Our first ‘point’ of Irish stout

Last weekend, Ian and I took a short trip to Dublin.  We had intended to visit Dublin at some point in time and when we saw Ryanair deals being advertised, we thought why not?  The flight was at 6:25am which meant we had to leave around 4am to get to Luton Airport.

Dublin was originally founded as a Viking settlement and the city has been Ireland’s capital city since the Medieval times.  All of the street signs are written in both English and Irish Gaelic.  It is built on either side of the River Liffey where most of the older buildings are on the south-side of the river.  This city is the birthplace of many literary figures, there are many monuments to commemorate writers such as George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, William Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett, and James Joyce.  Dublin, nowadays, is a historic city supporting a modern and high-tech population.

Our arrival at Dublin airport was earlier than expected; in fact it was so early that nothing much was open.  We waited for the ticket/information desk to open at 6am and bought two 3-day bus tickets (€13 each).  The trip into the city took around 45 minutes.  There was a bit of morning peak-hour traffic but we had plenty of time so we weren’t worried.  Our plan for the day was simple, we were going to hop on a bus to visit Newgrange which was 1.5 hour away, north of Dublin.  We decided to check into the hotel before heading back out towards the tour’s meeting point on O’Connell Street at 10:30am.

Well, at least that was the plan.  At 10:15am, we were still on a bus stuck in traffic.  It didn’t feel like we were moving at all so we got off and just ran.  I never felt so exhausted but we ran along the whole of O’Connell Street and managed to make it on the tour bus…only just.  Our tour guide Mary was fantastic and very knowledgeable on Irish history.  It was a nice change to be able to gaze outside at the Irish countryside.  Our first stop was the Hill of Tara.  Those who have seen the film Gone with the Wind may know that Scarlett O’Hara’s family plantation was named after the Hill of Tara.  It’s an archaeological site near the River Boyne which used to be an ancient royal site of the Irish High Kings.  Unfortunately it’s now also a sheep grazing area so we had to navigate carefully around the many “hot spots”, quite tricky especially when seriously muddy as well, to get to the standing stone in the middle of the site called Stone of Destiny at which the High Kings were crowned.

We didn’t get to see the Hill of Tara from above but here’s a photo to show how it looks.

Then it was back on the bus for a short drive in the Boyne Valley to our next stop, the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre, home to one of the most famous Irish prehistoric sites Newgrange.  It is a Neolithic passage tomb and ancient ritual place.  Apparently it was built over 5000 years ago, which means it is 500 years older than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt and 1000 years older than Stonehenge in the United Kingdom.  The passage grave was pretty much hidden as a mound until it was uncovered in the 17th century and excavated/restored between 1962 and 1975.

We actually got to go inside the sacred chamber.  The stone ceiling of the chamber was dome-shaped and watertight.  It is strong enough to support over 250,000 tons of earth over the top. What’s so amazing is that it is still standing as it is after 5,000 years!  We weren’t allowed to take photos inside, so we can’t post any up here unfortunately.  There were some Neolithic stone engravings (including some spirals, diamonds and zigzags) and also some graffiti left behind from the 17th century.

During the winter solstice (between December 19 and 23), the rising sun shines through the roof box above the entrance and illuminates the whole chamber with golden light.  Our tour guide showed us an re-enactment of this event with artificial light.  From the intense pitch black, a faint orangy light slowly moved across the long passageway and onto the chamber floor as she gradually lit up the light to simulate the sunrise, the roof of the chamber remained dark.  There’s actually a lottery where 100 people get chosen each year to experience this during the winter solstice.  It’s really the luck of the draw – last year was the first time since 1967 where it was cloudy during the whole winter solstice period so the “lottery winners” didn’t get to see a thing!

The exact purpose of Newgrange, as well as the meaning of its artwork is still unknown but many theories have been put forward.  Our tour guide suggested that it may have been built by an affluent farming community who were sun-worshippers.  Some have suggested that the rays of light illuminating the sacred chamber once a year was a promise of renewal for their dead and perhaps the spiral engravings symbolised eternity.  Others even say that the white wall could be fake and was incorrectly built during restoration.

Clockwise from top left: Newgrange megalithic passage tomb; entrance to Newgrange; entrance stone; white quartz and granite stone wall.

Clockwise from top left: Stone circle; countryside surroundings; ancient observatory building; kerbstones at Newgrange.

The next day’s agenda began along the cobblestone streets of Temple Bar (that’s the actual name of the street).  There were plenty of pubs, music venues, art galleries and because it was a Saturday there were also some markets in Cow’s Lane and Meeting Point Square.

Clockwise from top left: Looking down Temple Bar; colourful pub on Temple Bar; food market menu; window of a random pub; book fair on Temple Bar.

Clockwise from top left: Liffey River; art exhibition at Temple Bar; street painting; Bronze Ladies Statue.

A short stroll along the River Liffey and it was on to Trinity College next.  Situated in the heart of Dublin city, Trinity College was founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592.  It is also home to the Book of Kells, an illuminated gospel book which dates back to the 8th Century.  Unfortunately, the original Book of Kells at the Old Library was under maintenance until the end of February so we didn’t get to see it this time (they were charging €8 to see the replica, which we thought was a bit unreasonable).  We decided to wander to Oscar Wilde’s birthplace and his statue instead.  Ian reckons the statue resembles the TV presenter Jonathan Ross (who he also “cyber-stalks” on Twitter and hence knows what ice cream Wossy ate yesterday).

Clockwise from top left: Courtyard inside Trinity College; the Old Library where the Book of Kells is kept; Georgian architecture inside Trinity College; the Berkeley Library.

Clockwise from top left: Plaque at Oscar Wilde's birthplace; Oscar Wilde statue; Molly Malone statue; St. Stephen's Green shopping centre; St. Ann Church; Purnell monument.

The afternoon was spent at the National Museum of Ireland.  Some of the highlights include the Iron Age bog bodies which were just repulsively interesting (it’s amazing how well the skin and hair are preserved) and many artefacts from prehistoric and medieval Ireland.  After a quick coffee and cake fix at the museum cafe, we visited St. Stephen’s Green then headed back to Temple Bar for dinner.

Clockwise from top left: National Gallery of Ireland; The Gate Theatre; Georgian architecture; National Museum of Ireland; entrance to National Museum of Ireland.

Clockwise from top left: Fried mushroom; boxty; bangers and mash; Irish stew with Guinness.

The following day we walked north and visited the Garden of Remembrance, Dublin Writers Museum and Dublin Castle.  We spent a fair amount of time at the Chester Betty Library.  I lost count of how many ‘wows’ I let fly with while going through the exhibits.  The highlights for me were the Yongle Dadian (Great Encyclopaedia of the Yongle Era from 1406), papyrus manuscripts, some Egyptian Books of the Dead and beautiful Japanese painted scrolls.  I was just blown away; the Chester Betty Library has an amazingly wonderful collection of illuminated manuscripts, paintings, sacred texts, prints, drawings, rare books and decorative arts from all over Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.

Clockwise from top left: Garden of Remembrance; Children of Lir sculpture; the Wall of Fame; Dublin Writers Museum.

We visited a few more landmarks in the afternoon, including the Literary Parade, St Patrick’s Cathedral (the largest church in Ireland, founded in 1191), Christchurch Cathedral, the Law Courts, Fishamble Street and were absolutely knackered by the time we reached the building where Handel’s Messiah was first performed.  We discovered a quaint little bakery/cafe on Cow’s Lane called Queen of Tarts. Their chocolate fudge cake is fantastic!

Clockwise from top left: Map of Dublin Castle; part of Dublin Castle; Belford Tower; St. Patrick's Cathedral; plaque commemorating Dublin writers; Literary Parade.

Clockwise from top left: Medieval overpass; Christchurch Cathedral; remains of the Chapter House; the Law Courts.

Clockwise from top left: Fishamble street; where "Handel's Messiah" was performed for the very first time; ceramics by the stairs inside Queen of Tarts I call them "conscience"; looking down from the top level inside Queen of Tarts.

Saving the best for last (if you like stout – Ian doesn’t), we visited the Guinness Storehouse on our last day and went on a tour that takes you on a historical journey about the “black stuff”.  As we zig-zagged through all six floors of the storehouse, we learnt about the making of the Irish stout and the history of the brand.  Every drop of Guinness in the world has been brewed in Dublin for 250 years and it is the roasted barley that gives the stout its distinctive dark colour.  Given that it was my first Guinness, I was so excited when I found out there was a demonstration area to show people how to pour the perfect pint (or “point” as the Irish says it).  Ian insisted that he wanted to have his pint at the Gravity Bar on the top level so he watched as I “double-poured” myself a pint.  The head was certainly very creamy and it tasted better than I expected but still, it’s quite a heavy drink.  The Gravity Bar has a nice panoramic view over Dublin but we didn’t spend much time there as we had to get to the airport for our flight.

Clockwise from top left: Irish street performers at Temple Bar; Guinness Storehouse; 9000 year lease agreement; ticket machine; €1 donkey (the photo cost us €1, not the donkey).

Clockwise from top left: All Guinness in the world is produced here; Guinness barrels; first Guinness label printing block; Guinness roasted barley; harp in Guinness logo; Guinness bottles.

It was sprinkling snowflakes when we turned up at the airport so I wasn’t too surprised when our flight was delayed by 30 minutes.  I kept a close eye on the departure board because some earlier flights to London were being cancelled.  We got our boarding passes and waited at the gate.  From where I was sitting I saw what started as tiny snow specks had become a full-blown snowfall. Inevitably, our flight was cancelled.  Being a budget airline, Ryanair’s one-and-only information desk was at the departure hall outside so we had to walk back out through the winding halls and custom counters.  And much to our disappointment, we found a very long queue waiting for us outside.

Just over an hour later, we managed to get a replacement flight to Bristol from the Ryanair counter.  Admittedly I was slightly surprised when the lady at the Ryanair counter gave us a piece of A4 paper on which she has scribbled something but only the word “Bristol” was legible and put a smudgy red stamp on it, then she told us to use that piece of paper to get boarding passes from the check-in counters.  As expected when we handed over our passports and that piece of paper to the lady at the check-in counter, she gave us a perplexed look and asked “What do you expect me to do with this piece of paper?”.  We told her that the ticketing counter had sent us over to get new boarding passes.  We were then palmed off to the adjacent counter where we had to queue again.  When we got to the front of the line, the lady there tried to send us back to the previous line.  We kept calm and told her as nicely as we could that it was that counter she was now trying to get us to go to that sent us to her. After some debate, she eventually gave us the boarding passes.

Another 50 minutes later, our flight was delayed for another hour-and-a-half.  While Ian went to get some food and coffee, announcements were made to advise that our flight was cancelled…I could not believe it…Again!  Apparently, no flights were getting into London and most southern parts of the UK due to the weather.  Of course, this meant that planes bound for London could not take off.  So once again, we power walked through the winding halls and custom counters (the gates were actually quite far away, it was about a 20 minute walk).  Only this time the queue was so ridiculous you couldn’t even see the end of the queue!  It formed a weave through the entire departure hall like an extended version of the queues for Disneyland rides on weekends during school holidays.  And I’m really not exaggerating.  It was definitely going to take all night to queue.  Just as I was going to tell Ian that our best option was probably to find a nearby hotel to stay for the night, Ian decided to call his bank.  “What an unusual time to call a bank”, I thought?!  As it turned out, Ian just remembered his bank has this concierge service which helps him make travel arrangements anytime anywhere.  What an awesome service!  I mean, there were some terminals around the airport where we could have gone online to find ourselves a hotel but there were ridiculously long queues for them as well.  So thanks to Ian’s bank, we didn’t have to queue.  When we got to the hotel, we managed to rebook and change our flight to Gatwick Airport on the Ryanair website without any extra charge.

We got back to London without problems the next day.  On the Gatwick Express to Victoria Station, what we saw outside was a different London.  Not the usual brown, the city was covered in thick heavy snow – quite a pretty and magical sight.  We later found out the whole of London was at a standstill on Monday.  No buses, trains nor tubes, schools and airports were closed, apparently one in five people did not make it to work.  The weather forecast says there is a chance of more snow later on in the week, hopefully it doesn’t cause as much chaos.

 

A day out at Wimbledon

To get tickets to watch the Championships at Wimbledon, one typically has 2 options: enter the public ballot or queue at the gates on the day (early in the morning – they even allowed those camping out the night before to pitch tents). It’s a little known fact that you can also buy tickets online from Tickemaster the night before. The only issue with the tickets you get this way is that there are VERY few made available and they are waaaaaaaaaaaaaay up the back. We didn’t mind of course as we’d never been to Wimbledon and have always wanted to go.

So each night during the Championships, we would both log into Ticketmaster and sit there hitting the refresh button in our Web Browsers. The reason for this was because the tickets became available at 8:30pm. If you attempt to buy tickets before, you’re met with the “tickets aren’t available yet” message. Once it opens however, you need to be VERY quick and VERY lucky. They’re pretty much gone within a minute and if you don’t get it on the first attempt, you should just give up.

We were lucky enough to score ourselves Centre Court tickets for the middle Saturday (28th June) to watch the following 3rd round matches:

• Caroline Wozniacki vs. Jelena Jankovic
• Tommy Haas vs. Andy Murray
• Nicolas Kiefer vs. Rafael Nadal

That’s right, we got to watch the eventual champion, Rafa Nadal! Needless to say, we were excited.

We took the train there and walked from Wimbledon station, which was full of people heading to the tennis. We could have hopped onto a bus to get to the courts, but decided to take a walk due to the queues. It wasn’t too bad actually and took around 20 minutes. Perhaps it was closer to 30 minutes, but Wimbledon is a really nice area so we didn’t notice (even though most of the walk was uphill). Our excitement probably made the walk much more pleasant as well.

The place was buzzing with activity and we took our time walking around the various outside courts to catch some of the action (including some of the junior matches). After all, we had about 45 minutes before the matches were due to start on Centre Court.

We definitely got our money’s worth, with Nadal’s match finishing around 9pm. It was a fun day, the weather was great (and warm) and we got to experience an iconic, historical event that is on the “to-do” list of many people. Here’s a few pictures from the day (click on each for a larger version).

At the top of the hill where people sit to watch the big screen (affectionately known as “Henman Hill”).

They Royal Box, which on the day included luminaries such as Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King, Tim Henman, Todd Woodbridge, Sachin Tendulkar, a bunch of politicians, actors, and a few British Olympians.

Jelena Jankovic in action.

Andy Murray and Tommy Haas.

Rafa Nadal in action.

Rafa performing his famous “undoing of the wedgie” move.

And if anyone’s interested, Jankovic, Murray and Nadal were the winners of their respective matches.

 

Efharisto, Santorini and Athens

We’re back from a magical 9 days in beautiful Greece! It’s our long holiday for the year and words can’t really describe how great it was. Also, here’s a tip. We went in early June, which is a great time to go. It’s just before the peak season (so not too many people crowding the streets and attractions) and it’s not too warm either (average temperatures in the 20s, Celsius of course not Fahrenheit). It was also sunny every single day! But that’s just the way Greece is so we’re told.

We’ve always wanted to visit Santorini – Mimi because of quality Angelina Jolie movies like Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life and me because of all the postcards and pictures I’ve seen (OK OK, so it was the other way around but saying it this way gets me in less trouble). Put it this way, Santorini is now our number 1 holiday destination amongst the places we’ve been (and we’ve been to quite a few). The pictures and movies don’t do the place justice.

The main reason for the trip was actually to spend time on Santorini. We decided to spend some time in Athens as well because the flights we picked had stopovers in Athens so we figured we might as well. That said, we didn’t regret including Athens as part of the trip. It’s historically one of the most important places in the world.

Day 1 – Yassas (Hello in Greek)

As most people try to do with these things, we went for the cheapest possible option we could find with the flights. We ended up flying Olympic Airlines departing Heathrow airport at 10pm in the evening. This meant that we arrived in Athens at around 4am and had to hang around Athens airport for about 2 hours to get on our connecting flight to Thira (Santorini’s airport). This was not too bad. Some of the shops were open and Athens airport is actually quite nice (thanks to the 2004 Olympics and the work they had to do in preparation for it). We had breakfast at the airport and I had my first Greek pastry of the trip. It was a Bougatsa from some airport cafe. Mimi had something a little more boring and non-Greek (which is why I can’t remember what it was) and of course we both had coffee (not Greek coffee though).

We eventually boarded our flight around 6am and were filled with excitement. We could finally see in person all those wonderful scenic images we saw in that Tomb Raider movie (I’m referring to the non-Angelina Jolie wearing really right clothing images of course). In fact, we saw the movie on TV again the other night and found that we recognised a few of the locations, in particular the place we sat to watch the sunset over Oia (they held a Greek wedding there in the movie). More about this later.

As we cruised along, we eventually came upon a bunch of islands. “Is that Santorini? Or that one? What about that one?” It didn’t matter really because they all looked great. Then an announcement was made by the captain. We thought it was to inform us that we were about to land and to buckle up. Instead, the captain informed us that Santorini’s airport was closed and we would have to find a temporary alternative to land for the moment. Disappointing, but it was only a small snag. We weren’t going to let some silly airport closure derail our holiday. They never did tell us why the airport was closed at the time.

We eventually landed at some unknown place and they loaded us all onto a bus and sent us to the terminal. I remember thinking “this looks kinda familiar, surely they didn’t.” Back in the terminal, they proceeded to hand us back our boarding passes so we could use them to board the plane again whenever Santorini decided to open the airport. One Japanese tourist asked the staff where we were. Her answer, “oh we’re back in Athens”. Most of the passengers reacted the same way. “What the heck?!?! We flew almost to Santorini and then now we’re back in Athens?!”. Luckily Santorini is actually not a long flight out…about half an hour in the air. So no biggie I thought. It was just surprising. So we sat around the airport bored again and hoping they would let us get on with our holiday ASAP.

I was almost going to get up and go buy us a coffee when they finally announced they would let us back on the plane because Santorini airport was now open. So we hopped back on, got on the plane and crossed our fingers that the airport would stay open. This time around, we did actually land in Santorini. It was about 3 hours later than we were expecting, but no matter. I felt worse for our driver (our hotel had arranged for one) who had to wait around for about 4 hours. The weather was wonderful. The temperature was perfect. We had nothing to complain about despite our slight delay.

The drive to the hotel was interesting. It was a mixture of locals and tourism related places all intermingled amongst one another. Santorini is still very rural in many ways, but the tourism industry has forced a lot of built-for-purpose establishments to serve the demand – the old mixed in with the new. We also drove through Fira, which is the main town on Santorini. Tourism is king in Fira. Nothing but cafes, restaurants, shops and hotels. There are still locals amongst it all, but they are there mainly to serve the tourism industry. Don’t get me wrong, Fira is still wonderfully picturesque and pretty but Santorini’s main industry is tourism so you have to bear that in mind.

We eventually reached our hotel, which was not in either of the 2 main towns (Fira and Oia) on Santorini. It was situated somewhere between (a little closer to Fira) in Imerovigli. The location was a little bit out of the way in terms of the hustle and bustle of Fira, but that’s what we were going for. And as we found out later, Fira is about a half hour walk from Imerovigli so it wasn’t that much of a big deal. Imerovigli itself has some shops, cafes and restaurants so it wasn’t as if we were located in the middle of nowhere. I like to think of it as a nice balance. It was actually VERY peaceful and VERY quiet. I suppose being there during the off-peak season helped.

Alright Ian, get to the point. Where the heck did you stay?! We stayed at the Anastasis Apartments. As seems to be the norm in Santorini, the owner runs the place. We were greeted to a very warm, homely welcome by the owner Despina, her husband and Katerina (who helps her run the place). They made us feel at home and I think it’s safe to say we’ve never had a better welcome at any commercial establishment we’ve been to. This place wins hands down and there is no close 2nd place that I can think of in our travels. We actually picked the Anastasis Aparments because they are the number 1 rated hotel on Santorini on TripAdvisor when we checked (I usually have a look at reviews on TripAdvisor before we book anything just to help ensure we don’t get a dud place to stay and it’s served us well thus far).

They took us to the hotel’s common room where Despina and Katerina sat us down and proceeded to give us advice on the things we could do, places to visit and restaurants to eat at (and to avoid). After this, they brought us some cakes to eat and a traditional Greek breakfast (all this was complimentary by the way) of yogurt, honey, home made marmalade (made by Despina’s mum) and muesli. Greek coffee accompanied this of course (although this was the last time they served us Greek coffee thanks to Mimi’s face when she first drank it – Despina gave us filtered coffee each subsequent time through the stay). This was the view from the table (for all photos in this post, click for a larger image)…

Needless to say, we sat there for some time. We eventually decided to go have a look at our room, which they were getting ready for us when we arrived (we got there in the morning so the room wasn’t ready yet). On they way there, our jaws dropped and we couldn’t help but stand and stare at this…

After picking our jaws off the ground, we walked around the corner to our room. We had booked one of their Superior apartments (in fact, I think it’s actually the one in picture on the website) and this was the view out from our room…

Needless to say, at this point we were more than impressed with Santorini in general. We took an hour or so to rest and just enjoy the place before deciding that we should actually do something. Most of the hotel guests were happy to laze by the pool all the time (and why wouldn’t you), but it was our first day. We decided to take a walk to Fira town.  There is actually a walking track in Santorini that links all the main towns and this happens to be right beside the hotel. So that’s what we did: we took the walking track to Fira. Instead of describing the walk in words, here are some pictures…

There were lots more pictures (Mimi went a little nuts with photos on this trip – we averaged 200 shots per day), but we don’t have that much space here. At some point in time (not sure when because we were too busy taking in the views), we knew we were almost at Fira because we saw this…

That’s Fira in the distance and Firostefani in the foreground. We reached Fira about 15 minutes later…

The 2nd shot is a view of the Caldera from Fira. You might notice the ship. There were quite a few of them each day because almost all Mediterranean cruises stop at Santorini. We spent the afternoon lazing around Fira window shopping and eating ice cream (can’t think of many better ways to spend an afternoon). When we got hungry (even after the ice cream), we decided to walk back to the hotel. Katerina had recommended one of the restaurants with a view of the Caldera in Firostefani (called “The Flame”) so that’s where we stopped on the walk back. Here’s what we had and the accompanying view during dinner…

Doesn’t get a lot better than this, we thought. Full of food and in wonderous amazement at where we actually were, we decided to take the slow stroll back to Imerovigli at dusk…

To top it all off, here’s the view from outside our room when we got back…

Day 1 was magical, but it would only get better.

Day 2 – Oia

We woke up a little bit late the next day. It wasn’t until about 1pm when we thought we should probably get out and about, especially when we had this waiting for us outside our room (no the cakes and coffee weren’t sitting there all morning – they only brought it to us after we woke up)…

We decided to take a walk to Oia and headed off straight after breakfast (even though it was already lunchtime). It was a little longer than we expected (2-3 hours), but the views on the way were worth it.

The above pictures were taken in chronological order. The 3rd one was taken the moment we could see Oia in the distance. Upon reaching Oia, it was…well I can’t do it justice. It was even better than what you see in the postcards so I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking.

Here’s one of the many churches in Oia…

As we wandered around the narrow, but very pretty streets of Oia, we noticed there were a heck of a lot less people compared to the crowd in Fira. There were also a lot more dogs lazing around (there seemed to be more cats in Fira). We even saw a wedding procession (and later saw them taking pictures around the town – you can’t really go wrong no matter where you pick to take your wedding shots in Oia). Here’s a shot back towards one section of Oia as we were walking around…

Eventually, we got to a lookout which had an amazing view of Oia and the rest of Santorini. For those that remember the scene in Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life where they filmed a wedding reception taking place (just before an “earthquake”), this lookout was the location of that reception. We also notice a fair number of people sitting around. It took us a moment to realise this was one of the places where you could get a view of the horizon, the sunset AND Oia at the same time. Here’s a shot back towards another part of Oia from the lookout…

We were actually early. It was around 6 or 7 pm and the sun wasn’t going to be setting until around 8:30. But we were tired from our long walk, so we thought we’d get ourselves a good spot and wait it out. It was the most peaceful, relaxing and wonderous hour and a half of the trip. We watched the lookout fill up with people, like a time lapse video in slow motion. We waited some more, everyone having a great time, lots of fun and most of all contented, happy and grateful that they were sharing the experience with loved ones. Sitting there, we could feel the images being engraved slowly onto the canvas of our long term memory. Worries are non-existent and you are thankful for being able to share it with your better half. We could have waited forever and it wouldn’t have mattered. It wasn’t just a visual experience. All senses are acutely heightened and absorb the surroundings. Emotions and dreams blend with tangible senses to achieve an experience like no other. I’m not a proponent of Zen-like states, but I would imagine this is what it feels like. So we waited, in subconscious meditation…and boy was it worth the wait…

The picture doesn’t do the experience justice, nor do my feeble attempts at stringing sentences together. This is one case where the picture only tells ten words when it needs to be telling a million.

Once the sun had set into the sea, we decided to take the advice of our hosts at the hotel and look for the fantastic seafood restaurant they raved about in Oia called “Dimitri’s”. The restaurant isn’t in the main town of Oia itself. It’s located by the sea, which can be reached via the road or a set of stairs. We took the stairs and about halfway down, spotted where we were headed.

It was dusk by the time we found the restaurant. Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones who knew it was a good restaurant. All the adjacent restaurants were almost empty. Dimitri’s however, was full and we had to wait for a table. This was the wait of all waits (in a good way) because this was the view…

Roughly 15 minutes later, we were eventually seated at our table and had a wonderful, fresh meal. This was also where we discovered Saganaki (fried cheese). We would proceed to go around trying the Saganaki at every restaurant we ate at for the rest of the trip. My gut will never forgive me but I didn’t care at the time. Mmmm….Saganaki.

Oh, Mimi likes fried calamari so we had some too. It tasted like the sea. We had a whole fish and Greek salad as our mains. I didn’t care much for the salad, but that shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows me.

Satisfied with our glorious meal, we had the restaurant call us a cab (who drove like a madman) and headed back to the hotel. Even though we probably needed the 2-3 hour walk back, we weren’t exactly in the mood

Day 3 – Chill-out day

We didn’t do much on this day, but it was our plan all along. Too many times, people go on holiday only to need a holiday from the holiday when they get back. Santorini lends itself to unwinding and relaxing. If you can’t relax in Santorini, you won’t be able to relax anywhere.

We went to lunch at a restaurant in the main part of Imerovigli (had Saganaki again of course, but not as good as Dimitri’s) with this view…

After lunch, we walked over to a Cafe and had Greek iced coffee. Very nice, but very sweet. Then it was back to the hotel where we spent the rest of the day doing this…

The view of the sunset from the hotel wasn’t to shabby either. This picture was taken from the front door of our room…

Day 4 – Volcano and Jacuzzi

We’d been debating whether to bother heading out to the centre of the volcano (the caldera is actually the crater of the volcano), which was a short boat trip from Fira port. There are other tours that include the volcano cruise, soak at the hot spring and a sunset cruise. But Katerina had warned us that it wasn’t good value to do everything and that we should just do the volcano cruise if we wanted to get out there. We eventually decided to because we’d already spent the previous day relaxing by the pool. But most of all, we were looking forward to the Jacuzzi in the evening. The hotel allows each guest couple exclusive use of the hotel’s jacuzzi for an hour as part of the stay. This hour has to be booked in advance and ours was in the evening on this day. We’d also picked a time slot very close to sunset so had high expectations.

We decided to walk to Fira again because we wanted to have breakfast there and thought the walk would work up a good appetite (no Saganaki available for breakfast much to our disappointment). We eventually arrived and went straight to one of the outlets to buy boat tickets for the volcano. Apparently the price is regulated so the cost is the same no matter where the tickets are purchased from. Fira port is obviously by the sea, so to get there we could have either walked down a set of winding stairs or pay for the cable car ride. We picked the cable car because the stairs smelled like donkey poo (there are a bunch of old guys at the bottom charging people for donkey rides up the stairs back to Fira town).

Here’s another nice looking church we found on one of the back streets in Fira…

The view back towards Fira from the boat were spectacular, as with everything else on Santorini…

When we got to the centre of the volcano, we were surprised to find that there was a guy collecting money for entry. We were somewhat surprised because no one had told us about it. We had assumed the boat tickets included entry. It wasn’t that expensive (a couple of Euros from memory), but it didn’t exactly fill us with a sense of warmth. We weren’t going to let this spoil our day so we paid and walked on. And walked…and walked some more. Here’s a picture…

One is enough because everything pretty much looked like this (not always with the flowers). To be blunt, it was just a bunch of volcanic rocks. It was still nice, but this was thanks to the views of Santorini itself. So if you ever visit, you can skip the trip out to the centre of the volcano. Spend your time doing other things…like relaxing by the pool.

We had lunch at a great place in Fira itself. Katerina had recommended a local restaurant she said all the locals ate at called “Taverna Nikolas”, which has no menu. They have daily specials read out by the waiter depending on the fresh ingredients brought in that day. Again, Katerina’s recommendation was spot on. It was home-style, authentic, comfort food. More than satisfied with our lunch, we walked around Fira once again just to ensure we covered all of it (which we didn’t have time to on the first day) and then walked back to the hotel.

The afternoon was spent by the pool again (and in the pool) in anticipation of the hour in the jacuzzi. When we got there, this awaited us….

Which is exactly where we stayed with our champagne (courtesy of Despina)…

Through to sunset…

It was very special, which is actually an understatement.

We had rented a car for around 30 Euros so we could drive around the next day. The other reason was that we needed to get to the airport and calling a cab would have cost almost as much. The rental company had just dropped the car off at the hotel for us in the early evening so we decided to make use of it by going out for dinner. One of Katerina’s restaurant recommendations was Toy Nikoy, a 5-10 minute drive down the road from the hotel, so that’s where we went. Upon arrival we weren’t sure it was open as it was completely empty. Then a waiter appeared out of nowhere and ushered us in. We were wondering what we were getting ourselves into and seriously worried, but it was too late. We’ve never walked into an empty restaurant (and with good reason) so this was a first. Had Katerina steered us wrong this time? Luckily, she hadn’t. The food was not bad at all. The restaurant was simply suffering from the fact it wasn’t peak holiday season and that they are located in the middle of nowhere (you really need a car to get to the restaurant). Saganaki was ordered as an entrée yet again of course. And there we were, in our own private restaurant being waited on exclusively to cap off another unique Santorini day.

Day 5 – Driving around

Our last day in Santorini

So, we took advantage of the fact we had a car and decided to visit a few of the beaches. Santorini isn’t known for its beaches, but they aren’t too shabby. After driving and getting somewhat lost, we arrived at the Red Beach in Akrotiri. We didn’t actually walk down to the beach but we did take this picture.

Off we went again, this time trying to find Kamari Beach, known for its black sand.

We ended up having lunch by Kamari where the waiter convinced us (well, me actually) to order their Lobster pasta. It wasn’t cheap but it was very tasty and the Lobster was fresh. I figured we could given it was our last day (for now) in Santorini and we should enjoy ourselves. What about Saganaki you ask? Of course! It was the entrée.

The afternoon was spent walking around Oia again (we loved it so much the first time we had to go back again). We were also on the lookout for a souvenir, hand-painted bottle with an image of Santorini. We had seen quite a few during our first visit to Oia so we thought it was a good idea. We eventually found the one for us and snapped it up (an olive oil bottle currently sitting in our kitchen). I don’t usually like buying souvenirs (as Mimi can attest to) because I’ve seen way too many just put aside, hidden in cupboards or thrown away. My view is that the photos ARE the souvenirs. This time around however, I relented. It’s a VERY nice olive oil bottle.

Our time in Santorini was almost up. We took a few more happy snaps around Oia (almost empty on this day for some reason so we got some great shots with no one else in the picture) and drove to the airport. I should mention that returning a rental car on Santorini is done in a rather interesting manner. As someone who has rented many cars (thanks to my many work-related trips), this was even more peculiar. They told us to park the car in the airport car park and leave the keys under the mat. Not only were we to do this, but the car had to be left unlocked! Then again, Santorini is such a small place that if someone steals a car it isn’t too difficult to find it again. We can attest to this fact as we had basically driven around the whole island and certainly covered the coastline.

Next stop, Athens.

Day 6 – First full day in Athens

Santorini is a difficult destination to top for spectacular views. But Athens is equally difficult to top from a historical standpoint. With our thoughts still on Santorini, we awoke a little bit later than we wanted and just made it in time for the hotel breakfast. It’s a good thing we did because this was the view…

If you’re scratching your head, that’s the Parthenon in the distance. After breakfast, we strolled on over to the Acropolis to have a closer look. We passed all the historical bits and pieces at the foot of the Acropolis. Here’s a sampling (with descriptions)…

On the way up to the Parthenon, it’s a little difficult to miss the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, where they still hold live performances today…

Some scaffolding holding up part of the structure. Much of Athens is an archaeological site and a lot of the structures are being restored…

View of the Temple of Olympian Zeus from the Parthenon. Our hotel is across the road from it so this is the reverse of the breakfast photo…

Here part of the Ancient Agora of Athens at the base of the Acropolis…

Here’s the Stoa of Attalos within the Agora where they showcase a bunch of ancient artifacts…

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Monastiraki, Kerameikos and Plaka, where we came across yet another Starbucks…

Of course, we didn’t stop. We figured we should stick to Greek coffee (or taking a sip of mine in Mimi’s case). We had lunch at some random place in Plaka where the food was edible but not fantastic. We didn’t have the benefit of Katerina’s advice like in Santorini. After lunch, we walked around Plaka a little more and then headed across the road to Hadrian’s Arch…

Right next to Hadrian’s Arch is the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which we saw from the Parthenon earlier in the day…

Of course, both of these are directly across the road from our hotel…

We then headed up to road to Syntagma Square to take a look at the Greek Parliament building where we managed to catch the changing of the guard (which immediately reminded me of John Cleese and his silly walk)…

For dinner, we headed back to Plaka. Luckily, Mimi had done some research and we found ourselves at Taverna Platanos, one of the oldest establishments in Athens. It wasn’t the easiest place to find, but well worth the effort. Great value, great tasting comfort food again. The meat just melted in our mouths. By the end of dinner, we were done walking. Luckily our hotel is right next to Plaka (literally) so it was a short walk back to rest up for the next day.

Day 7 – Research day

We noticed some interesting looking buildings from the Parthenon the previous day. These turned out to be the National Observatory of Athens and the Pnyx. We decided to try walking to them for a closer look but stopped by the new Acropolis Museum on the way. It wasn’t open yet, but they were allowing people a preliminary look around the ground level. There were some exposed excavation areas as well and it looks like it’s going to be a very nice place when completed.

It was a bit of a walk, but we eventually reached the Pnyx.

There were a bunch of chairs set up and a podium with the Olympic rings clearly displayed. We guessed that they had set it up for some ceremonial thing related to the upcoming Beijing Olympics but never found out if it was. We did walk to the observatory, but didn’t bother taking a closer look because there was a film crew there and we didn’t feel like becoming extras on Greek TV

We were looking into the possibility of taking a day trip to Delphi the next day and one option was the day tour costing 90 Euros. The other option was to do it ourselves by taking a bus, which was by far the cheaper option. We decided to follow the instructions we found online in advance in the event we got hopelessly lost the next day (and missed out on the opportunity to get to Delphi). It’s a 3 hour bus ride so we didn’t want to take a chance. Basically if it was too difficult we were going to go for the tour.

The instructions said that the bus terminal was located at 260 Liosion Street. We had asked the hotel front desk and they said we could walk there from Larissa metro station. So away we went, getting off at Larissa station. We found our way to Liosion Street and started walking, albeit in the wrong direction for about 5 minutes. Luckily, we realised this and turned around. We walked…and we walked….and walked. Some of the neighbourhoods we walked through were downright dodgy but Liosion Street is fairly busy so we weren’t too worried. We kept walking, until eventually we reached Attiki metro station. We said to ourselves: “Attiki metro station? What?!” We had reached the next metro station (it took us almost half an hour) and we were still nowhere near 260 Liosion Street. To make things a little more interesting, there was a crazy lady at Attiki cursing everyone she could get near and spitting down at people walking up the stairs from the metro station itself. She was kicking the back of each bus that went by as well. At this point, we thought to ourselves that we’d done enough “research” into the Delphi thing. I really wanted to just take the day tour but Mimi convinced me that we should show up at Attiki station the next day and hop on a bus. As long as it was a bus headed down Liosion, we would be fine. We could just get off when we saw the bus station. I agreed.

We planned to spend the afternoon in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, which holds a lot of Greece’s (and the world’s) history in it. Back on the metro we got, from Attiki to Omonia station. The museum isn’t in a very convenient location if you want to take the metro – Omonia is the closest. It was roughly a 20 minute walk but we got there eventually…

As she does in most museums, Mimi took lots of photos of artifacts. I’m not normally the type to be impressed with museums, but this place had lots of cool stuff (my personal favourite was the Antikythera mechanism). I won’t put the pictures here because we’ll run out of storage space

After a couple of hours in the museum, we decided to do some shopping and headed for Attica, the largest department store in Athens. We did make a detour via Kolonaki because I wanted to take a look at the “trendy” part of Athens. It was quite a nice area to have a meal, meet up with friends or just hang around. Attica was just like any other large department store. To Mimi’s credit, she didn’t buy a single thing.

On the way back to the hotel and just round the corner from Attica, we found this…

It was a workout session (I think it was a spin class) in an open public area that was drawing a crowd. The loud music had a lot to do with it, but I suppose the participants in skin-tight gym clothes might have helped to keep the crowd there.

Day 8 – Delphi

We set out pretty early thanks to the previous day’s adventure. This time, we took the metro to Attiki and got on a bus along Liosion Street. The problem on the bus was that we had no idea where to get off. We thought it would be easy however. After all, a bus terminal should stand out – or so we thought. Along the bus went. 5 minutes later, still no number 260. The numbers were still smaller than 260 so we thought we were ok. 10 minutes later and we were getting closer. The next moment, I saw 270. 270?!?! Where was the frigging bus station? So we got off at the next opportunity and walked backwards. Walking…walking…walking. Still no bus terminal. And then we saw it…260 Liosion Street. It was…wait for it…a tyre shop! Now we were REALLY confused, but we didn’t give up. We walked up a little and looked down every perpendicular street until lo and behold, we saw what looked like a large terminal. Power-walking up the street, we had our fingers crossed hoping this was it. Thankfully, it was and we breathed a collective sigh of relief. For the record, the bus ticket was around 10 Euros per person each way. Quite reasonable for a 3 hour trip, and MUCH cheaper than the 90 Euros for the tour.

The bus trip wasn’t the most pleasant one I’ve ever been on. The bus driver kept turning the air conditioning off until it got unbearably hot, at which point he’d turn it back on until it got bearably hot and would turn it off again. There were a couple of stops along the way, including a toilet break at some motel in the middle of nowhere. Three very warm hours later, we were finally in Delphi…

Dephi was considered the centre of the earth and universe in ancient Greece and the landscape is certainly fitting. Of course, not being on an organised tour meant we had to figure out how to get around. We eventually found our way to the main street in Delphi and kept walking. The main thing Mimi wanted to see in Delphi was the Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia…

It was a fair walk there and we were worried about not having enough time as we’d bought tickets for the 4pm bus back to Athens. We also walked around the ancient Gymnasium right beside the Sanctuary. On the way back to the bus terminal, we stopped briefly outside the Delphi Museum which is at the base of the main archaeological site in Delphi which houses the Temple of Apollo…

Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to take a look but my logic was that we’d seen enough archaeological sites and museum artifacts so we weren’t missing much

Here’s the bus terminal in Delphi…

Not quite as obvious as your typical bus terminal, but then again neither was the one in Athens.

Back in Athens, we had dinner at a place round the corner from our hotel that was apparently recommended by the Lonely Planet guide book, or so the waiter told us. It looked decent enough, so we sat down. Of course, we ordered Saganaki again, which was pretty good. I also had some Greek beer (Mythos) to add to the whole experience. After dinner, we decided to take a walk around the area to walk off dinner and to take some night shots. Here’s a sample.

It was 1am before we decided to head back to the hotel. It was after all, the last day of our Greek holiday and we wanted to soak it all in.

Day 9 – Back to London

Our flight wasn’t too early so we woke up late, but still in time for breakfast. We took it easy on purpose just to unwind from the previous day. It was a great trip, one we will never forget. Santorini and Athens were each wonderful in their own way. But Santorini was magical and will take some serious beating.

By the way, does anyone know where we can find good Saganaki in London?

 

Bagpipes..mmm…haggis…here we come!

You guessed it. Edinburgh. Well known for their annual Edinburgh Festival in early August with events such as the International Festival, Edinburgh Military Tattoo, International Film Festival plus many more. Some travel guides refer to the Old Town of Edinburgh as “Athens of the North” for its similarity with the Athens’ Acropolis in its topography and intellectual history. Both the Old Town and New Town districts of Edinburgh were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.

We took a 3 hour train ride and arrived at Waverley Railway station in Edinburgh around mid-day with beautiful blue sky weather. At first glance, Edinburgh looks like just a city. As we walked further along Waterloo Place and Princes Street, streets were more grid-like and the buildings became more picturesque with Georgian architectures. We met up with our friends Grace & Jackie at the National Gallery of Scotland and saw some classical paintings. Afterwards we walked through St. Andrew Square garden and Multrees Walk and made our way to a cafe upstairs of John Lewis department store to satisfy Grace’s craving for scones. The cherry scones were not bad at all. For the afternoon, we walked along Princes Street and eventually arrived at the Victorian/Gothic-looking Scott Monument which is a monument built in 1844 for Scottish author Sir Walter Scott. It was actually our friend’s birthday, we celebrated the special day with delicious seafood dinner at the Mussel Inn We discovered there was a Wii console downstairs next to the hotel lobby. So after a drink, we played Wii until the wee hours of the morning. My eyes were barely opened, my reason for missing those baseball shots

Next morning we had an early start to visit the Old Town and Edinburgh Castle. On the way to breakfast, I contemplated and mentally prepared myself to try the famous Scottish ‘delicacy’ – Haggis, perhaps with neeps & tatties, which are cooked turnips & potatoes. Only thing is when I saw the black pieces on the plate and I then thought about its ingredients, I changed my mind and went for the slightly healthier option instead

There were plenty of high rise buildings within the picturesque Old Town, many of these were residential buildings built in 16th century due to space restrictions within the area. We walked our way along the Royal Mile, past many souvenir shops selling whiskey bottles, scarves, tartan kilts, tartan dresses, lots and lots of tartan!

Edinburgh Castle is definitely worth a visit. The castle was built atop the Castle Rock, plug of an extinct volcano.

The view was fantastic and museums were great for learning about Scottish history and culture.

There were a few highlights including the Royal Palace, Crown Room (where Stone of Destiny is displayed), Great Hall, National War Memorial, Queen Anne building, National War Museum of Scotland, St. Margaret’s Chapel, Mons Meg and the Garrison Fortress.

Below is a video of the One O’Clock Gun, traditionally used for checking watches and clocks.

 

Happy Easter

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

We must admit that we have been slacking on posts, it seems like a while since our last entry. Happy to tell you that veggieleaf is on the move again! On the Easter weekend, wind took us to Paris.

We had an early 5am start on Easter Friday morning. With caffeine fix in our hands, we hopped onto the 7am train at St Pancras International station. As it turned out, our ticket actually included breakfast. Their coffee was so strong, by the end of the 3 hour train ride, I was really feeling the coffee buzz.

We arrived around 10:30am at Gare du Nord station. After we picked up a local map from the Information booth and purchased the 4-day Paris Musuem Pass, which is a pre-paid entry card that allows entry into over 70 museums and monuments around Paris and in most cases queues for these passes are shorter! We then caught the Metro to Porte Malliot station and checked into our hotel to drop off our overnight bags before heading out for a wander.

Our first stop was Arc de Triomphe, the famous arch was built to commemorate those who fought in the Napoleon wars. We climbed 200+ stairs to the top and the view from the top was great despite the rain and strong winds. Next we walked along Champs-Élysées for a bit, we couldn’t help but noticed that in the short period of 30 minutes, the rain had stopped and clouds started to clear. It was perfect timing as we ended up at a really nice spot with that postcard view of the Eiffel Tower. From there, it was a 15-minute walk to the Eiffel Tower. Only the first and second levels of the Eiffel Tower were opened due to the strong winds. The panoramic view was clear and amazing.

We bought freshly-made crepes with Nutella from one of the many snack stores around the Eiffel Tower and ate the hot crepes while strolling along the Seine River. Along the way we walked past a mini car-show then the Grand Palace (which is now a museum) and Les Invalides (where Napoleon Bonaparte’s tomb lies). We crossed the Place de la Concorde and headed towards the Louvre museum via a nice park called Jardin de Tuileries. Inside the park, we found a huge spider on the lawn… literally. This happened to be the Louise Bourgeois’ Giant Spider which I vividly remember seeing outside London’s Tate Modern museum earlier in January. I hate spiders! It was around 5pm when we arrived at the Louvre museum and we still had to queue. Little did we realise how exhausted we were from the day’s walking, we only managed to see one painting – Mona Lisa, before calling it a day.

On Saturday we went back to the Louvre museum to see it properly. We managed to spend a good 4 hours there and saw what we wanted to see. Next stop was the Notre Dame de Paris. We barely had time to find our umbrellas from my bag when it started pouring cats & dogs and suddenly it changed to snow then switched back to rain again after 5 minutes. By the time we reached Notre Dame, it was clear again! And all this time I had thought weather in London was bad!

On Sunday we went to visit the Versailles (or Chateau de Versailles). We went by the RER regional train from Neuilly Porte-Melliot, changed at Champ du Mars Tour Eiffel before catching another train to Versailles Rive Gauche station.

On our way back, we got off at Champ du Mars Tour Eiffel and walked directly to Musee de Orsay to spend the rest of the afternoon. Here are a few photos Ian took which were focused

On Monday, we were going to do a bit of window shopping. To Ian’s relief, it was a public holiday, most shops were closed. Coincidentally as I was going through the tourist guide to work out our next stop, Ian suddenly got really excited when he spotted Laduree on the directory. So we gave up shopping and decided to go there for lunch instead.

Lunch was nice. Ian had a club sandwich (boring) while the salad I had was fantastic. For dessert, Ian had a deliciously smooth dark chocolate mousse cake. I had chestnut ice cream with bits of candied chestnuts which were quite sweet. In fact it was sweeter than my coffee with 2½ sugars so you can imagine how sweet it really was.

We made a few more photo stops, including the Paris Opera House (or L’Opéra), Moulin Rouge with the infamous windmill and the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur before we headed towards Gard du Nord to catch the train back to London.

On another note, my parents are here for a few weeks. They are currently in Rome. In the blink of an eye, two and a half weeks had come and passed already. I can’t believe it’s nearly time for them to leave. Wish we had done more sightseeing together but really happy with the time we spent together plus all the goodies they brought with them, some including Tim Tams and Aunty Nellie’s home-made almond crescent cookies!

 

Let it snow, let it snow…

This Christmas we wanted to go somewhere Scandinavia with Christmas festivities and the possibility of snow. We were tossing between the ideas of going to Lapland or Copenhagen. While sitting on Santa’s lap wasn’t exactly what we had in mind, the latter city seemed to be a better choice with Christmas markets running through December.

We arrived at the Copenhagen’s very busy Kastrup Airport around noon on Saturday (21st December). For those who know the area well, near the airport there is an Øresund Bridge which connects the cities of Copenhagen and Malmö so we were only minutes away from Sweden. From the airport we bought our Metro 3-zones tickets and caught the metro to Christianshavn. Weather was certainly colder. After checking into the hotel, we set off and wandered across the Langebro Bridge towards the town centre. When we heard the high-pitch screams, we knew the Tivoli Gardens amusement park was near. From outside, the Tivoli Gardens was really brightly lit with fairy lights and festive decorations. We crossed the road to the Central Town Square where we saw the Hans Christian Andersen statue, the square is next to the street of Vesterbrogade and is also where you can find many hot dog stalls. After Ian tried one, we then continued onto the Strøget which is the longest pedestrian shopping area in Europe. Although it was a very cold night, there were plenty of people, market stalls set up all along the street and many entertaining street performers.

Eventually we reached the Kongens Nytorv intersection where there was a very busy ice rink, here the Christmas lights decoration was beautiful with the old theatre house in the background. We continued to the Nyhavn, along the canal there was another smaller Christmas market. As we approached closer to the waters, temperature fell below zero especially with the wind, I felt icy even underneath my winter layers. We took some night shots of the Copenhagen Opera House and headed back to the hotel to thaw ourselves out.

On Sunday, we went on a day tour to visit the Kronborg Castle situated north of Copenhagen. Our first tour stop was at the Frederiksborg Palace in Hillerød, it used to be royal residence for King Christian IV and now it is known as Museum of National History. Inside was the amazing Chapel of Orders, where the coats-of-arms of recipients of the country’s royal orders, the Order of the Elephant (Princess Mary’s is in the middle) and the Order of the Dannebrog are displayed on the walls of the church.

Next we went to Fredensborg Palace, which is the Danish Royal Family’s spring and autumn residence so closed at the time of our visit. For our buffet lunch we had the very traditional open sandwiches (also called smørrebrød) and as the tour guide showed us it can be buttered rye breads eaten with smoked salmon or pickled herring, mayo, onion and horseradish. There were also salads, smoked eel, meatballs, pate, roasted pork with crackling, red cabbage, grilled salmon and a couple of unidentifiable dishes. We met a few Aussies on tour, the bus was actually filled with all Aussies as we later found out and none of them lived in Australia.

Our last stop was Kronborg Castle in Elsinore, a Renaissance fortress castle which was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites list in 2000. It was built at the narrowest point of the Øresund, between Denmark and Sweden was only four kilometres. On a clear day, we could apparently see Sweden across the sound. Kronborg Castle is also well known by many in the world as the setting of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Inside, the interiors were Renaissance and Baroque. We saw the 62-metre long ballroom, very-well preserved chapel and the statue of “Holger the Dane“.

After the tour, we decided to spent the evening at the Tivoli Gardens. Every tree was illuminating with fairy lights, there was a huge Christmas Tree in the middle and tripods with glowing coal scattered around the park, one lake in the park was transformed into an outdoor ice skating rink, with mystic smoke surrounding the whole atmosphere making it a fairytale-like setting. In the midst of the Christmas festive spirit, fireworks were going off with laser lights and music fountains at the main lake of the park.

The world’s tallest swing carousel Himmelskibet was in this park. It really looked like fun and sure enough we heard the screams from above.  I tried to challenge Ian but it was really cold and the prospect of sitting in a basket-like chair hooked on only 4 chains swinging around at 70 km/hour 80 metres in rushing cold air was a tough one.  So instead we headed towards the Christmas market stalls.

There were plenty of colourful stalls selling locally produced arts & crafts and decorations, such as Copenhagen porcelain and wooden dolls. Many tempting food stalls, some selling one of the most popular Christmas drinks – the Scandinavian glögg, which is mulled wine mixed with spirits, spices, cinnamon and sometimes almonds. Apparently this drink goes quite well with hot apple dumplings. We had our dinner at one of the restaurants within the park, there were many to choose from.

On Christmas Eve we had a pleasant walk around the city and visited the Amalienborg Palace, Marble Church and the Little Mermaid statue. We took it quite easy on Christmas Day as we spent the day chatting over cocktails and coffee with liqueurs at the hotel lobby. Both nights we had dinner at the hotel, partly because nothing else was opened and partly because we were too lazy to get out in the cold.

On Wednesday we had to wake up before dawn to catch a flight back to London.

Although it didn’t snow, all in all, Copenhagen was a nice city to visit during Christmas.

We wish all our families and friends a very special Christmas and lots of love and happiness for the coming new year. Happy Holidays!

 

Dubrovnik and Split

Last week I made an impromptu trip to Croatia with my buddy Andrea . Ian has already started work so he could not join us on this trip. He did, however, have something to look forward to because this week he went to Boston. Most of us would think it must be for work as usual, so did I… Until last Sunday night, Ian had a rather stressed look on his face while packing, I asked him ‘What’s the matter?’ and he said ‘How am I going to find time to go outlet shopping?’ …enough said

Anyhoo we had a nice breakfast at a Moorish cafe nearby Monday morning before catching the Gatwick Express from Victoria tube station. Queues to airport security took unusually long, not only do we have to do the normal security scan, we now have to take off our shoes and send them through another scan. We had to make a mad rush to the boarding gate and just made it on our 3-hour flight to Dubrovnik.

Dubrovnik is an old city located south of Croatia, the Old Town of Dubrovnik is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Lucky for us, Croatia Airline runs regular airport shuttles to/from Dubrovnik town centre. We caught one of these buses for 35 kunas. Our hostel was in the Lapad area, which was easily accessible via local buses (#6). After checking in at the hostel, we wandered along the touristy strip (which has lots of restaurants & cafes with romantic swinging chairs) and arrived at the wharf with perfect timing for some sunset snaps. For dinner that night we went to a waterside restaurant, on hostel owner’s recommendation. It was a really nice meal, we had some mixed grills and squid ink risotto served in a shell. Afterwards, we went into Old Town and managed to take some fantastic night pictures (still need to download some photos from Andrea’s camera).

Next day we went on a day cruise to see the pretty landscapes of Elaphite Islands which consists of 3 islands called Kolocep, Lopud, and Šipan. On Kolocep, it felt like going back to ancient times, just peaceful island life without any traffic. Sipan is the largest and most populated of the Elaphite Islands. Although we didn’t see any vineyards nor olive groves, we did see some remains of stone sculptures, chapels and churches. Our lunch was cooked & served on the boat, we had grilled scampi, fish, bread and salad. Soon after lunch we arrived at Lopud (second largest island of the Elaphite group) where we spent the rest of our afternoon. We walked along the beautiful seaside promenade then took a detour and after 30minutes we found a secluded beach on the other side of the island called Sunj Beach. It was not as nice as I imagined, there was no sun at all!

Wednesday was a highlight for us We did the famous rampart walk around Dubrovnik’s fortress walls. The walk starts near the Pile Gate and it gives the best possible perspective of the Old Town, the tiny corridors, charming terracotta-roofed buildings and various landmarks such as Franciscan Monastery, Onofrio’s Fountain, Bell Tower and Sponza Palace. On the south part of the walk, we even got to see the beautiful Croatia’s Dalmatian coast.

That afternoon we caught a 4-hour bus ride to Split, this requires crossing through the Serbian borders. As the bus went on the windy roads, right before I fell asleep, I caught a glimpse of Croatia’s incredible views of the clear Adriatic Sea and the many Croatian islands.

It was around 8pm when we arrived in Split, a city within Central Dalmatia of Croatia. As we got off the bus, we were overwhelmed with lots of people asking whether we wanted accommodation. Very handy I must admit, considering we hadn’t arranged any in advance, but some of them were really pushy. We ended up staying somewhere really close to city centre and had dinner at a local restaurant which served nice fish soup (we liked this so much, we went back again the following night ).

We spend the morning wandering around the Diocletian Palace, it used to be a palace/fort built for the retired Roman emperor Diocletian back in the 3rd century AD. It was listed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. Nowadays there is a museum and many cafes, pubs, souvenir shops and restaurants built within the walls of the palace. Only the basement is kept as is and for 15 kunas we got to see remnants of Roman aqueducts. After a relaxing lunch, eating a not-so-nice baguette at one of the outdoor cafés along the Riva (seafront), we caught a ferry to a nearby island called Brač. Brač is known for its marble and it is used for both Diocletian Palace and Washington D.C. White House.

I really loved the beautiful Dalmatian coast, the islands and fantastic seafood! And to top it off for this trip, I finally got a chance to travel with my dearest friend Andrea. Only wish the weather was warmer so we could have swum & kayaked!

 

18 days in China

Coming soon!

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