Sunday, December 21

Stockholm


View of Stockholm from Djurgardsbron bridge
Originally uploaded by Jess & Peter

Waaaay back in May, Peter and I went to Stockholm. I went for a work meeting, but we had the weekend before to look around the beautiful city.

The highlight for me was visiting the Vasa and the Skansen open air museum.

This shot is taken on our walk through the city. See the other photos on Flickr

Sunday, September 14

Road trip to Fromelles

This four-day road trip took us through Champagne to Fromelles, a small French village on the northern border with Belgium. This is somewhere we've been meaning to visit for a long time as it's the place where Peter's grandfather fought in WWI (see Battle of Fromelles). Peter doesn't know how many weeks his grandfather was actually in Fromelles - he contracted tuberculosis and was evacuated to England before the battle. After months of recovery, he returned safely to Australia and lived into his eighties.

After Fromelles, we drove through Belgium and France, staying in a lovely town called Givet in the northern most part of France.

This short video shows some of the pics we took over the weekend.

Sunday, July 20

Istanbul in May

Blue Mosque, IstanbulWith Mark here to visit, we decided to take him on a short trip to Istanbul, Turkey. We were joined by his lovely friend Megan, who is currently living in London.

It was a great time had by all. We stayed in an apartment in the old part of town, a short walk to the Blue Mosque and the hundreds of touts who do their best to part you and your money. We spent time walking around town, visiting the mosques, palace and Grand Bazaar. Buying Turkish carpetsAfter being in town for about 5 mintues, we found ourselves in a carpet shop and are now proud owners of three Turkish rugs - expensive, but beautiful souvenirs!

A highlight was a 2 hour ferry ride up the Bosphorous river to the mouth of the Black Sea. A walk up the hill to the castle was worth it for the great views over the water and glimpses of Istanbul on the horizon.

Seafood lunch at Anadolu Kavagi Back in Istanbul, I can highly recommend a wander over to the new side of town to visit the great shops, bars and restaurants. The food is terrific and a few shots of raki put everyone in an excellent mood.

After a few days, Mark and Megan left Istanbul to meet Fiona in Berlin and Peter and I did a weekend tour down to Gallipoli, which was a great experience. More on that soon.

See all the Istanbul photos

Sunday, April 20

Happy Birthday Peter!

Mark arrived in Geneva this morning, on his first big overseas trip. We haven't seen Mark for over twelve months, so Peter, Fiona and I were all very excited and looking forward to his arrival. Just in case he couldn't spot us through the crowded Geneva airport, Peter prepared a welcoming sign.

Mark is here for one month, in which time he will see a bit of Switzerland, as well as Istanbul, Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam. Not a bad little holiday! After a quick walking tour of Chambésy, we settled into a lovely Sunday afternoon out on the terrasse, sipping Swiss wine and eating raclettes.

Tomorrow will be a different than usual birthday celebration for Peter as he will have two of his four children here. Next year we will have to aim for 100% child attendance, especially as it will be a major birthday!!

Monday, March 24

A walk around the lake

No matter what the weatherDespite windy conditions, snow and all that goes with it, we have walked for about 45 kilometres this weekend - that's about 9 hours worth! Walking has become our latest hobby and it's great. Up until now, cycling has been our "sport"of choice, but walking is rapidly overtaking it. Fresh air, spectacular views and the chance to re-discover nearby surroundings at a different pace.

View of Lake GenevaThe current plan is to follow Route 4 around the lake (Leman) from our place to Montreux. To date we are up to Morges, just outside of Lausanne, so we have another 40ish kilometres to go.


Chemin de St JacquesRoute 4 is also the Chemin de Saint Jacques de Compostelle (Way of Saint James), the Christian pilgrimage that starts at various points across Europe and leads to Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain. However, we are following it in the opposite direction.


Village where we had lunch
Just to prove that the weather wasn't all bad, here's a picture of the cute village where we ate lunch, while bathed in sunshine.

Friday, March 21

Now it's Spring, but it's snowing


It is officially the second day of Spring, not to mention the first of the Easter weekend, and NOW it snows!! There hasn't been any snow to speak of in Geneva all winter. The forecast is for snow over the next four days. How will all those lovely little flowers and new leaves cope?

Oh well, there go the plans for a long weekend of walking around the lake. Happy Easter everyone!
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Sunday, January 27

Chateau d'Oex Balloon Festival

Hot air balloons at Chateau d'Oex, 10 minutes down the road from Fiona's place.
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Tuesday, January 22

Weekend in Brussels


Grand Place
Originally uploaded by Jess & Peter

We just spent a weekend in Brussels, our first visit to Belgium. Arriving on a blustery, wet, cold morning to deserted streets, was not the best introduction. We were left wondering if we had actually arrived at the 'Central Station' or some remote suburb. It seems the locals don't get going until about 10am, so we had an hour to kill, which was spent warming up in the only coffee shop we could find open for business.

Eating mussels in BrusselsThe weekend may have started out a little disappointing, but it got better. The BELvue! museum gave us an interesting insight into Belgium, a country we knew very little about. After the beautiful but overwhelming Museum of Musical Instruments, we enjoyed a lunch of moules et frites (steamed mussels and chips), the national dish, then spent a sunny afternoon looking around town.

Sunday was spent doing a lot of walking and visiting the Belgian War Museum and Autoworld - the most interesting museums we could find that were open and good refuge from the cold. We also sampled the scrummy hot Belgian waffles that are sold on just about every street corner. Perfect on a winter day!

See our other pictures on flickr.com.

Sunrise over the Alps


Photo of a beautiful winter sunrise, taken from our backyard.
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Sunday, January 6

Skiing in Schonried

This is where we go cross country skiing near Fiona's place. We took her up there today for a look around. Too slushy for skiing. There's been no snow for a while now, just rain, and the same forecast for the next week. What's the good of winter without the snow!?

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