Back in London... again!

After the airport dramas, Damien and I decided that it would be good to have a lazy day. We got up for breakfast then went back to bed. This was basically the rest of the week for me as I got a migraine. The weather has picked up again and the papers are all saying that summer has returned. I went for a walk in Hyde Park to see the Anish Kapoor sculpture but found the security a bit annoying. Damien and I returned on Saturday before he cooked an amazing Red Curry. We met up with some of the guys we met in Croatia at a bar that night as the tour leader is heading back to Melbourne. It’s nice knowing we have some more friends to catch up with over winter, I’m not looking forward to the cold weather! On Sunday the sun was shining so we got a move on and headed to Richmond Park. This is a massive park in the South west of London which used to be a private hunting ground for deer. Now it is open to public but it still has its deer. We watched an old stag chasing off the young competition and a herd of reindeer stampede past.

The week before Egypt has been a blur! Damien managed to pick up a weeks work at a school which is fantastic as it will pay our rent. I have had to get up at the same time as him, shower, have breakfast then ring my Agency at 7am to ask if they have any work. This has paid off 3 out of 4 days. The first 2 days we were actually at the same school which was a bit strange. It was nice having company on the journey home.

Our best DC friend Mel left for Krakow in Poland on Wednesday morning so we won’t see her again as she is returning to Brisbane whilst we are in Egypt. We have tried to have lots of quality Mel time. Monday night was curry at Brick lane which is a bit like Brunswick Street in Melbourne, except full of Indians. You walk down the street and all the restaurant owners try to convince you that their restaurant has the best food and the best value. We managed to get 2 courses with a beer for Damien and bottle of wine of our choosing for £10 each, not bad. Tuesday night was a BBQ on the balcony then lots of hugs good bye. We will both really miss her but look forward to visiting Brisbane.

One of the other girls who has been at DC for about 2 years is also leaving whilst we are away and we miss her going away party. So instead we cooked a family dinner last night. This was a massive pot of Spaghetti Bolognese, garlic bread then apple strudel and custard for dessert.

Tonight we are going to go to a show called Avenue Q which is basically Muppets for adults and supposed to be hilarious. We have been wanting to see it for a long time but never got around to it. Now we have to see it as it is finishing to go to New York at the end of the month. The show was hilarious. Puppets doing things that puppets shouldn’t do and classic songs like “Everybody’s a little bit racist” and “The internet is good (for porn)”. Tomorrow it’s a sleep in, then pack and head to Egypt. It’s a hard life we are living over here. (:

Copenhagen - Denmark

We decided when our friend Mel told us she was leaving we needed to have one last travelling horary. Mel had mentioned that she was planning to go to Copenhagen so we informed her we would be coming. We arrived in Copenhagen mid morning after an early flight. We headed straight to the HI hostel, only to find out that there are two in the city, and we were at the wrong one! We arrived at the big one that we were actually staying at, but the rooms weren’t ready. We went for a walk around town, which is when we realised, damn, its cold!
Were staying quite close to Tivoli Gardens which we thought would be quite nice. What we didn’t realise was it is actually a theme park (like Luna Park), and it is closed for the cooler months. We looked at shops and tried to find somewhere to eat, finally settling on an international restaurant. Copenhagen is famous for two things, a mermaid statue (which we found out is currently in China) and Europe’s longest pedestrian shopping street. We spent the afternoon wandering past the shops before returning to the hostel for an early night. Luckily Copenhagen has a few Australian Pubs. Not normally of much interest to us, but given the Grand Final replay being on, we had to find one at 7am. A few beers, a disappointing game and a mid morning nap and we were ready to once again hit the streets of Copenhagen.
We headed to the Copenhagen Design Museum. It had displays on the design history of Denmark. Everything from chairs and furniture to cups, telephones and cars. It was good, and the girls really loved it.
We love travelling with Mel. Not only does she have the art background similar to Christine, but her motivation for visiting galleries and museums is amazing. She also is a coffee fiend, so once again we headed to a cafe for coffee and cakes. The rest of the day was lazily spent and another quiet night.
Sunday was a bit of a sleep in before we got up and got moving. Mel had a big day planned. We took the train out of Copenhagen to the Aarken Art Gallery. It is a contemporary art gallery and we all really enjoyed it. It had a whole room with works by Damien Hirst, one of Christines favourites. There was interesting mirror spiral pieces you could walk through and a light and water installation. There was also an exhibition of a guys works who had heaps of paintings of jungle scenes that are a bit cartoonish, very cool!
Next we took another train over to another town, Roskilde. This was a quiet little place. The main attraction was the Viking Museum which we had a look around. Its actually on a bay so a lot of the boats are in the water. There are also some ruins of original Viking ships stored inside the museum. We walked through a nice park and had a quick look at the big church in town before heading back to the train station. Exhausted (again), had a bottle of wine and chilled at the hostel for the evening.
Monday morning we were up early for another big day, a day trip to Sweeden! Back on to the train, over a big bridge to Malmo. We really liked Malmo, the sun was out which helped, but it was a very nice place. We wandered through another nice park on our way to the modern area of town, with its Twisted Torso, high rise building. This was a very cool building, by the water, with a view of the big bridge we had taken the train across in the morning. On the way back to the old town we visited the little huts that are the fish market and the old castle (not the most impressive castle we have seen), converted into a museum.
The old town in Malmo had some big squares, shopping streets and nice old buildings. We had a look at the shops, sculptures in the street and buildings. Next the girls wanted to go to the Chocolate museum, which turned out to be a bit disappointing. It was basically just a shop, with a bit of old chocolate stuff, and a few little samples. We then hurried back to the train to get back to Copenhagen.
Tonight we headed out to ‘Norrebro Bryghus’ a local smallish brewery. We had organised to meet Daniel, he lives in Copenhagen, we met snowboarding last year. The three of us started sharing the beer sampler, a glass of each of the 9 beers on tap. We had a few more of our favourite beers, served by a friendly local who is soon moving to Melbourne! When the bar closed Daniel took us to a cocktail bar and then another pub. We had a great night, stumbling home in the wee hours of the morning, we had a bit of fun with the bike counter. We found a bike lane that had a counter, and a screen showing how many bikes have ridden past that day. We might have been there a while, but by jumping on the sensor, we tripled the number of ‘bikes’ that had ridden past!
After a few hours sleep we had to be up to check out. After some breakfast we hit the streets again. We walked along the river bank and the through the Christianshavn district. It has a church with amazing gold spire and nice buildings along canals. We chilled on a couch in a cafe for a while before heading back into the old town. We had Danish sausages for lunch, Mel had been craving a fat sausage. A bit more shopping and then we hit one more gallery. Finally we headed back to the airport for our flight back to London.
Thanks Mel for a great trip to Copenhagen. But mostly thanks again for being such a good friend, you have enhanced our time in London. I know you will enjoy being back in Sunny BrisVegas, but you will also be missed over here. Hope to see you back in Aus soon!

Back in London

Welcome back to London, it’s cold, it’s grey and it’s wet. Lyn has had to borrow a coat so she doesn’t freeze. We were all happy to laze about and not do much when we returned from Portugal.
Sunday morning we were up early to head to the walkabout, 6am. We figured the first thing Lyn and Kevin did on there visit was to go to the Walkabout, so it would be nice for it also be the last thing that they do. That and it was Grand Final and the Saints were playing the scum from Collingwood. I’m writing this a long time after the event so there is no point in discussing it, but it was an amazing draw and the atmosphere in the pub with a huge crowd, standing room only, was absolutely electric. In the first quarter I thought we had lost it, in the last quarter I thought we had won it! But in the end, a draw.
Exhausted we stumbled back to Dean Court, it’s been a while since I left a pub at 9am! We slept for a bit, went for a run in Hyde Park, had some drinks and dinner in a local Thai restaurant.
Next morning was the end of mum and dad’s trip, one more cooked English breakfast, some farewells and they were on the tube headed to Melbourne via Heathrow and Malaysia.
The rest of the week was spent doing a lot of not much, with a few days work thrown in to the mix.

Faro

Lyn and Kevin left early to get to their flight to Barcelona. We got up thinking we would catch them in the lobby but actually missed them as the taxi arrived early. We had breakfast, packed up and went to get the car. This was an instance when we realised how good the European drivers were. It took Damien a while and a lot of smoke to get out of the narrow, tightly curved and steep parking garage. Finally we were on the road and out of Granada.

It was quite an easy drive as the highways are in very good condition. We had a Coffee stop in one of the last Spanish towns before the border just to have our last taste of Spain. This was interesting as I think I have developed a Northern Spanish accent with my ‘baby Spanish’ so the bar tender could not understand me when I was asking where the toilet was in just about every way I could think of.

Our lunch stop was in the small town of Tavira which is lovely. The main attraction is the old castle walls that contain a pretty garden. This was fun as there are no rails and absolutely no consideration for health and safety, just how I like it. We climbed up the walls and enjoyed the view of the river and surrounding houses. Tavira is also popular due to its Roman bridge which connects the two sides of the river. We also saw a giant squid swimming in the river.

Our next stop was Faro, where we would be flying back to London from. We arrived at the tourist information centre about 10 minutes before it closed and the lady was amazingly helpful. We felt a bit sorry for her when we left as there was a huge queue of people wanting help as we had taken so long. We got settled in the accommodation she recommended then took the car back to the rental company at the airport. We love it when there is cheap public transport from airports, it makes the whole experience of a city better.

The next day was dedicated to seeing the old town of Faro which is surrounded by an old city wall. It is very pretty with cobbled streets and what made it even better was that it was an environmental awareness day so no car traffic was allowed in the walls. This made if far more relaxed as it was quieter and you did not have to duck into doorways to avoid having your toes run over. We did some shopping, Lyn sent us a message asking for a Portuguese cock, then headed home for lunch before catching the bus to the beach. The beaches in Faro are all actually islands. This whole coastal region is Natural Park and is home to thousands of birds. Again the sand was lovely, the sun beautiful and the sea refreshing. At great day topped off by meeting a couple of German girls who we ended up having dinner with.

Our final morning in Portugal was the usual mad rush to have breakfast, pack up and head to the airport. Unfortunately Kevin’s much loved beach umbrella didn’t make it past the check in desk. It was also unfortunate that the French air controllers were on strike so our 9:20am flight didn’t get us back to London until around 4pm. It was even worse for Lyn and Kevin who arrived back at our hostel at about 1am and told us they had been waiting on the run way for about 4 hours. But as Kevin would say “it’s all part of the adventure”.

Granada

We left Rhonda and headed for our next destination, Granada. The drive was not too long but we made one stop in Antequera. There was no reason for this stop. It was a biggish town and parking was difficult. After ditching the car in a multi level park we went for a walk in the gardens which had a medieval festival. There was some stalls, kids games and the worst coffee in Spain. Arriving in Granada was a nightmare. Unlike last time we were here, many of the streets were closed as they are adding tram tracks or a metro or something. After nearly two hours, and being pulled over by a tourist information officer on a motorcycle, we found the hotel. We ditched the bags and Lyn and Kevin, but still had to find a park. Taking a few wrong turns we first ended up on a pedestrianised street, a one-way street to nowhere, and then 20km on the highway towards Madrid. Another couple of hours passed and we managed to get back to Granada, the hotel and a carpark not too far away. Just in time for beer o clock!
In the evening we went for a walk which was nice. We saw the river that runs through the middle of town. Even though we were here last year, we didn’t know there was a river! As we headed back from our walk we saw some marching bands getting set up and playing a few tunes. We followed them for a bit before heading back to our room. Little did we know, until now, but the parade was actually a religious parade, and passed right by our hotel. This made our first floor balcony very handy as we had one of the best views of this parade in town.
After the parade and all the crowd had passed we headed up a nearby street to a tapas bar for dinner. The next morning there was no rush! We had a great hotel breakfast and then headed out to have a walk around Granada. Granada is a lovely town, with a lot of hills and winding streets. Our walk took us through some of the main town squares, past churches, views of the Alahambra and the big cathedral. It finished in a street which had some markets, this is where we left the girls. The boys headed to a tapas bar for lunch followed by a few pints in one of the Irish Pubs, watching the All Ireland Gaelic Football final. The publican was the highlight of the bar, a true Irishman. At one stage he told everyone he would be back in a few minutes and bolted up the street (leaving the bar unattended), 5 min later returning with a bag of ice. He also let some poms use his laptop to watch a soccer game and ordered food from the kebab shop across the road for a big table of his regulars!
Granada = Tapas. Unlike most places in Spain, in Granada when you order a drink in a Tapas bar, it comes served with a free plate of food. We learnt last night that some of it is a bit bland. Tonight we ate dinner at Minotauro Cerveceria, a tapas bar we visited last year, that has really good quality food with the drinks. Although I would have liked to try, we didn’t make it through the full list of tapas available (20 odd different plates).
The next morning Lyn and Kevin visited the Alhambra, and we slept in! Please note, anyone who is going to Granada, you have to visit the Alahambra, its amazing, and you should book your tickets a week or so in advance. We hadn’t done this so had to pay extra to get on a guided tour.
When they made it back we had stocked the fridge and prepared some food for dinner, just snacks and antipasta with beer, sangria, wine and liquor. Our last night together in Spain.

Rhonda

We had breakfast in the cafe again then headed to the supermarket to get salads for a picnic. The car was packed and we got on the way to Rhonda. Our lunch stop was in small town with natural springs. The very friendly locals made sure we knew that the water was drinkable as the springs are what sets this town apart from many others in the region. Most of the landscape we drove through was very dry so it was a pleasant surprise when we came into a town with large water fountains and lush plants everywhere. We sat at a picnic table next to a bar and ordered coffee. I think the locals were amused by our picnic and impressed that they had Australian visitors. Kevin even managed to get a photo which the Policeman’s motorbike.

We arrived in Rhonda and managed to find accommodation at a hotel after looking for probably about an hour and a half. It was then defiantly time for drinks which we then followed with a walk along the cliff. Rhonda is an amazing town as it is perched high above the surrounding country side on a cliff. The other notable feature is the Puente Nuevo (new bridge) finished in 1793 after 40 years of construction.

Whilst walking it began to rain, this meant we had to take refuge in the shops much to Damien and Kevin’s disgust. It continued to bucket down which made finding a restaurant for dinner difficult especially since no one thought it would rain in Spain and we therefore didn’t have any umbrellas. We all happily ate a very Spanish meal in a warm restaurant watching the torrents of rain continue.

The next morning we woke and it was still raining. We visited the internet cafe after breakfast then decided that it would be a good time to visit the bull ring as most of it should be indoors. Rhonda’s bull ring was the first to be built using stone and is one of only a few that still trains horses and matadors. Lyn also told us that it was used in one of Madonna’s film clips. The museum was interesting with its collection of costumes, weaponry and art work revolving around bull fighting. The rain did eventually stop so we managed to get a few photos of Damien and Kevin out in the middle of the arena.
After lunch Lyn was determined to go for a huge walk around the town then down to the base of Puente Nuevo which is about 120m high. We did have a look around town and she did nearly make it all the way down with Damien accompanying her but Kevin and I had more sence and less interest in climbing back up the massive cliff face. Whilst waiting I noticed other people collecting almonds, so I set about collecting some for us. We had these with drinks in Lyn and Kevin’s hotel room, trying to find easy ways to break open the shells. I’m sure the man at the reception desk came up at one stage to see what all the noise was. We ate at a bar for dinner and sampled some of the ham from the Alijar region that are famous as they only eat chestnuts. The meat did taste very nutty but you couldn’t have too much. We also had some eggplant that was deep fried with honey which was also tasty but sickly. Then it was time for bed before a big driving day.

Seville

We left Alijar after Lyn, Kevin and Damien had a walk around town and I had a swim. We were on our way to Seville and parking proved to be a bit of a nightmare. We managed to find an underground car park then walked to the very unhelpful Tourist office. We decided to stay across the river from the central part of town due to where the car was. Lyn and I had a break in a cafe which Damien and Kevin braved the heat to find us a hotel room as lots of the accommodation was booked out. They managed to find something so we then had coffee and sandwiches for lunch, and because we were in Spain, a siesta. In the afternoon we all had a walk around town. Lyn and Kevin decided that they had had enough for the day and headed back to the hotel whilst Damien and I headed to a bar for dinner. It was a relief when we finally made it back to the hotel and into bed. Travel is exhausting!

The next morning everyone was still a bit tired but we got up for breakfast in a café next door to the hotel. It was then time to hit the food market for fresh fruit and have a look in all the ceramic shops. Kevin decided he would like a tile of a castle to take home as a souvenir. It was then lunch time and then Lyn and Kevin went to Plaza de Espania whilst Damien and had a wander around the Jewish quarter of the city. Again a siesta was necessary before we had drinks at one of the river bars. Kevin decided it was Chinese for dinner then we all headed to a Flamenco show. This was in a bar around the corner from our hotel. It seemed to have a combination of local people and tourists so the place was packed. The band consisted of three men who all sang as well as two of them on guitars and one on a strange sort of amplified box thing. As the night progressed a lady joined in with the singing and some people did short dance performances.

Into Spain

It was yet another early morning, car packed and we were on our way to Spain. We had a stop in Serpa, a small walled city (photo 1). We had coffee and cake then climbed the castle in the middle of town (2). We headed off again and arrived in Alijar which the Lonely planet recommends for hiking. Our accommodation was a converted stable but the best part was it had a swimming pool. We had lunch then headed out on our walk. It all began well, the instructions were very clear, but that all soon changed. Instead of being a charming walk through the hills, listening to free roaming pigs searching for chestnuts it was a bit of a nightmare with swarms of flies and fruitless searches for non-existent markers. We finally arrived at the first town and discovered that everything was closed! No coffee, no coke, no caffeine of any form was available. Everyone was a bit over the whole experience at this stage so we began the trek back to Alijar. We stopped a couple of times to admire the view of the mountains and look at all the pig tracks on the sometimes hard to find path. It was 9pm and dark by the time we arrived back in town. Everyone was tired, dirty, hungry and tired. We had dinner in the pub then headed back to the stables. Kevin, Damien and I soaked our feet in the pool outside and listened to the church bells chiming. This is when we realised that it was actually 1am not 12am as we had crossed a time zone.

Alentejano Coast line

We left Lisboa early and headed over the bridge past the giant Jesus. The drive was quite nice along a peninsular. Eventually we came to a town where we had to catch a ferry across the bay. This was very mundane until we got a dolphin show as they were enjoying the wake from the ferry. We arrived in the town of Porto Covo and had lunch before finding our accommodation. It was a two bedroom apartment with a huge kitchen, lounge room and an outdoor wood BBQ, this is what we call luxury! Kevin and I organised pizza for dinner but first we headed to the beach to watch sunset with our home made Sangria. Lyn has become a HUGE Sangria fan.

The next day we drove to a Pessegueiro do Mar which had a fort just off shore on an island called Ilha do Pessegueiro (picture 1). Damien a Kevin must have felt motivated as they walked/swam out to it rather pay the €10 per person to get the boat. The island also had some Roman ruins and would have been quite interesting if it hadn’t been so hot in the sun. What I liked most about the beach was the cross current. There were waves coming from two directions and it was amazing to watch them cross paths (2).

We headed back to the accommodation for lunch and a caffeine fix then got back in the car and went to another beach a short drive North. This was much quieter but still busy. There was a family with a dog that kept us entertain. First the dog was stealing the ball that the girls were playing tennis with so they pull its tail until the dog dropped the ball. When the girls stopped playing the dog started digging, by the time we left all you could see of it was the tip of its tail.

Before dinner we had a walk around town to find the port area. As we went we were picking up kindling for our BBQ dinner of amazing supermarket kebabs and salad. After dinner Damien was excited to see there was Bull fights on TV. I’m still not sure if I would want to see the real thing. It looks so one sided. The Matador rides a horse and when the horse gets tired he gets a fresh horse, they don’t put in a fresh bull when the first one gets tired. I’m just glad I have seen some of the bulls get their own back (nothing serious) at Pamplona.

The next morning we were up early, packed and travelled to Zambajeira do Mar. This is a beautiful seaside town with a church perched upon the cliffs. The beaches here were amazing! Up to scratch with Australian beaches. There was towering cliffs and fine sand punctuated by huge rocks which created natural swimming pools and lots of rock pools. We found accommodation which was two rooms in the top level of a house with a shared a balcony but we had to wait until 2pm to check in. After coffee Lyn and Kevin hit the shops, while Damien and I had a walk on the beach. Finally we were able to check in so we had lunch then went for a walk. Lyn had read about a port a few kilometres down the road but this, we found out the hard way, takes a long time when you walk along the cliff top paths which are not always very well maintained (3). The view of the coast line was stunning and well worth the walk but I we all came away with lots of scratches from bush bashing when we lost the path. We found the port then headed to one of the restaurants for a well deserved break and something to eat. Kevin and I enjoyed a serving of cheese, olives and bread whilst watching Damien and Lyn struggling to remove barnacles from their shells (4). The walk home didn’t take nearly as long as we walked on the road. It turned out to be quite a long but a good day especially once we had possibly the slowest service ever at one of the restaurants in town, I just glad the food was good.

In the morning Lyn, Kevin and Damien headed for the local fish market to get stuff for dinner. We then packed for the beach and headed to the next cove (5). We had heard this was the most beautiful beach in Portugal and I was impressed! It had huge cliffs, a small waterfall, beautiful sand and heaps and heaps of rock pools. I explored the rock pools while Damien and Lyn went for a walk to the nudist beach (Lyn has a knack for finding them) and Kevin (6) enjoyed the shade of his new beach umbrella. I found big crabs, little crabs, shrimp, barnacles, clams, jellyfish, a few types of fish but the highlight was a huge black frilly sea slugy thing that crawled away when I pocked it with my thong. Eventually our stomachs began to rumble so we dragged ourselves away from the beach and had lunch. The afternoon was happily spent at the beach of Zambajeira do Mar. Dad looked a million dollars lying under his umbrella next to his fluroescent pink esky, at least the beers were cold! Then it was time to pack up and cook the fresh Seafood BBQ for dinner, on the balcony, which was amazing. It was a great way to finnish the relaxing beach part of our holiday.