I'm going back to Manchester for the holidays in two weeks and I just booked a flight for the two of us to Dublin! If you can believe it, the flight only costs 10 pounds on the way over and 99 pence coming back. So we'll be in Dublin from December 18th to the 21st.
Neither one of us have been there before so we're really excited. Does anyone have any suggestions for things to see or do?
Once you get the travel bug.....
-Andy - 11.29.05
Couple quick shots from Paris
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Monday, November 21, 2005
Tour Eiffel at night
Oh great, another statue...
Someone excited by the Musee d'Orsay
Manet's Olympia
Couple of gargoyles atop Notre Dame
Good night, Paris
Cinque Terre photografia
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Yippee!!!
What a view.
(and we escaped Rome)
Pesto, glorious pesto...
Rustico Picolo, 250 steps up the side of a hill, with a view to match
Anchovies, anyone?
Rockclimbing in Monterosso
Roma photos
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Vaticano daytime
Vaticano sunset
Brave soul drinking from one of Rome's many fountains
Pooped at the Forum
The fabulous Forum
This guy walked us through the intricacies of Italian food. The olives, cheese, bread, meat, and wine were gorgeous.
This was our view from the cafe where we drank vino della casa.
The Vatican's Swiss Guard. The fact that they are armed keeps the laughing to a minimum.
It's horrible to be back
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Forget about the jet lag, I'm talking about having to do some real work again. I think I like life on the road better! I'm slowly organizing the 1500 photos we took on the trip and should be posting a few more in the next few days.
For now, I hope everybody has a great Thanksgiving holiday!
For now, I hope everybody has a great Thanksgiving holiday!
Yes, we're back :(
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Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Andy is flying back to LA as I write this and I am in Urmston. We'll post some final photos from the trip in the next couple of days when he gets back and uploads them etc.
The Cinque Terre was magical and a wonderful break from city sight-seeing. We hiked between Riomaggiore and Manarola and from Corniglia to Vernazza, dipped our feet in the Mediterranean and ate lots of very good food. I never knew that I would like octopus salad so much! Our "Rustico Piccolo" cottage was tiny, tucked away high above Vernazza on the road to Corniglia, and I stand by our "Best Room in the Whole World" claim. The grandeur of the view at the top of the 250 steps did not wear off. After that we caught the train to Genoa then to Nice and then the night train to Paris. Afer adding extra days here and there in Austria and Italy we ended up with a truncated visit to France. Just an afternoon in Nice and 3 nights in Paris was not enough at all! So, we'll have to go back.
Paris!
Paris was fabulous, we loved it. So much so we might go back at Christmas! :)
We went to the Louvre (of course), were underwhelmed by the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa. We spent an entire day in the Musee D'Orsay where Andy was particularly overwhelmed by the number of paintings that he wanted to see that were elsewhere :(
We climbed the Arc de Triomphe and the Towers of Notre Dame, but didn't manage to get up the Eiffel Tower - next time!
More later, ta ra! for now...
Cinque Terre
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Sunday, November 06, 2005
We finally escaped from Roma, and now we're wondering why we haven't spent 4 weeks in the Cinque Terre. Even with a bit of drizzle this place is fantastic!
We have the Best Room in the Universe, and it's not actually a room, it's a whole building, up 7 million steps to the top of the world and we can see the entire Mediterranean - We're not kidding - you should all be extremely jealous :)
We're here for another two nights, so more soon. Have to go and consume more pesto, bye!
We have the Best Room in the Universe, and it's not actually a room, it's a whole building, up 7 million steps to the top of the world and we can see the entire Mediterranean - We're not kidding - you should all be extremely jealous :)
We're here for another two nights, so more soon. Have to go and consume more pesto, bye!
Florence, da da!
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Firenze from the top of the Duomo
Pizza south of the Arno
The Agony and the Ecstasy
Venezia part two
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What is the deal with all the pigeons??? Other than them, Piazza San Marco is great.
It got a little cold... and foggy:
Il traghetto on the Grand Canal
Ah, Venice, Venezia!!!
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Just like you thought it would be, eh?
Wonderful, hospitable, lively Zio Toni - the man makes his own brooms!
The two of us at the Guggenheim (beardage still full on)
Photos: Salzburg
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This is what we did in Salzburg...
Helen was sick
But it is beautiful by the way, Mozart's birthplace and all that.
Photos: Buda and Pest
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Remember how bad the Opera was?
Local delicacy in Pest, deep fried donut thing with cheese and sour cream, washed down with grande birre -- yum!
In Buda, near the castle...
Il Papa says "Ciao!" (and Guten Tag)
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Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Saw the Pope this morning, yes, that new guy, as he blessed the faithful (and us) in St. Peter's Square. He's a great guy. But the Vatican was crazy busy so we bagged our planned day there and headed over to the Colosseum. We'll go back and check out Il Papa's pad when there are fewer people there (not the day after All Saint's Day, duh!).
The Colosseum was pretty fantastico, awesome, 2,000 years old and all that. Apparently they DIDN'T feed Christians to the lions there; that's a legend... We also saw the ruins on Palatine Hill and looked down on the Forum, the Circus Maximus and (supposedly) Romulus's house. Then we came back here, did some laundry got some vino and some cheap pizza and now we're sitting in our shared apartment updating the blog. It's pretty sweet. We needed a break from the crowds; Rome takes it out of you with no apologies.
Some more pictures will have to come later... hopefully in the next couple of days.
Ciao!
The Colosseum was pretty fantastico, awesome, 2,000 years old and all that. Apparently they DIDN'T feed Christians to the lions there; that's a legend... We also saw the ruins on Palatine Hill and looked down on the Forum, the Circus Maximus and (supposedly) Romulus's house. Then we came back here, did some laundry got some vino and some cheap pizza and now we're sitting in our shared apartment updating the blog. It's pretty sweet. We needed a break from the crowds; Rome takes it out of you with no apologies.
Some more pictures will have to come later... hopefully in the next couple of days.
Ciao!
Ciao!
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Sunday, October 30, 2005
The clocks have just gone back in Florence so we had a nice surprise this morning when we thought we were running late and found out that we were still in time for breakfast :) We are having a slight crisis here, having just found out that this weekend is the last major holiday in Italy, Nov 1st is All Saints Day and so all the hotels are booked up in Rome. Hmmmm... we are working it out (fingers crossed), in the worse case scenario we will probably end up staying an extra day here in Firenze (oh no!)
On Friday when we arrived, we climbed the Duomo and saw the sun set over Florence, it was mesmerizing.
Then we had a great dinner at Trattoria Marione. Yesterday we walked our feet down to stumps as we visited the Uffizi gallery, the Accademia and the Santa Croce Church. Byzantine to High Renaissance in one day! Oh, and Vivoli's gelato :) One thing that has stood out on this trip is how much of bloody Europe is under scaffolding!! Everywhere we have gone, everything is shrouded in scaffolding, even the lantern on top of the Duomo is obscured. But thankfully the dome itself is untouched. Inside the Santa Croce Church it was like a jungle gym. But oh well, it is becoming quite a joke.
A few of the art highlights yesterday were:
Botticelli's Birth of Venus
David, absolutely incredible in person
Venus of Urbino
More Venice...
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Thursday, October 27, 2005
It's nice to hear from you all in the comments section :) We feel like we're breaking new ground here in the travel blog business, in the future no-one will go on holiday without one! Next photo drop will hopefully been in Florence, or maybe Rome and we can entertain you with some more daft antics.
We've been hot-footing it around Venice these past couple of days. On and off the vaporetto we've seen:
- Doges Palace and the Dungeons!!
- Guggenheim Museum
- Accademia
- Bridge of Sighs
- St. Mark's Square
- Drank wine in the shadow of the Rialto Bridge and took too many photos of the Grand Canal at night
- Murano - all the glass blowing
- gelato, gelato, gelato
And much more, got to go, off to Firenze domani.
We've been hot-footing it around Venice these past couple of days. On and off the vaporetto we've seen:
- Doges Palace and the Dungeons!!
- Guggenheim Museum
- Accademia
- Bridge of Sighs
- St. Mark's Square
- Drank wine in the shadow of the Rialto Bridge and took too many photos of the Grand Canal at night
- Murano - all the glass blowing
- gelato, gelato, gelato
And much more, got to go, off to Firenze domani.
Venice
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Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Is beautiful. Not raining yet, but foggy in the mornings, burns off in the afternoon - very impressionistic. We have been around everywhere almost, had pasta, pizza and gelato - yum! Zio Toni is taking care of us very well, and we are getting by with a mixture of french, italian, english and sign language :)
Bye for now!
Bye for now!
Tomorrow we cross the Alps
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Sunday, October 23, 2005
Well, via train. It should be a scenic journey though, if we can stay awake for it - the train leaves Salzburg at 7am, and you all know how soporific train travel can be...
We've had a nice time in Salzburg. We've taken it easy a little, slowed down the pace for a breather and it's been a welcome relief. Especially since we'll hit Italy tomorrow and we'll probably be trying to see so much. Today we visited Mozart's birthplace and his second home in Salzburg, interesting to see, but the presentation was weird and not really very informative after all. But we had Mozartkugel so it wasn't a total loss :) Then we stretched out on the banks of the river and watched the water go by for a bit. The weather is incredibly mild here.
Not sorry to be leaving this youth hostel, it's clean and sufficient but a bit miserly about strange things, and noisy - but then again it's only costing us 38 euros a night for the two of us, so we can only complain so much! Tomorrow we go to stay with Zio Toni, courtesy of Rai and Judith. So we'd better go and try to learn a little italiano. :)
We've had a nice time in Salzburg. We've taken it easy a little, slowed down the pace for a breather and it's been a welcome relief. Especially since we'll hit Italy tomorrow and we'll probably be trying to see so much. Today we visited Mozart's birthplace and his second home in Salzburg, interesting to see, but the presentation was weird and not really very informative after all. But we had Mozartkugel so it wasn't a total loss :) Then we stretched out on the banks of the river and watched the water go by for a bit. The weather is incredibly mild here.
Not sorry to be leaving this youth hostel, it's clean and sufficient but a bit miserly about strange things, and noisy - but then again it's only costing us 38 euros a night for the two of us, so we can only complain so much! Tomorrow we go to stay with Zio Toni, courtesy of Rai and Judith. So we'd better go and try to learn a little italiano. :)
In the home of Mozart
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Saturday, October 22, 2005
Hello, folks, now we're in Salzburg.
But first, our last night of Budapest: last night we saw the worst opera possibly ever performed. Luckily, we only paid about $1.50 each to see it so we weren't too disappointed. It was bizarre, set in WWII and with german surtitles so we had no chance. But the cast made sure to come out at the end for three bows each, which we begrudgingly gave. After that we went on to Grand Cafe Oktogon and had some goulash. Was gut, ja.
Today, after arriving on the train from Budapest, we walked around town and ended up seeing a few of the sights. Tomorrow we plan on hitting Mozart's birthplace and home and then renting some bikes to see a few places where they shot "The Sound of Music." We're staying in a youth hostel in the middle of town for a whopping 36 euros a night.
Off to Venice on Monday morning EARLY :( but we can sleep on the train. Hope all you guys reading this are happy and healthy!
But first, our last night of Budapest: last night we saw the worst opera possibly ever performed. Luckily, we only paid about $1.50 each to see it so we weren't too disappointed. It was bizarre, set in WWII and with german surtitles so we had no chance. But the cast made sure to come out at the end for three bows each, which we begrudgingly gave. After that we went on to Grand Cafe Oktogon and had some goulash. Was gut, ja.
Today, after arriving on the train from Budapest, we walked around town and ended up seeing a few of the sights. Tomorrow we plan on hitting Mozart's birthplace and home and then renting some bikes to see a few places where they shot "The Sound of Music." We're staying in a youth hostel in the middle of town for a whopping 36 euros a night.
Off to Venice on Monday morning EARLY :( but we can sleep on the train. Hope all you guys reading this are happy and healthy!
Wiener Photo (not sausages)
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Friday, October 21, 2005
Cold day in Wien
So that's about it for photos right now. We're currently in Budapest and tomorrow we are on our way to Salzburg.
First Vienna highlights:
- Excellent coffee at a real kaffeehaus, with rude waiter and all the fixings
- Cheap tickets to the ballet (Giselle) standing room only, good view of the tops of their heads :) Also met a weird guy who whacked his head on the railing and then asked if Helen was from Manchester
- Heurige, where the lady wouldn't let Helen have "no juice" on her meat
- Sturm at the Heurige
- Seeing the Vermeer at the Kunsthistoriches Museum
Budapest:
well, we only just got here, and leaving tomorrow - not enough time!! Hope to get same kind of cheap tickets to the opera tonight. We have finally got our coats wet and Andy thinks the metro is cute.
Oh, we went to the hot baths yesterday, outdoor palatial setting with mosty local magyars taking a dip in the thermal spring water. Fab local experience.
Bye for now!
Prague Photos
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Walking Tour with our guide, Evo Shandor
Still on the walking tour
Famous beer hall U Fleku!
Daytripping at Karlstejn Castle
Charles Bridge (Karlov Most)
Photos from Berlin
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On the roof of the Reichstag
Brandenburg Gate at night
Mini Tripod
Pergamon Museum surprise
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