Weekend in Prague

Ah.... Prague in June. What a wonderful weekend - beautiful buildings, bridges, beer, Mozart, and the local speciality: duck. Two days simply wasn't long enough.

See a slideshow of the pics.

Visit from Andy

Finally time to catch up with some long overdue blog posts! In early May we had a lovely visit from Andy, Peter's godmother. At 88, she seems to have more energy than many of our younger visitors!

Andy and Peter had a lovely time touring the local sites, such as the good old chocolate factory and Gruyère castle.

The next weekend, after Andy and I went shopping at the Ferney market, her friend Pat arrived. The next day the two of them took off for a Lyceum club conference and tours of nearby France.

A week later they popped back in for one night to see us on their way to their mediterranean cruise.

We were so glad to have this visit from Andy and were in awe of her lifestyle. We just hope our lives are this full at 88!

A week touring Lithuania

It's nearly a month since we got back from this trip and I am finally updating the blog with the details! Our friends Bob and Zydre, who have now, sadly for us, left Geneva to go back to live in Australia, invited us to join them on their holiday in Lithuania. Zydre is Lithuanian/ Australian, so we leaped at the chance to see a new country with a native who can speak the language.

Lithuania is one of the three Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia). It is located on the Baltic Sea (funnily enough), sharing borders with Latvia, Belarus, Poland, and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. It declared independence from the Soviet Union in March 1990 (recognized in 1991) and is now part of the European Union. The population is about 3.5 million people (half that of Switzerland) and it has a surface area slightly smaller that Tasmania, which means you can see a lot in a week!

Now you have the vital statistics, let me tell you that Lithuania is a lovely country. It has a keen sense of identity and culture, made all the more real for us by our fantastic guide Zydre. The country is fairly flat, and not gorgeous, but the people are friendly, the food is good (albeit a bit stodgy at times) and there are some beautiful cities and places by the sea. We had a great time and saw many things. Here's a summary of our trip, complete with photos:

Peter and I arrived in the capital, Vilnius, on the Saturday afternoon. We found our way to our hotel in the city, only getting lost briefly, and did a bit of sightseeing. Here's Peter in the main city square with the clock tower and cathedral in the background.

We caught up with B & Z on Sunday morning, picked up the hire car, and hit the road. Here you can see Zydre and I checking out some wooden carved poles in a park alongside the motorway.

You may be able to tell from our stance that it was */&%*!!! freezing. This was the only downside of the trip. Temperatures were around 10 degrees with a wind chill factor of about -10! We weren't well prepared for this after experiencing 20 degree days in Geneva immediately before.

Next stop was the Curonian Spit, a 98 kilometre sand dune, half being Lithuania and the other half Russia (Kaliningrad). Here we are crossing the lagoon on the ferry.



This is the view to Russia from the top of the dunes above Nida, the town we called home for the next two nights.









Braving gale force winds, we put our fingers in the Baltic Sea. The beach was nice and the seas choppy. Reminded me a bit of Middleton.


Back on the mainland we briefly visited Klaipeda, Lithuania's third largest city and only seaport. It used to be part of the German empire (then called Memel), which is evident from the style of some of the older buildings.

Across in the North Eastern part of the country, we visited the incredible Hill of Crosses. Placing crosses in the ground began as a show of faith and resistance to occupation. In Soviet times, the Russians would remove the crosses, but they would 'mysteriously' reappear every morning. Now there are about 50,000 crosses and crucifixes there. Really an amazing sight to see.




In Kaunas, the second biggest city in Lithuania, we stayed in an apartment in the suburbs. It was really nicely renovated, and a great spot, but as you can see from the photo of Peter at the entrance, it was typical a "Soviet-style" apartment block. We were glad for an authentic experience.



We visited the open air museum to learn about country life and see tradition Lithuanian housing. From the inside of an actual Jurta (hut made of tundra), originally built in Siberia, this lady told us of the 1941 deportation of about 35,000 Lithuanians to Siberia, the northern coast of Russia. They lived in camps doing hard labour in freezing temperatures. This lady survived the ordeal.



Last stop before returning to Vilnius, was the resort town of Trakai. Here there is a beautifully restored castle.


So that's it! If you want to see all the photos, and there's only 176 of them, check out the set on Flickr.

Easter in the Swiss Alps

Our third Easter in Europe was spent in a place we have grown to love: our friends' chalet in Gryon. We enjoyed the beautiful sunshine and the great company of B & Z who will soon, sadly for us, be heading back home.

One of the highlights of our weekend was our drive up the Valais to see the Aletsch Glacier - the longest glacier in Europe. It was a stunning sight. There was still plenty of snow, and skiers, but with the sun beating down, it won't be there for long. In the sun, the melting snow has an amazing velvet sheen.

We did an hour long walk alongside the glacier. The view across the Valais was fantastic with the Matterhorn clearly visible. Peter and I plan to return in the summer when the snow will be replaced with pasture and the glacier should really stand out.

See all the photos we took of the glacier on Flickr.

Budapest - Paris of the East

Finally, time to write a post about our recent trip to Budapest! It was our first visit to this beautiful city, and to Hungary. On the Friday evening flight out of Geneva we had the pleasure to sit next to a friendly Budapest local named Pal who gave us his list of must-sees. Budapest was also Shane's (Kieren's friend who visited us recently) home for eight months last year, and during his stay with us in February we heard great things about the place.

Our hotel was right on Heroes' Square, an important monument at the end of Andrassy Avenue, the Hungarian equivalent of Paris's Champs-Elysées. The M1 Millennium Underground, which leads from the city centre to Heroes' Square is a beautiful restoration of the oldest underground on the European continent (1896).

The highlights of Saturday were the Hungarian National Museum, the Legenda boat tour of the River Danube and Margaret Island, and a visit to the Hungarian House of Wines. After a morning of wandering through the Pest city streets, the boat tour was a welcome rest. Budapest is actually a merging of two cities: Buda on one side of the river and Pest on the other. The boat tour did a good job of explaining the history and coming together of the two. It was also a big hit with me because I won the raffle - a DVD and bottle of Hungarian wine!

After the tour we walked up across the famous Chain Bridge and across to the Buda Castle district. It was getting late so we went for a short walk around the castle and then sought out the warm cellars of the House of Wines. For about $25 we got a wine glass to keep and could try up to 50 different Hungarian wines (we got through about 15 before we'd had enough!). They were OK but not great - we guessed that's why we hadn't heard much about great Hungarian wines!

Sunday was a beautiful day and we started out by wandering down Andrassy Avenue, stopping off at the very interesting House of Terrors, former headquarters of the Arrow Cross Party (Hungarian Nazis), then the Communist-led Political Police and State Security Police. The house has been restored and the exhibition is a horrifying and engaging description of two very sad eras of occupation in Hungarian history.

The rest of Sunday was spent wandering around the Castle district and soaking in some sun and Hungarian culture. The public transport system is brilliant and the Budapest Card made it easy to get around.

Budapest is a beautiful city and too big to see in a weekend - maybe we will have to return one day. See more photos on Flickr.

Brief visit to Rome

We went to Rome earlier this month as I had a meeting to attend on the Monday and Tuesday. The weekend was spent partly finishing my uni assignment and doing a spot of sightseeing. We'd visited Rome with Simon in January last year, so we'd seen most of the major sights. Sunday was a beaufitul day, nearly 20 degrees, so we soaked up the good weather just wandering through the Roman fora and sitting in a cafe in the Piazza Trastevere. Bellissimo!

Here's a link to a few more photos.

Carnival time in Geneva

Colour came to the streets of a wintry Geneva today with the annual carnival.

Taking a stroll through the old town with Shane, a friend of Kieren's who has been staying with us this week, we stumbled across the carnival parade.

It was a rainy day, so the bright costumes, music and dancing were a welcome sight!

I took a short video of the salsa group.

Some winter colour in Geneva

February in Geneva

It's been a quiet time since we arrived back in Geneva from our fantastic visit to Australia. Taking the train across Switzerland from Zurich airport back in mid-January, we had been expecting to see everything covered in snow, but nothing of the sort. There has been hardly any this season.

However...we did have one big snowfall in Geneva a couple of weeks ago. A nice thing for Fiona to see during her winter visit! She was so excited that she went outside in her pj's and rolled around in it. I imagine our neighbours think that Australians are a strange lot!

Fiona and Peter went skiing a couple of times, but I am yet to hit the pistes. Last weekend we did a bit of sledding in the nearby mountains.

We haven't been up to much else these last few weeks. Spending time with Fiona, catching up with friends, and a couple of short trips to Leukerbad and Basel.

Work has been hectic and I am coming to terms with being an online student (I'm doing a Masters of Science in Advanced IT and Business Management). I have found a great deal of effort is required to participate in 'class' (online discussions) and I am learning a lot. My first exam is in a couple of weeks.

You should see a bit more posted here during March. We have a trip to Rome for work and a weekend visit to Budapest coming up.


Fiona and Peter in Annecy one Sunday

Year 2006 in Cities

Following on from last year's list, here are the cities/towns we spent one or more nights in during 2006:

Paris, France
Rome, Italy
Ronda, Spain

La Linea de la Conception, Spain

El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain

Seville, Spain
Tavira, Portugal
Malaga, Spain
Grenoble, France
Entrecasteaux, France
Amsterdam, Netherlands
La Ciotat, France
Wiesloch, Germany
Barcelona, Spain
Arles, France
Washington D.C., USA
New York, USA
Madrid, Spain
Avila, Spain
Lleida, Spain
Genoa, Italy
Milan, Italy
Hydra, Greece
Athens, Greece
Lugano, Switzerland
Zermatt, Switzerland
Berlin, Germany
Melbourne, Australia
Adelaide, Australia
Brisbane, Australia

That's 30 compared to 19 during 2005! Peter is getting very good at finding cheap deals for travel, and driving holidays around Spain have certainly boosted the numbers. There are a few towns in France missing from the list where we stayed during our bike ride down the Rhone, and where Peter and Judy stayed during their drive down to Spain.

I'm going back to study at uni part-time this year, so with weekends to be devoted to studying, I am sure 2007's list of cities will be a lot shorter!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all! We saw the new year in at good old Victor Harbor, with a nice dinner, some live music, then fireworks. A bit different to last year in Paris - a great deal warmer for one!

Our visit to Oz has been a whirlwind of catching up with people, mostly over lunch and dinner. Our waistlines are paying the price, but we are having an excellent time!

We have one week left before returning to chilly Geneva. Hard to believe as I look outside to a beautiful Australian summer's day. It has been a great visit - so nice to be with our family at Christmas, and to spend time with them and friends.

We have arrived!

We have arrived safely in Adelaide. It was wonderful to have the family there waiting for us at the airport! We spent a lovely afternoon in Judy's backyard, catching up on things.

We first landed in Melbourne on Sunday evening, after delays in Zurich. It was great to see Kieren and Nikki, and spend the evening with them in their lovely place in Hawthorn. After the best breakfast we have had in ages (cooked by Kieren), we took a plane from Melbourne to Adelaide.

Australia is hot and dry - it's so nice to be home! We are having a great time and looking forward to catching up with more family and friends over the next four weeks.

Stuck in Zurich

Our flight to Singapore has been cancelled due to a "faulty body gear strut". They have put us up in a hotel near the Zurich airport, and we'll be flying out at 10am tomorrow, nearly 24 hours later than originally planned. Unfortunately this will affect our stay with Kieren and Nikki in Melbourne. We will probably arrive there on Sunday night, or may even arrange to go direct to Adelaide. We will find out all when we get into Singapore Sunday morning at 5am local time!

Off to the land of Oz

Here we are, sitting in Zurich airport, waiting for our flight back home to Australia. We were up v. early this morning to catch the train from Geneva, in fact, I've been wide awake with excitement since 2am. Now it's early afternoon and I'm feeling jet lagged before we've left.

Got to the airport without any hassle, but upon arrival, we found out that our Singapore Airlines flight is delayed. Due to leave at 12:15, we are told there will be "more news" at 4pm, hopefully it's all good. Can't complain though. They gave us 2 x 50 franc vouchers to spend on food and drink. After a nice lunch, we are waiting in the airport bar, admiring the view. Waiting....and....waiting....

Postcards from Berlin

During the last phase of Judy's stay with us we went to Berlin for an extended weekend. I liked her description of it as a 'City of Contrasts'. It had a vibrant feel, lots of interesting things to do, cheap, good food, and the best beer I've ever tasted. In contrast, we spent many hours contemplating the dark side of Germany's history with visits to the Jewish History Museum, Berlin Wall monument, and Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

We stayed in a suburb called Pankow, just north of the city centre, and in the former East Berlin. The apartment was perfect for the three of us - spacious, comfy, and close to the excellent public transport system.

There is heaps to see in Berlin, and even though we had almost five days there, we could easily have stayed longer. The Olympiastadion (Olympic Stadium), built for the 1936 Summer Olympics and recently renovated for this year's FIFA World Cup, was high on Peter's list of sites to see. Unfortunately we picked the wrong day, arriving there on a match day meant we couldn't get inside to do the tour, but we got some nice pics from out the front.

Our other adventures included wandering through the beautiful Tiergarten park and getting caught up in a massive, but peaceful protest by union groups; enjoying a bratwurst sausage on Unter den Linden (and listening to Peter complain of indigestion for the rest of the afternoon); visiting Checkpoint Charlie with hundreds of other tourists; and Judy and I getting haircuts at groovy Berlin salons.

The Jewish History Museum was an interesting account of the Jewish people, their customs, lives, and their persecution over past centuries. Without realising it, we easily spent five hours wandering through the exhibits and were completely exhausted by the end of it.

It was fascinating to learn more about the Berlin Wall (1961-1989), which used to completely surround West Berlin, separating it from East Germany. There is a small portion of the Wall that remains as a monument. Kept completely free of graffiti, it doesn't resemble the typical images. The excellent museum nearby succinctly tells the story of the Wall's construction, impact, and fall.

In Oranienburg, about 60km north of Berlin, is the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Built in 1936, it was the first Nazi concentration camp. After the end of WWII it became a Soviet special camp until 1950. Although a small camp in comparison with others, 200,000 people passed through here between 1936 and 1945, only half of which survived. Sachsenhausen was also the administrative centre for all Nazi concentration camps, and a training centre for SS officers.

It was the first time that any of us had been to such a place. It was an extremely difficult experience, but I think it was important to see. I found it incredible to contemplate the order with which these camps were established and run, and how people could treat others so disgustingly. Several buildings of the original camp remain today, and the public memorial and museum ensures the history is well preserved.

During our last day in the city we took a train down to Potsdam, the capital of the state of Brandenburg, and the location of the 1945 Potsdam Conference, where the allies met to decide the future of Germany and post-war Europe. It is also the site of the beautiful Sanssouci park and palaces, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Our long weekend in Berlin was the last little holiday we did during Judy's stay with us. I think we all enjoyed it immensely and it was a real highlight (among many!). Jude is now on her way back to Oz, and is in Hong Kong as I type this. It was wonderful for us to spend nine weeks with her. Thankfully it wasn't too hard to say goodbye, because we will be seeing her back in Adelaide in about four weeks time!

See all of our Berlin photos on Flickr.

A clear day in Geneva

 

France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Switzerland

As part of Judy's nine week visit, Peter organised a wonderful holiday for us all. Using as many methods of transport as possible, we have travelled through France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Switzerland.

It's a complicated trip, but to cut a long story short, I had to go to Spain for a week to attend a meeting in a town called Avila (100km west of Madrid).


While I was working, Peter and Judy spent four days driving our car across France, and met me in Spain. After the conference finished, we drove to Barcelona (600km), stopping along the way at a town called Lleida. A whirlwind tour of Barcelona followed (lots of Gaudi buildings), then we hopped on a ferry with our car, and travelled to Genoa, Italy.


From Genoa, which we won't talk about (horrible hotel), we had a quick visit of the lovely Cinque Terre National Park, then headed up to Milan, and flew to Athens.



Now we are in Greece, where it was straight down to the port and off to the beautiful island of Hydra (ee-dra). This was the main phase of our holiday, and we stopped there for seven nights.



Our traditional Greek summer house (Spiti Costandi) was absolutely gorgeous, with a fantastic view of the harbour (we have hundreds of photos to prove it). Food was great, weather lovely, and swimming in the Agean was wonderful.



After Hydra, we went back and spent 24 hours in Athens, where we checked out the Acropolis and the old town area.



Had a bit of trouble getting out of Athens due to a metro strike, protests, and a severe lack of taxis, but we eventually made it on to our EasyJet flight.

Then back to Milan, where our car was waiting for us at the airport.


With five days of holidays left, we drove up to Lugano in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. We spent our time there walking and checking out the lovely lakeside town.


After Lugano, it was off to Zermatt. We had the crispest, clearest day for our drive through the mountains, and once in Zermatt, the best view of the Matterhorn we've ever seen.


On the drive back to Geneva on Sunday, we visited the Leukerbad thermal baths, where we could refresh after our busy travels. Being a tourist is hard work!




There are many more nice photos of this trip available on Flickr (also as slideshow).


This week I'm back in the office, but not for long as we're going to Berlin for the weekend. Berlin is a city none of us have visited before, and we are once again taking advantage of cheap EasyJet flights. Having visitors is the perfect excuse to travel.