2 day Team Teach course through one of Christine’s agencies, and hope to get some school admin or teaching assistant work once the term gets started.

Happy Birthday Christine!
Thursday was Christine’s birthday. She had a nice relaxing day at home during the day and a bottle of wine in the afternoon. We then headed down the street for dinner to a Chinese restaurant for some Peking Duck. It was nice, but not quite the same as the duck in China, or even Melbourne! After a quick beer at the local pub, where one of the girls was working, we headed back home for dessert, Mel had made cup cakes and I bought a chocolate cake!



After another cruisy day on Friday, we jumped on a train Friday night headed for Bath. Mel from the hostel joined us and we met Julia at the train station. Two other girls came as well, Sarah from the hostel was on an earlier train and Amy came down the following day.
Saturday we spent most of the day wandering around the town, not doing a great deal. We were too late for the guided walking tour and the Stonehenge tour was booked out. Lunch in a pub, some more walking, a nap in the afternoon and then dinner at a Thai restaurant. After dinner we hit the town, heading to a local pub and then a bit more of a bar/nightclub.
Sunday was a bit more eventful. Sarah and I were up in time for the walking tour which took us all around town including the royal crescent and the circus. The tour was free and the guide was great, with many stories about the different buildings and parts of town.
After the tour we met up with the others in a café for a quick lunch and then it was time for our tour to Stonehenge. The drive was probably a bit under an hour, but was quite nice to get out and see the countryside and rolling hills. When you get there you can walk around the stones, but never get any closer than about 50m. It is your typical tourist trap, yes the stones are cool, but a bit overrated, and at the end there is a gift shop. Christine enjoyed it, and since this was her birthday present, that is a good thing!
After Stonehenge we stopped off in a small village, Lacock. It is a very old place and the whole village is National Heritage Listed, so it looks like all the buildings are about to fall down! The highlight was the pub, and seeing some of the local houses which have been used in the filming of many movies, including good ol’ Harry Potter.
After the tour we headed to another pub for drinks and dinner while waiting for our train back to London. We had a good weekend, although the town was so busy, even at this time of year. We didn’t make it to the roman baths or the thermal pools for a swim, mainly due to the massive line that wrapped around the building when we had hoped to go in.

Chamonix - French Alps

The weekend before we headed off to the snow was going to be quiet and getting a bit organized for the week away. It didn’t really turn out that way! We were pretty lazy on Saturday, not doing much other than bit of a walk and having lunch at a café where one of our friends was working, in Notting Hill. Again Sunday morning was quite a lazy morning. For lunch we were meeting Julia near Covent Garden. She was running a bit late, so we ended up having a bit of a look around some shops and at China town. We then settled into a pub for a few hours to have drinks and some lunch.
Mel from the hostel joined us later in the afternoon, and the four of us headed to a theater to see Stomp. This was a bit different, but very good. It only had about 8 performers in it, barely any dialogue, just music and noise. It was all dance and music, made from all sorts of household items. They used everything from brooms, match boxes, bin and bin lids, basketballs and cigarette lighters. It was also a bit of a comedy, with the characters adding in subtle jokes, despite the lack of dialogue. After the show the four of us couldn’t stop tapping our feet and making our own beats!

The following week we only had four days left of work, which went quickly. A combination of organizing things for the week away, organizing our work agencies for when we get back and a few nights out with Brendan (Christine Brother). Finally Friday came round, we spent most of the day rushing around and packing our room. By the time the afternoon came around, we were ready to get on the bus for the 17hr trip across the channel to France.
Our trip was amazing! The town of Chamonix is beautiful, set in a valley surrounded by huge mountains, as you would expect in the French Alps. We were very lucky with the weather and I am looking a little bit tanned now which is nice for a change. We had 3 clear days and light snow for the rest of the time which meant falling was not so painful. It was fascinating to have perfectly formed individual snowflakes falling on us and see the beautiful patterns. I was very cold (-17 Celsius and sunny one afternoon) which meant the snow stayed frozen and powdery. One of the girls we met commented that the landscape looked just like a Christmas card, and it did! It would be lovely to go back in spring or summer to see how different everything looks.

As for our snowboarding prowess.... we were both able to take drag lifts and chair lifts without much fuss by the end of the week (see videos at bottom of page). This was thanks to our wonderful instructors, Emilie and Behonje (pic on left). They were both from the UCPA, which is the place that we stayed at, both very good boarders, amd most importantly, very very patient! We could turn, jump and spin on green slopes and had stopped falling over so much. I loved the fact that I could see Damien from a mile away due to the fact that his outfit was royal blue from top to bottom and his huge arm span which made him look like a giant sliding blue cross.

Then we hit the blue slopes and the falling began again (Face-plant Christine).

I think one of the funniest things was when I was trying to dodge Damien who was dumfounded by the fact that we had a drag lift running across the rather flat blue run we were doing. The fact that the run was flat meant that you really needed a bit of speed, which I did have but due to Damien and some other people being stumped by the drag lift crossing and hence blocking the road, I just about lost. What made matters worse for me was that shortly after the drag lift, which I nailed, there was a red run which also crossed our blue run. At this time I was going very slowly so it was the slope that dictated where I went rather that me by shifting my weight. That was when I started going down the red run! One of our mates started yelling at me that that was the wrong was so I did the only thing I could to try and stop myself which was to fall over. Unfortunately the slope was too steep and I kept on sliding, which was funny at first, then I tried to dig in my board, but kept sliding, so then I was on my back, upside down, moving a bit too quickly for my liking which was funny but a bit disconcerting. Somehow I managed to stop myself but then spent about 10 minutes trying to climb a slope that had only taken me a matter of seconds to come down. It was pretty steep! Our friend Mark was sitting at the top of the slope laughing at me, particularly when I slid half way back down the slope.

The food was really good and we both think we have stretched our stomachs, which was ok when we were on the slopes for 8 hours a day. 3 course buffet dinner every night, as well as breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea! Now that we are back in London I'm going to have to cut back, a lot! We shared a room with two girls from Glasgow who were both very nice. We will probably visit them at the end of March or maybe after mum goes home. The night life in Chamonix is also awesome, although most nights we were too exhausted to make it out. We did head out one night to see an ice hockey game and out for a big night in the pubs and clubs.

We arrived back in London Sunday around noon and discovered there were still pancakes left over from breakfast! This was very exciting as I love pancake day! And then it got even better as I discovered a package from Vermont South and a card from Nell! I am not allowed to open them yet, but I have just read an email saying I should.....
This morning I got another package, this time from Glen Waverley so now I am very excited about turing 29, even though that sounds a bit too close to 30.

It is half term at the moment so I am not teaching but have picked up a couple of days work at the hostel. This is good because Damien can justify my manic cleaning if I am being paid for it. It also means I can pay for this weeks rent without digging into our (English) savings which we are trying to ear mark for various trips including snowboarding again next year.

It is shaping up to be a very busy year! We have something on every weekend until mum arrives in Paris and keep thinking of other things we can do. I have work lined up for the next month at a special school, which should help pay for some of our travel and hopefully Damien picks up some new work this week.

Australia Day!

The week following our trip to York was a pretty average one. Christine started the week with a stomach bug and finished it with a series of migraines. Both of us only worked a four day week.
The weekend we did as little as possible, spent some time in the park with Marie and Mel who we live with. Christine went back home for a nap while the three of us then went for bit ore of a walk, past Buckingham Palace to the Portrait Gallery. This was good but was so busy that we only lasted about an hour before grabbing some lunch at Convent Garden.
Sunday we were supposed to be seeing Julia, but this got cancelled, as she was sick also. We went for a walk through the Notting Hill area, which is the suburb next to where we are staying.
Sunday night we had another house dinner, as Marie was leaving us the next day, returning to Franceland, which is where she is from. Sad, but with a bit of luck she may be in Paris around the same time as us in April.
This week has been a much better one! Monday night Damien got home from work early (on-time), and cooked Mexican, to give Christine a ‘break’. Great in theory, but gave her the chance to do some baking, which she was still doing at midnight!

Tuesday 26th January – Happy Australia Day!!!

Today is probably the day that I have talked and thought about Australia the most, since we left in May. Which I guess makes it one of the more homesick moments of that time. Oh how we miss the sun, the surf, the food and wine, and of course the people!
The house was decorated green and gold, and the flag balloons (thanks mum), we dressed up in Aussie colours, drank Fosters, cooked rissoles on the Barbie, ate Anzac biscuits and Pavlovas. The music for the evening was Australian of course, a big showing from Powderfinger. While not our original plan, living with 15 odd other Aussies does have its advantages!

Wednesday night Damien was out for dinner with the people he has been working with for the past 3 months. Paid for by work, it was a bit of a thank you dinner for everyone over the past few months. It was in an up market pub just near London Bridge, the food was good, for London pubs.
Thursday we were out again, this time meeting up with Brendan, Christine’s brother who is living in Cardiff. He is working in London for the next few weeks, so might see a bit more of him. After a burger at Gourmet Burger Kitchen we visited the Aussie pub for a pint!

York

This weekend we took the train from London to York. It’s nice little city/town, very old and medieval, surrounded by a still intact city wall.
We had booked an early train, and the two hour trip north got us into York a bit after 9 am. When we arrived it was raining, as it had been for most of the morning. It wasn’t heavy rain, just enough to be a pain in the arse. We walked into town from the station, not a very long walk at all. We were looking for somewhere to have some breakfast but ended up deciding to try and find ‘Bettys’ which had been recommended by a work colleague. It was a very fancy place, we felt a little bit out of place when we rocked in wearing snow jackets, carrying a back pack and dripping wet. The food was good though Christine had chocolate and orange pancakes and I had a Fat Rascal, which was like a huge scone filled with fruit and spices.
Our next stop was at the Viking discovery centre which had also been recommended. Sadly, this was closed for renovations. Strangely the ticket box and gift shop were open. We had a bit of a chat to the girl in the ticket box, who was able to give us a few tips on pubs to visit in town.
After dropping our bags at the hotel we were staying at we headed back out for a look around town. We walked past the big gothic cathedral on our way to visit the Museum Gardens and the Art Gallery. The gardens were a park on the outside of the wall which had some ruins from another old church in them. After a big week and a day walking around in the rain we headed back to the hotel for an afternoon nap!

We headed to The Old White Swan for dinner. This is a pub in town that does good local food apparently. We ate massive plates of Toad in a hole, basically a big Yorkshire pudding filled with sausages and veggies.
We had seen an advertised Pub Crawl during the day that was part ghost tour and part pub crawl. The add even said it ran regardless of the weather. For whatever reason, when we arrived at the meeting spot and no one else was there, we called them and found out it wasn’t running tonight! Typical!
Instead we thought we would take ourselves on bit of a pub crawl, which turned out to be a lot easier than we thought. We headed to the Hansom Cab, a pub that had been recommended by the girl at the Viking Centre. According to my slightly sketchy memory, the pub is owned by one of two brothers. One of the brothers runs a number of pubs that serve the Golden Nectar that is Fosters. The second guy, and the guy who owns the Handsome Cab, brews his own beers, and doesn’t serve anything else. As a result we had a few beers, all different, one was as cheap as 1.50 for a pint, but it wasn’t the best tasting stuff. Real English Ale, flat and warm!
Anyway as it turned out we got chatting to a small group of locals who were having bit of a night out for a birthday. They ended up convincing them to join them as they were headed to a different pub. Over the next 4 hours or so we visited about 3 more bars with them and even got told a few ghost stories on our travels!

Sunday morning we had a sleep in and then headed downstairs for a big Cooked English breakfast. The fried toast was rather vulgar, but for the most part the poms can at least cook a decent breakfast!
Sunday was sunny which was exciting as we haven’t seen much sun for the last few months. After getting out of bed, for the second time, and checking out we headed over to the Shambles. This is a narrow old street where all the buildings lean over the road towards each other. We also walked past Clifford’s Tower, which is not that high but very cool. The name comes from a guy that was hung from the top of the tower years ago… Sweet hey!
The rest of the afternoon we spent walking on the city wall and practically did the whole thing! It was then back to the train station and a short visit to the National Rail Museum to kill the last hour or so we had before taking the train back to London.

New Year

Our last day of the Christmas break we headed to the Camden markets. This part of town has a bit more colour than most of London and is based on a canal so it is quite nice. Most of the markets are junk and clothes, but I did buy a spring roll! Work has been crazy since we got back. First week back was quite ok but I worked 6 days last week (sunday off), plus 2 nights were VERY late nights.
We have also had a visit from Christine’s cousin-in-law, Andrea. It was great timing, as the night she arrived the snow hit. This meant London looked good, but also Christine had 2 days off school. The girls did a number of the touristy things and saw Billy Elliot the musical.

Its been very cold and snowy, which I like, London looks so much nicer with snow. Sadly this week is warmer, snow melted, but still very cold 8-10 deg celcius.
Christine has realised she has 2 weeks off in Feb, a week at Easter and then wont be working at all in April. My contract finishes at the start of Feb.

Cologne - Germany

Boxing Day morning we were up early allowing plenty of time to get to the airport. The plan was to take a train to Clapham and then take the EasyBus to the airport. In true London transport style, the morning was bit of a nightmare! The trains on the line we needed weren’t running, so we had to go to Victoria (after severe delays) and take the Gatwick Express ($$$). Finally we made it to the airport and were on a plane, so happy to be leaving England!
On arrival in Germany we took another train to the Meninger Hostel in Cologne. Apart from everything being in German, it wasn’t too difficult to find our way. The hostel had nice dorms and a kitchen and bar downstairs. Its bit of a hotel too, with a buffet breakfast in the mornings (extra cost).The couple of days the city was dead, being a public holiday and then a Sunday, none of the shops were open, so we ended up having breakfast at the hostel.
Our first night we went for a bit of a walk around the streets near the hostel and found a restaurant called Paprika. Apart from cheap cocktails and a friendly waiter, we got our first experience of German food, huge serves, tasty and cheap! Damien had a big pork schnitzel with caramelized onions and pommes fritters, while Christine ordered a chicken breast fillet which was very tender, both came with a big salad.

Our first day in Cologne was Sunday and nearly everything was closed. After our big breakfast we went for a walk through the city (everything is walking distance). Sadly most of the Christmas markets finish a few days before Christmas which we were hoping might have been open for a day or two after Christmas. Were staying between the Uni district and the Rudolfplatz which has a tower that used to be a part of the city walls. We wandered past Neumarkt which had a Christmas market being packed up, we were laughed at when we started taking photos! There is also a giant cream cone sculpture on top of one of the buildings, very cool! From here there is a series of pedestrian streets and shopping areas all the way to the Dom Cathedral and main part of town. We wandered along these window shopping (the best kind of shopping) along the way. We did see some very cute Christmas windows in one of the department stores.
This lead us to the Dom, which is a massive gothic cathedral. As all the tourist guides suggest we walked right around it before entering, to admire the architecture and get a feel for the scale of the building. We briefly looked inside it also, but due to Sunday Mass, this was quite restricted.
After church we headed to a beer hall, ‘Fruh Am Dom’, quite close to the Dom. It was a very cool place, made up of many different rooms. Most of them were underground. From street level you walk through a normal looking bar before heading down a series of stairways and hallways to different rooms with different seating arrangements. We did about 2 laps befor finding an empty seat the place was huge but packed. The local beer is Kolsch, several different local brewerys make it. It getsnits name from Koln (Cologne), so any Kolsch must be made in Koln. What we weren’t expecting was the serving size. No massive beer steins here, just tall thin 200ml glasses. The waiters serve it to the table, so you don’t have to spend the whole night lining up at the bar! Apparently its traditional in Cologne to serve small beers, so that they are always cold and fresh.
Tonight we just hung out at the hostel, cooked some pasta and had beers with some Aussies!

Monday morning we got up a bit earlier, had our breakfast and headed to the HBF (main train station). We jumped on a train to Konigswinter, about 45 minutes away. This is a nice little German town that we spent the morning walking along a small street of shops, pubs and churches. The town is on the Rhine River which we wandered along for a bit before starting a walk up into the Siebengebirge (Seven Mountains). We actually only walked up one ‘mountain’, which had a few pubs and restaurants along the way (most of them closed) and a ‘fairytale like’ castle. At the top of the hill was the ruins of the Burgs Drachenfels, which is what is left of an old castle. There is also some myth or tale about a dragon in the area, although were not sure how the story goes, all the signs were in German.
On the way down we stopped in one of the open café’s for Kaffee and Apfel Strudel. Back in Konigswinter we went into a small pub, and as soon as we walked in everyone was just staring at us! Were not sure if this was because we were English speaking or they liked Damien’s big blue jacket! There were only about 15 people, probably all locals, sitting around the bar. We sat down and had a few Kolsch, before heading back to the train station.
Before we headed back to the hostel we found another pub (bierhall) called Schreckenskammer. We had heard somewhere that this one has particularly good food. After a few more little beers we had a traditional German feed, Christine tucked into a Pork Schnitzel and Damien had the Schenkenhamchen, which was a boiled pig hock served with mash potatoes and sauerkraut. The hock looked like a whole pig leg on a plate and the sauerkraut, while still not my favourite food, was much more edible than what I have tried in the past.

Tuesday morning we slept in as long as we could before checking out of the hostel and moving to a hotel for our last few nights in Cologne. We ate breakfast at a Crepe restaurant near the hotel and then went for a walk through the Lindenthal (park) and the Uni district. Christine was particularly excited by the pond which had frozen over, although she didn’t dare walk out on it… chicken!
After check-in to the Mercure, and having a siesta, we wandered down to the Huemarkt, which is a square in town which we had heard still had a Christmas market. This was true but not much of it was left, just the ice skating rink and a few food and drink stalls. We ate a late lunch, Bratwurst at the market and had a bit of a look around. We wandered through the old town which was nice, cobbled streets and old German buildings. We took a few photos of the Dom all lit up at night and then wandered home looking for somewhere for dinner.
We ended up eating at a Vietnamese as we were both hoping for something a bit healthy after all the brilliant meat and pommes frites. The food was good, served by a woman from Vietnam, who spoke both German and English, very impressive. In particular the beef noodles with fresh herbs were delicious!

Wednesday morning we found a bakery café near the hotel for breakfast. Christine had fun trying to order in German, but I think her pointing at the food was what helped out the poor woman serving her. We then walked across the Severinbrucke (bridge) and along the east side of the Rhine. This neighbourhood is called Deutz and had a couple of churches and a main shopping street. We were looking for a nice little bratwurst shop, but didn’t have any luck. We walked back across the Hohenzollernbrucke, which is the main bridge in Cologne. The bridge is covered in padlocks, bit of a tradition here that engaged couples come and put a pad lock on the bridge and throw away the key.
We spent the afternoon in the old town again and also did some tourist shopping. Christine bought some wooden carved decorations and Damien bought a Beer Stein!
Tonight there was a fog in town which again made the Dom look different, the top of it was not visible. We ate dinner at another beer hall, Malzmuhle. We had hoped to come to this place on new years but found out that it was going to be closed. Dinner was very nice and huge serves again. Schnitzel and chips, Christine had lamb in a syrup sauce. The waiter was very friendly and brought out a cup of the syrup when she asked what it was, apparently its made from Rubenkraut.

Thursday was New Years Eve and our last night in Cologne. As we have done a few times in Cologne, we slept in. After breakfast at the same bakery as yesterday, where they had some cinnamon doughnut type things with raisins in them. We had planned to go to the Chocolate Factory in town which Christine was excited about, but sadly this was closed for New Year. Instead we wandered through the town, took a few photos of things we not photographed. We were headed to the Rudolfplatz area which has bars and restaurants. We chose a nice bar called Hooters to have a few beers at. Although we were a bit early, and had to wait an hour before they opened! This is the 4th Hooters Bar we have been to this year, ahhh, good times. We will have to try and beat that next year!
On the way back we headed to the Vietnamese restaurant again, but it was closed. We ended up having Thai up the road. The waiter was again very friendly, and keen to find out about Australia as he was headed Down Under next year. After giving him a list of things to see and do he was very happy and gave us some Thai keyrings and free Cocktails. A few more beers at the hotel while we tidied up a bit and got ready to head out for the night.
We weren’t really sure what we were doing for New Year but headed down to the old town. We ended up in a beer hall, which was great. More like we had imagined a beer hall to be, crowded, people dancing and singing to German music, although still small beers!
At about 11.45 we headed down to the Rhine River, via the bottle shop, to watch the fireworks. As we stepped out of the beer hall it started snowing, was really amazing. The fireworks were crazy! Not like in Australia, where its done professionally. There were thousands of people along both sides of the river, and everyone brings there own fireworks to set off. They set them up in the gardens or just on the footpath. The scene was insane, smoke filled the air and fireworks being launched less than a meter from people. Some of them would fly off at angles hitting the buildings or others were going straight up but falling before they had finished exploding. There was no countdown to the New Year, which really didn’t matter, as I can’t count backwards in German anyway!
The rest of the night we wandered along the Rhine, the fireworks continued for a couple of hours. Damien had another Bratwurst and we got chatting to a German couple who were setting off ‘baby’ fireworks they bought at a toy shop, as she was scared of the real ones too! They told us the big ones are illegal in Germany too, but people can get them from Russia or Poland quite easily.

It was a crazy night, different to any other NYE we have experienced, we had a great night!

New Years Day – Happy 2010

After four hours sleep we were up, amazingly sober and no hangover! We had an early flight to catch. The train on the way to the airport was interesting, most people were heading home from new years parties, rather than heading out for the day. While we were a bit delayed getting tickets on the trains it was no major drama, we were at the airport in time.
We were back in London around midday and took about an hour on the bus to get home. We were then told our room had been booked for an extra night by accident, didn’t really matter they put us in a share room for the night, but annoyingly still charged us!
We went for a walk New Years Day in Hyde Park, rested and then headed to bed pretty early.