beach time in Rimini

We've spent the last two nights chilling out in a beach resort called Rimini. Our guide book described it as the Ibiza of the Adriatic, so imagine lots of people, bars and sunshine.

We picked up a last minute accommodation deal on late rooms.com and it turned out a winner. We are staying at the Hotel Polo and have a room with a balcony and view of the ocean which is very nice! Yesterday we headed for a beach session and it is basically a sea of sun beds and umbrellas that you have to rent for 15 euro. I was a bit sceptical about the idea of not lying on the sand, but after an hour or two we were completely sold in and we were lying under our beach umbrella reading and snoozing and playing scrabble. Ah, this is life. Oh yeah, Steve also went for a run down the beach...but I skipped that bit.

We also made the most of our balcony and went to the supermarket and loaded up with big salads, chicken and bits and pieces for dinner and sat with a 2.50 euro 2 litre bottle of lambrusco. mmmm.

Neither of us really want to leave...we are considering another night.

Sunning it up in Venezia

Ah, so much has happened in the last few days. We're now in Venice and it is sizzling hot and absolutely beautiful. I've hunted down the authentic gelato (the trick I read about finding good gelato is to look at the banana flavour. If it is brownish it is made with real banana and a good indication that all the gelato is made of fruit. If it is yellow it is fake). Poor steve got dragged around 8 or so gelateria until I found the real deal. And yes it was very bananaey.

Slovakia was good at first but we got rained out in the end. The mountains were GREAT and we did a big hike up a mountain to the glacier level near Stary Smokovec. It was one of thsose walks where we kept thinking we were at the top, only to find more mountain still to go. Definitley worked off a meat platter during that one!! We decided to be a bit silly and spend a night at AquaWorld in Poprad whihc is basically a geothermal waterpark complete with snow cave, saunas, crazy flavoured steam rooms and things like envigorating showers (hot then freezing cold!). Certianly different and made a change from what we are usually doing.

The next day we were aiming to go to Bratislava but it was like a hurricane had hit and it was raining sideways so we drove into the city and then drove straight back out and decided to put in a long drive and head all the way into Slovenia, and hope that by crossing the lower alps we would get some different weather. As luck would have it we were right but best of all we ended up in the best place...a small Slovenian town in the mountains called Bled.

Ok, so I am now the tourist ambassador for Slovenia. Its my new favourite country, and we LOVED our time there. Bled is an amazing town on lake that is totally surrounded by mountains. We went white water rafting and met Lic and Erno our new Dutch friends who we met up with that night. We also did a hike to a gorge that took us about 2 hours longer than anticipated (we got a bit lost and follwed the signs to Gorge, which turned out was not the water gorge but instead a small village not very close by). After a bit of backtracking we finally found the right place.

We then hit my new favourite capital city, Ljubljana which is tiny but set on a river and just full of great cafes and bars to sit and soak in the sun. We were planning to stay in a small hotel, but ended up in a nice four star one after they offered us a cheaper rate than all the other worse ones. Just to add to my appreciation of the town, they also had a Zara with a big sale on and I stocked up on some tops and new watermelon coloured linen pants (um, they will be good for Africa?). Didn't really want to leave....

We then hit the tiny Slovenian coast (wedged between Italy and Croatia) which was a bit crazy. After trying on the Internet to get a room, we couldntà find anything other than a youth hostel so we booked it and set off. When we got to Piran, it was a tiny town at the bottom of a very large hill. Of course the few car parking spots in the town were jammed full so they told us to pak on teh hill (where we promptly got a 80 euro parking fine...nice). We then walked with our packs down into the town and couldnàt find the hostel anywhere. They donàt really have cars and the streets are tiny labrinths like a maze. Ended up being taken by an Austrain tourist to the Hotel Piran which she thought was the Hostel Piran, and wandered around in searing heat in circles. So we finally found it and it wasnàt really a hostel...more a house and we were in the attic in a crazy sloping ceiling room that you had to precariously jump from stairs to the bed space. The owner was proudly saying °it's the only room with a balcony°. Yeah great, the balcony was another jump across the crazy stairs. After all that though we had a swim in the Adriatic and forgot all the problems!

And after Piran it was on to Venice where we couldn't figure out exactly how to park the car and we ended up getting a small Italina speedboat from our carpark into Venice = very James Bond Style! It was a good start and after expecting to pay thorugh the roof for a hotel, we ended up being offered one of the cheapest rates we have had all trip and it was a great place. All good.

Ok, running out of time now.....wrapping this one up! Ciao!

The road to Slovak

We ve had a busy few days and have made it as far as Slovakia. Currently in the Mountain Guides Bar in Starz Smokevec having a mulled wine and beer and using a crazy kezboard....so enjoy my spelling.

SO after Prague....we headed up north to Berlin via the bone chapel in Kutna Hora and the concentration camp of Terezin in Czech which I would highlz recommend = its an old fort that was used and is really surreal. Using the autobarn we yipped to Berlin in our 1.2L Opel Corsa hitting top speeds of 170 km per hour. Got there quite quickly.

Berlin was pretty diferent to what I imagined. I thought it would have more Eastern block style buildings that it actually did, and I had imagined vast beer halls and pokz streets which we didn§t reallz find. Both of us realised that we knew about the Berlin wall and some of the war related incidents, but didn§t reallz know whz it had all happened. So, we brushed up on a bit of history and, for those who don§t reallz know, found it was the Communists that had built the wall to protect themselves from their failing economy and departing population. We saw all the touristy bits...Checkpoint Charlie, the 1.3km stretch of preserved wall ´-where we got rained on big time- and the Brandenburg gates and Reichstag.

We had arrived into Berlin prettz late at night so ended up staying in the Comfort Inn near the Opera Hall. It actuallz turned out to be quite convenient and we walked the 4km into town each day. We made the most of the breakfast buffet...ok we stole sandwiches for lunch!!!

From Berlin we headed East and entered Poland. As we crossed the border we went from awesome German Autobahn, to shite Poland road made of separate concrete blocks. Speed dropped to 70km pér hour!! We headed to Wroclaw and stazed in a Vietnamese kind of hotel thing..bit dated. What we found though is that Poland has great nightlife...each town has a major town square which is literally lined with beer halls and restaurants. So we settled in for the night...!

Headed to Krakow the next day via a very sobering visit to Auschwitz. Having been to a few of the German concentration camps before this was compeltely something else. Firstly the scale of the camp...it is HUGE. Line upon line of buildings and obviouslz lots of verz graphic pictures and displazs. Some of the most moving parts were the piles of human hair, spectacles, shoes, brushes, suitcases and clothes that they have in teh museum. Thez say 1.5 million people died there which is prettz incomprehensible. I couldn§t help but wonder if today the current generation ofPolish people resent the Germans. When you see what thez did in their country it is insane.

Our visit to Krakow was a bit of a debacle...seemed to be no accommodation available anywhere. After trzing about 10 different hotels and places the only place we could find was a skanky hostel called Momotown or something and we stayed in a horrible room at the top of an old building. Hope I§m not getting too old for hostels...got to survive 5 months of camping yet!!! haha!!

Krakow was much like Wroclaw just bigger. It has the biggest town square in Europe so we headed up there in the evening and had a meat platter and salad in a small restaurant. The next day we headed back to the square where a basketball competition was going on and cruised around for a bit. Then we decided to bail out and head to a massive underground salt mine at Wieliczka. You have to go on a tour so we stuffed in some dumplings and salad and then almost missed our English speaking tour. All good though and we got to see the amazing sights of eight dwarves made of salt.

We then drove on a short distance to a place called Zakopane which is a really popular Polish mountain resort town. It was abslutelz packed out with people and as we drove in we saw loads of people sitting on the roadside advertising Noclegi, which is rooms for rent. So we decided to take one up and we had our one and onlz experience of a Polish homestay! It was ok...just very oldz worldy alpine style and run bz a woman who must have been 90. We headed into the main street and had found a cool restaurant-bar with a live string trio inside. Steve had a goose breast which was AMAZING, and mz chicken, vegetables and potato - which I thought was going to be quite light - turned out to be a cheese covered gratin extravaganza! Certainly not light but verz delicious. I managed to down ť mulled wines to match Steve§s 0.5L beers....thought I would be suffering todaz but have been ok!

So todaz we woke from our rustic homestay and did a 3 hour walk in the mountains before crossing into Slovakia. My thoughts on Poland are...
1. Definitelz not as cheap as I thought...although cheaper than Sydney. A beer was about three dollars...but accommodation was failrz exe.
2. Great town squares that were bustling full of people having a really good time.
3. Outside the cities it is not verz built up...lots of open farm land
4. People are quite stern...particularly the waitresses, bar staff and tourist info people! Certianlz not service with a smile!!!
5. great food = love that cabbage salad and piles of meat
6. Very hard language to pronounce!!!!

Ok, looking forward to our time in Slovakia...will keep you posted.

xxx

Prague

Now in Prague. Photos say it all! Last night we retired to a beer hall for a traditional czech feast! Al and Pete, it was almost as good as Domas, but not quite ( and yes there has been slivovich or however that is spelt!)

Flew to Munich, got a great car (we are the second drivers) and zipped straight over to the Czech Republic. Have been climbing things and looking around all day, and steve is currently having a zzz after a few beers! I am delighted to find lots of mulled wine...even though it is meant to be summer. It§s not verz warm though...hence in every picture I am wearing my one and only jumper.

Speaking of fashions...seen some awesome Euro fashions. The best tourist attire has been fluro green leggings with bumbag, orange shiny trousers on older lady, and there are some crayz leopard print jeans going on! mmm

Tonight there is a jazz festival so heading out for that.

Hello Handsome!

Edinburgh wedding

How good is Edinburgh? Loving the place so far...great architecture and we've been hitting the town with Stephen's friends as everyone is up for Gary and Michelle's wedding which is happening this afternoon. All the boys have been asked to wear kilts so there will be some photos of Steve posted very soon!!!

Last time I was here was a 24 hour stopover with Michael for New Years Eve 1997. Needless to say I don't remember anything...other than the fact I was wearing pale blue trousers which were never able to be worn again.... hmmm.

Everything is getting busy in the lead up to the Edinburgh festival (which we aren't here for) so there is a great buzz around the town. By pure chance we've ended up staying in a really nice hotel...I was enjoying a swim in the pool yesterday which has views of the Castle which I thought was quite cool. I also went in the "tropicalarium"...ok it is actually just a sauna but has a much better name. Luxury ends tonight though...after the wedding we are flying to Munich tomorrow where we have rented a car for three weeks and will be heading off to Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Northern Italy and Austria. Kind of going driving in a big circle and plan to hit the mountains for some walking, and see some of the more Eastern european cities and towns. Looking forward to it!

It was hard to leave the Lake District with mum and dad though...we had a great time and knowing we aren't going to see them again for a few months was hard. We will miss the Canasta and Scrabble championships...even though I'm still convinced that half of dad's words weren't real. And mum's cooking...I'm going to definitely miss that!!!

For now though I'm off to get glammed up for the wedding....had an unfortunate suntan incident in Newcastle (yes unbelievable that in might be sunny enough in Newcastle to get a tan) but it has left me with a crazy V mark from my t'shirt that needs some serious bronzing cover up in order to wear my dress. Had to go out and buy some cronzing stuff specifically for the task, so fingers crossed I don't look like a loser with a crazy V tan.

Bye for now!

hiking in the Lake District

We're currently staying in a small cottage in Grassmere in the Lake District with my mum and dad. It's so cute and oldy worldy but the weather has continued to be sh**e. But, it doesnt' seem to deter people here and everyone keeps hiking in the pouring rain!

Steve and I scaled Crag Helm yesterday which was a reasonable 3.5 hour hike up hill....was great scenery and there were loads of things to see on the way ( particualrly about 500 sheep).

Every evening seems to be falling into a routine of wine, cheese, dinner, scrabble (yeah!) maybe some cards and some more wine...oh yeah and often a short walk to a local pub!

Ah, life is good! Could keep doing this!

heading to Edinburgh on Thursday for a wedding of one of Steve's friends. Shoudl be good fun and lots of mischief planned!!

out of time!!!!!

xxx

Not so sunny Southport

We've spent the last 10 days in Stephen's hometown of Southport and caught up with all the fam and friends. There has been a lot of drinking and eating going on....we're backing up for the fourth night in a row today and I think my liver needs a break! I am so skipping the big brekkie this morning!!!

Unfortunately English summer has been rubbish and it's not been very warm, although today looks promising so I may even get some shorts out! I did make it out to a berry farm and picked some strawberries and gooseberries which I love...they taste so good when they are fresh!

We had our wedding party last Friday and all worked out well. It was great to see everyone and special thanks from me go to Soph, Andrew, Lucy, Matt, Anil and Emma who made the trip from down south. There were about 65 of us on the night and we had drinks, some food and a DJ going on. Following pressure from the family I wore my wedding dress again and Stephen's 3 year old nephew grew very attached to it and followed me around all night playing with the beads on the back. The next day he came to me and asked me if I could wear it that day as well. When I said no, he wanted to know if I had the same dress in pink and whether I could wear that one instead? Too cute!

What else has been happening....Steve has been playing a bit of golf with his dad, pops and Richie...he's heading out again this morning. We've been googling all the awesome food in Tesco's (SO much better than Coles and Woolies!). We have caught up with plenty of Steve's friends which has been great, and Steve has consumed a very large amount of chocolate!!!

Heading off to Newcastle tomorrow to see some more friends, then to Carlisle for my mum's 60th, and then a few days in the Lake Destrict for some walking and cute little pubs!

xxx