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Hey all! We had one of our best trips yet in Spain the other week. We flew straight from work (for me this was literal as I was working at heathrow airport) to Valencia. Our flight was delayed 2 hours and we ended up deciding to have dinner at the airport. As it was served, a pair of delicious steak and ale pies, an announcement came over for the last call for boarding our flight so we had to sacrifice our pies. We landed in Valencia and made it half way in to our hotel, only to find the tubes had shut down. So we found ourselves walking a good few kilometres along the Valencian streets at 1am in the morning, most glad when we discovered our hotel was still open. We were stunned by the "cuteness" of Valencia and after 2 nights trained it up the coast to Peniscola. We saw some classic spanish countryside and housing and were most impressed by the monstrous castle complex that stuck out gloriously into the sparkling Mediterranean. After a dip and some dinner and firework's (they had their fiesta going on) we slept and headed up to Barcelona. We thoroughly explored Barcelona including the Gaudi sites, Barcelona beach, and the Camp Nou!!!!!!!!(barcelona's football stadium). Completely satisfied we flew down to Sevilla only to be charmed again by a most beautiful and quaint town. We got to see some free flamenco guitar late at night at a bar on the river, and rated the towns Cathedral and Palace as some of the most beautiful (considering the number we have seen to date!). So overall, a great experiences!
!!!!Photos!!!! Valencia Peniscola Barcelona Sevilla
My main motivation for getting up to date with the Wimbledon, UK and Europe posts was so I could put one up on this most outstanding day. We were fortunate enough to know someone who could get us tickets to the Community Shield, the Premier League curtain raiser between the FA cup champions and League champions from the year before, which also happened to be the two top teams, Manchester United and Chelsea. To top it all off it was played at the new Wembley Stadium and the weather was faultless. It was a match worthy of the occasion with quality football and a dramatic finish. Players such as Wayne Rooney, Christiano Ronaldo, the Despised Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, John Terry, Paul Scholed, Ryan Giggs and the list went on. It was a visual feast with the stadium divided in half along the half way line into a sea of red on one side, and a multitude of blue on the other. Man U won it on the back of 3 consecutive saves from the Dutch master, Vandersar. Good boy!
Wembley Match Photos
We were anticipating our return to Paris with much excitement. It was so great to see all the monuments again and this time we got to head up the Eiffel at night and captured some amazing shots of Paris falling into the night! Larissa was also let loose on the shops and enjoyed a fruitful harvest of clothes. Good memories!
Paris Shots
In Switzerland we had found our European gem! It brought us from crystal mountain lakes, to imposing mountain ranges, up as high as snow covered peaks, and into cute cottage towns by rivers. My highlight was Mount Titlis, whose top we reached in a series of cable cars. Atop was my first real experience of snow! I felt the urge to ski or slide or something, so I did the best I could in my volleys. Our hotel was situated on a beautiful large lake with crystal blue water fed from the snow caps of the 360 degree surrounding mountain range. It was unbelievable.
Swiss Pics - these are must see!
We were pretty tired when we arrived in Florence but mustered our energy to explore this famous town. There were some really great highlights: The courtyard of sculptures (the original "david" sculpture was here, now replaced by a replica), the old bridge, but most of all, the domed cathedral of the city, Santa Maria del Fiore. It is truly an incredible building, and opposite it are a massive pair of golden carved gates. We had a guide who was talking as if we were students in his history class. He kept getting "academically excited", but no one else was really responding. He didn't get any tips. (I felt a bit bad about that). The most disgraceful attraction was a bronze statue of a boar/hog. I didn't really get it.
Florence Photos
The thought of Rome was getting me excited, but you can’t really comprehend what you will see until you’re standing there with Coliseum, or the Pantheon, or the Sistine chapel, or St Peters Basilica staring straight back at you. The scale and enormity with which they dared to construct things, and the overflowing nature in which they decorated/adorned these is almost obnoxious. The above mentioned were the highlights, but we also got to see the Catacombs (underground burial site for ancient Christians), St Pauls Basilica (apparent burial site of the Apostle Paul – also a massive structure) and of course the Vatican which houses the Sistine Chapel. All this made for a memorable visit.
Rome Pics
Unique. The photos speak for themselves. A really distinctive atmosphere. Buildings meeting water, canals instead of streets, gondolas as transport; it wouldn’t be like this in many other places, one would think. It was our first taste of Italy and we enjoyed it. Venice by night was so beautiful, and by day, it was like a big carnival. It really is a tourist spot though. Walking away from the popular areas it got very quiet and a little more manageable.
Venice Shots
I wasn’t overly excited about going to Austria, but was pleasantly surprised on arrival in Vienna. This was the grandest of grand with respect to cool old oversized architecture and statues. There were so many cool buildings and the town centre had a great old cathedral and old town. Out of town a bit was a palace which took the prize for over-lavishness. It was massive and had a back yard and garden that would have made my Mum faint. There were acres of gardened land arranged along a path leading to a giant pool/water fountain made of giant sculptures of horses and men. The ground then tiered up and up leading to a ridiculously large garden house, from which on top were magnificent views of the whole of Vienna – outstanding. It was hard to believe people had that much money to even think about constructing such things.
Vienna Pics
We were excited to get to the Czech Republic as we had heard so much about it from others. The buildings and town seemed even more historic and there was a deeper emphasis on classical music which showed in the elevation of composers through statues, and big theatres dedicated to orchestral performances. We saw the biggest castle complex in the world, and thoroughly enjoyed the “old bridge” both at night and in the day. A pretty cool town. Also, we saw some “astronomical clock” which just seemed like a big cuckoo clock, but maybe that’s just ignorance on my part.
Prague Shots
We didn’t go to Berlin, but stopped in the interesting town of Nuremburg (where sausage was had) and in the Rhine side town of Boppard. Boppard was such a cute little German village! It had the cool little Geneva style houses, cobble streets, cool squares, and of course, lots of “saus”. I got to sample the Currywurhst (or something like that), which was chopped up sausage with curry powder on top, eaten with a miniature fork. We then took a cruise up the Rhine.
Rhine Pics
I shan't write too much about each place or else I’d have a novel, but, Brussels overwhelmed my expectations. It was another taste of the architecture of Europe which I have come to love. The buildings are so old, but yet so amazingly big, and adorned so heavily. There is a stark contrast to the UK where buildings are relatively plain. We bought some Belgium chocolate and drank some of the beer, of which the variety of such makes Belgium famous. We also sampled a Belgian waffle in the middle of the “square”, my favorite square in the world so far.
Brussels Photo's
This area is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful in all England thanks to its little cottage towns, running streams, and countryside. My Mum has lots of paintings from around this area and it was amazing to see it in person. We didn’t get much time here, but hope to return again before we leave.
Cotswolds Photos
We sailed into Larne around midnight and found our way to our B&B. The owner of the house was lovely and cooked us up a “harti” breakfast the next morn. From there we drove up along the stunning north-east causeway coast, stopping for photos and walks along the cliffy coastline, the giants causeway, and a trip across a rope bridge. The obligatory pint of Guinness was sampled, before the journey down to Dublin. We drove through Belfast and got to see Rangers Football Stadium too! Arriving in Dublin quite late, we were glad to see our hotel was right in the middle of town, enabling us to have a walk around at night. The following day we saw the sights of Dublin, which wasn’t as old as I thought it would be. Arriving at the port in the evening, we the sailed from Dublin to north Wales on a barge which, from the inside, resembled a giant moving shopping centre/eatery. It made for an enjoyable and seemingly quick journey.
Ireland Photo's
We arrived in Edinburgh to torrential rains but were more than surprised to note that our hotel was right in the heart of town, with a full view of the Eddinbrough Castle. The Castle was quite magnificent by both day and night, sitting up on a hill. We got to see the old Eddinbrough (underground) and had a drive around the coastline also. The next stop was Inverness. It was a beautiful town, but the Loch regions were the main attraction. We scoured the Loch ness for Nessie, but not the hint of a ripple gave clue to her whereabouts. There was some outstanding scenery which only continued as we proceeded down through the Scottish Highlands. We briefly passed through Glasgow also, and overall, we were most impressed with what Scotland had to offer.Scotland Photo's
We drove up in our rental car through Birmingham and up to the Lakes District, a picturesque area marked by a series of large lakes surrounded by beautiful hills and mountains. Many of the English holiday here. It was different to see such beauty based around lakes inland. We're used to seeing it on the coast, with our inland being quite dry. We saw regions on which many brittish writers based stories on, and saw the house of Beatrix Potter, and William Wordsworth. We got to stay in a beautiful little town called Millom. There was definitely a unique beauty about the area.
See Lakes District pics!
Exciting times began as we welcomed the Heazlewoods to London. Larissa was most joyous to see her family and we showed them around London for a few days before embarking on our UK adventure. Our first stop was the beautiful town of Cambridge. We were overwhelmed by its pretty old buildings, bridges, and colleges. It would bring a whole new meaning to University if you studied here that's for sure. The most outstanding feature was the King's College Chapel, an outstanding feat of Gothic architecture. Check out the Photos.
See our favorite Cambridge shots!
We read in the papers that Wimbledon was coming up, but it took us a while to realize that it was too big an opportunity to miss. The hype of the tournament is huge in London. It actually took over football on the back two pages of the sport section in the papers which was absurd. At the last minute, Aleisha, Larissa, and I decided we had to go. So we got up real early and headed down to SW17 to line up in the rain. We were only going to buy ground tickets, but it so happened that we ended up with the opportunity to buy the last 3 court 2 tickets, so we thought it was meant to be and got them. This was a good move as we were able to see Martina Hingis (pictured), Justine Henin, and Tommy Haas all play. We all agreed it was one of the most memorable days of our lives so far.
see our Wimbledon pics!
Well, what can i say. I didn't know what to expect. Some people expressed little excitement at the prospect, while others had claimed to love it. After the weekend, I agree with the later. There were so many things to see and none of them (except maybe the moulin rouge) disappointed my expectations. The Louvre was overwhelming. The history and magnificence of the building alone, let alone the contents of the museum within (eg. ol Mona Lisa), was overwhelming. We walked for seemingly hours in public park lands linking the Louvre to the Eiffel tower and the Arc de triumph (imagine someone country today building a stupidly enormous monument such as this over many years to commemorate an achievment in a war. It's rreeeaaaallllllly big). The highlight for me was being up on the top of Notre Dame as the sun faded, taking some awesome shots of Paris fading into night! A pretty cool experience.see our paris photos
Hey yall. Over the weekend we decided to hire a car and headed down to the south east coast of mother England. Dover town was nice, but not as overwhelming as the White Cliffs of Dover. We had a great time walking along the most unsafe and unfenced cliffs. The views were great! When I mentioned our trip to Mum, she started singing me a song which included the words "the white cliffs of dover". It was a good performance, and added weight to the importance of our trip. We sampled some fish and chips and then proceeded north up to Deal castle. We enjoyed a humorous audio tour of one of the castles that was built to defend England after King Henry displeased Rome by breaking from the Roman Catholic Church, and installed himself as the Head of the new Anglican Church.
our deal and dover pics
Hello everyone. Everything is going well over here. London is serving up great weather day after day, and we are just waiting for the "horrible weather" to begin.
Morgan, Esther, Larissa and I have moved into a great place together located in Hammersmith. We were fortunate + to find it after our other place was axed just 2 weeks before we were due to move in. A real answer to prayer.
In other exciting news, we welcomed my little sister Aleisha to London just last week. It was great to see more family and catch up on lost hugs.
some more pics of our house
We weren't expecting too much as we headed out to Wales on the long weekend, but we were pleasantly surprised. We stopped over in Oxford and dined in the pub frequented by CS Lewis and JR Tolkien. We then stayed the night in a most beautiful B&B up on the Mountain of Great Malvern on the Wales England border. We then trekked down to the two main cities of Wales, Swansea and Cardiff. I was most disturbed when I realised I was struggling to read the road signs, but was surprised when Larissa informed me that they speak their own language. A most interesting language at that. We were well satisfied after a weekend satisfying our need for rolling green countryside.
In the first our first European adventures we traveled to the homeland my our Oma, the Netherlands. We arrived in Amsterdam and really enjoyed eating take-away croquets and walking along the canal strewn city. There was much to see, drink, and eat, including raw meat, which apparently is a bit of a delicacy for the Dutch. It actually tasted quite good.
The next day we headed down to Utrech, a university town which proved to be quite funky, at the same time as being very quaint. We endured a ridiculous hike up a really tall tower to be greeted by great views. Following, we rewarded ourselves with a delightful plate of tiny pancakes and a hearty meal.
We went out to see a "traditional Dutch village" with aesthetically pleasing windmills, cottages, and beautiful countryside. It was quite beautiful, but not quite as beautiful as the flower gardens of Keukenhof, were we where overwhelmed by tulips. We headed down to Rotterdam, home of one of the worlds biggest ports, and were delighted to meet up with Ton Den Ot and Annalise for Dinner. We also got to catch up with Gerry and Donna Holvast for tea in their lovely Rotterdam home.
The final day of our tour of Holland saw us discover Delft, where our Oma grew up. It was the highlight of the trip for all. We stumbled upon a vibrant little town, bustling with markets in a lovely cobbled square headed by a beautiful church. As you can see in the photo, we enjoyed our time in Delft immensely!
See some of our select Holland Pics
Now there's a hungry Donkey! We went on a trip heading south-east of London for the weekend. Our first stop was Southampton where we checked out one of the major ports of England. We spent our time following the remains of the Southampton wall which also took us through the town's centre. From there we drove on to a protected area of land referred to as the New Forest. Apparently one of the Kings of England once quardened off this area as his private hunting ground and this remains till this day. Apparently the animals have right of way in all situations. They are all allowed to roam wild, but some of them are indeed owned by certain "forester's". We had a great time and got to stay the night with one of Larissa's workmate's who also showed us around the Forest. From there we drove down to Poole, a quite popular area with some of the richer, well famed folk. We had a great time all up.
See our Southampton and New Forest Pics
This is definitely one of the highlights of London with respect to its historical significance. We thought it worth going on a tour through the well maintained premises. Guided by a Yeomen Warder, we stood metres from the place King Henry VIII had one of his many wife's head removed. We saw the tower in which people such as Thomas More, and Queen Elizabeth I were held. We also gazed upon the crowned jewels and one of the biggest diamonds around, the Star of Africa. Morgan and Steve also discovered a sculpture of the worlds most ugly creature, see the photos.
Tower of London Photos
London is good. Buckingham palace, Trafalgar square, weird taxi's, pigeons, markets, the Tower Bridge..............so many cool things to see! We've been gradually getting around to see some of these sights and there is still so much more to go. Take a look at some of our photos!
Photos!
Lriss and I have been checking out some of the local parks. It is quite ridiculous how green everything is. My highlight has of course been the squirrels. It's funny how something so common to the English gives me so much joy! Imagine getting excited over the spotting of a possum. We went and explored Hyde Park and Richmond Park. Richmond park is like country England, only in the middle of london. Morgan tested the patience of some of the local deer, and we also witnessed the resurection of a crazy white deer, who must have been the king of the bunch. He looked to be injured as we approached with concern, and was left isolated as all of the other deer ran as we approached. Then, when we weren't too far from him, he suddenly sprung to life and proceeded to spring around in a quad legged jumping pattern. Once he started, all the other deer filed in behind him and followed him off far into the field. Crazy.See our park photos!
We've arrived! When we hit the ground in heathrow, we were understandably tired as it would of been the equivalent of 2am in the morning or something like that even though all clocks were insisting that it was only 4pm. We took the heathrow express into Paddington station and lagged all our gear what seemed like ages up the road until we stumbled across our hostel. It was a far cry from the 5 or so star hotel we had stayed in the night before at Kuala Lumpur airport. The stairs in the place were pretty much vertical, we may have well just been climbing up a pole.
The next morning we awoke to a beautiful sunny day! Our first views of London in the day were down the road, looking out on hyde park. We had a stroll through to the west end and took in some of the sights. We put some photos up of our first days in London, including one's from steve's birthday.
Here's some photos!
Hello there everyone! We have been really slack on updating our happenings. This must mean were too busy having a great time I guess?!? Anyway, we'll start the update by referencing to our trip to London. We left the beautiful Kuala Lumpur airport early the day after Larissa birthday, and were worried by scenes of ice and snow on many of the major European runways as we sat and watched the news.
The journey took us 13 odd hours, and was most memorable. There were a fair few vacant seats on the double deckered plane, so on the odd occasion I would journey to the back of the plane to find a row of 5 seats to have a sleep on. We saw some incredible sites out of the window over afghanastan etc. There were snow covered ranges, and also some plain dessert landscapes also (see the pictures!). When we were hovering above london, there was an awesome display of beauty as the sun was setting over the clouds. I got a cool photo of it so make sure you check it out! Anyway, we made it to London safe and sound, caught the tube into the beautiful Paddington station. Our UK journey had begun!
Flight Photos
Langkawi Island was beautiful. It was only a 1 hour flight from KL domestic airport, which has to be the most budget airport I think I have ever seen. We arrived in Langkawi expecting a really small shack of an airport, but were greeted by a more elaborate one than the one we had just left! Our resort was only 10 minutes away and featured its own private beach (see left photo). Twas nice to kick back a bit and rest our weary legs after so much walking in KL.
Our most memorable day was spent driving the circumference of the island on a scooter. We were initially cautious, but by the end of the day, we got the beast up to 95km/hr. We got to see and swim in some really secluded beaches on the north of the island, and also got to see some of the local villages and the way in which they lived. We were also able to ride a crazy elephant through a forest, and hiked up to see some beautiful rain forests and waterfalls too! The only negative point was the receiving of third degree arm burns from riding around in the sun all day. Their 4pm sun has to be hotter than the Aussy sun at 12:30pm! Painful.
See Langkawi Photos
Hey all!
Malaysia was great fun. Our first stop was Kuala Lumpur. We had a great time exploring the city sites. Of note were the Petrona's towers, the 2 tallest twin towers in the world. We also went out a bit from the city and saw some crazy hindu caves etc. Click on this link to see some of our photos - Kuala Lumpur
The Airport
Hi all. Welcome to our blog site. We will try to keep it updated on our travels as we head overseas.
Here's the first picture in our adventure, taken by Mum as we left from Brisbane airport.
Keep posted for our next entry, we fly to Kuala Lumpur first up.
seeya,
Riss&Steve
Click here for some Departure Photos
Hey all! We had one of our best trips yet in Spain the other week. We flew straight from work (for me this was literal as I was working at heathrow airport) to Valencia. Our flight was delayed 2 hours and we ended up deciding to have dinner at the airport. As it was served, a pair of delicious steak and ale pies, an announcement came over for the last call for boarding our flight so we had to sacrifice our pies. We landed in Valencia and made it half way in to our hotel, only to find the tubes had shut down. So we found ourselves walking a good few kilometres along the Valencian streets at 1am in the morning, most glad when we discovered our hotel was still open. We were stunned by the "cuteness" of Valencia and after 2 nights trained it up the coast to Peniscola. We saw some classic spanish countryside and housing and were most impressed by the monstrous castle complex that stuck out gloriously into the sparkling Mediterranean. After a dip and some dinner and firework's (they had their fiesta going on) we slept and headed up to Barcelona. We thoroughly explored Barcelona including the Gaudi sites, Barcelona beach, and the Camp Nou!!!!!!!!(barcelona's football stadium). Completely satisfied we flew down to Sevilla only to be charmed again by a most beautiful and quaint town. We got to see some free flamenco guitar late at night at a bar on the river, and rated the towns Cathedral and Palace as some of the most beautiful (considering the number we have seen to date!). So overall, a great experiences!
