Spain & Portugal

At the end of January we took a trip to Spain and Portugal. You might think we're always on holiday (and you wouldn't be far wrong!), but our trips are usually crammed into a weekend. This time I took a week off work and we had a great break! We flew into Malaga on the southern coast, in the Spanish region of Andalucia.

It was a welcome break from the cold temperatures in Geneva, with days around 18 degrees and sun! Peter had booked a car, but we didn't worry about pre-booking accommodation, so were free to decide where to head for each day and how long to stay. Our trip took us to many interesting places, the highlights being the mountain-top town of Ronda, Flamenco dancers in Seville and the two relaxing days we spent in Tavira, Portugal.

After arriving in the morning on Saturday, we headed straight up into the mountains to a town called Ronda. It's situated at an elevation of 723m and has a stunning 100m deep gorge running through the middle of town. About 34 thousand people live there, so it's fairly large, and definitely catering to tourists.

According to our trusty Lonely Planet guide, Ronda is also the home of Spanish bullfighting. We didn't get the chance to sit through one of those gory spectacles, but we did visit the bullring and museum.

As you can see from the pics, the sky was beautifully clear, but it was cold.

The next morning we awoke to find previously sunny Ronda, covered in a blanket of snow. We were saying "oh, how bewdiful", until we realised that it might be difficult to get off the mountain in our little rental car without snow tyres or chains.

After burning rubber to just get up the icy car park ramp, we set off down the road. Thankfully we quickly met up with a backhoe that was clearing the snow, making it safe for us to drive. The snow in Ronda must have been a rare thing. As we drove down we saw heaps of people playing in it on the side of the road, and there were pictures on the front page of the next day's paper. It was great to see, but we were in Spain to get away from the snow!!

Next it was off to Gibraltar, a British colony on the southern most tip on Spain. It is basically a large lump of limestone rock(5km long, 1.6km wide and 426m high), which has been under British control since 1713 (despite Spain's efforts to get it back). On top of the rock is a national park that is home to the Barbary apes, Europe's only wild primates. They are quite used to humans visiting their home, and as we pulled up in our car, one jumped onto the bonnet and started peering in the windows looking for food. She seemed very friendly, as we got out the car she was sitting near us and even put her hand in my pocket. I decided to give her a pat - BIG mistake! She freaked out and took a swipe at me, I turned and jumped out the way, but she kept coming at me and then bit me on the arm! It hurt, but there was no blood, just a little bruise. Lesson learned!

The next leg of the trip was a drive along the coast known as the Costa de la Luz. We were hoping to stay in a small beachside town, but nothing much seemed open, so we kept on driving to El Puerto de Santa Maria, past Cadiz. This was where Christopher Columbus's set off on his 2nd and 4th expeditions across the Atlantic.

The town wasn't all that interesting, but our acommodation was great. We stayed in a beautifully renovated 19th century Spanish 'casa'. Here's a photo of the patio, the entrance and centre of the house.

Next stop was Seville, the capital of the Andalucia region. This is a big city (population over 700,000) with plenty to see and do. The highlight of our visit here was the Flamenco show we saw that night. It was fantastic! There were three in the act: guitar player, female singer and a male dancer. They were all excellent, the dancer must have burned so many calories with his incredible foot stomping and dance moves!

At this stage of the trip we had two choices: head east to Cordoba and Granada (the other big cities in southern Spain), or west to Portugal. In the pursuit of visiting as many countries as possible, we had to choose Portugal! We were very happy we did, because it was lovely.

We went to Tavira, a fishing village about 30km over the Spanish border. It was quite busy with tourists (mostly British golfers), a noteable difference to Spain at this time of year. Not that more tourists is an attraction, but it generally means more places are open and things happening.

We had a relaxing stay, reading on our hotel room balcony (see photo on right of the view) and wandering around the town checking out the tiled houses. The seafood and wine here were excellent, especially at this little restaurant recommended by the tourist office where the "locals" go. The prices in Spain were cheap, but Portugal was cheaper again. Our 4* hotel cost €45 a night, including breakfast, and the most expensive bottle of red wine in the supermarket was €4.20.

After two days in the sun, it was back in the car for the 380km drive to Malaga, then the flight home the next day.

When we landed in Geneva it was -2 degrees. A long way from the beach, but it was nice to be home!

Rome

On the last weekend of Simon's visit, we went to Rome. It was the first time there for Simon and I, and the second for Peter. As with most of our trips, we were on a tight schedule. Our flight landed early on the Saturday morning and our first mission was to get to the Vatican and see the Sistine Chapel before it shut at 1pm.

We dashed onto the Metro and arrived to find the queue snaking around the city walls (as we'd been warned). A woman was milling about waiting to get unprepared tourists to join her expensive but 'no waiting in queues' tour. Given the time limitations, we parted with a pile of euros and went (pretty much) straight in.

Anyone who has been to the Vatican Museum will know, the place is absolutely packed with tourists!! The artwork is incredible, but what an amazing display of opulence and wealth. Towards the end of the guided tour, we joined thousands of other people in the Sistine Chapel, where the crowds had to compress from about 100 wide down to single file to get out of the narrow door at the other end. You definitely wouldn't want to be claustrophobic!

People say that Rome is a great city for walking, so we spent the rest of the afternoon, wandering back towards our hotel and soaking in the atmosphere. The weather was beautiful with the sun shining and temperatures around 8 degrees (much warmer than Geneva in early January!).

Sunday was a full-on day of sight-seeing. First we did the hop-on, hop-off bus tour to get an overview of the city (bit of a time waster), then it was straight to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum for a long wander around the incredible ruins. In the afternoon we went to the Pantheon (wow!) and the Trevi fountain, ending up at the Spanish Steps, where we watched the sun set over the city.

Rome is an amazing and chaotic city - the history, art and of course, the stylish Italians. We definitely enjoyed our whirlwind tour, but I didn't toss a coin in the Trevi fountain.

Happy New Year!

Hi everyone! It's been so long since I've updated our site - a belated Happy New Year to you all! I have no good excuses, except the usual being busy... and we bought a new computer that took me ages to get everything set up on.

We are both well and getting through our first northern hemisphere winter, while hearing the news of the full-on heat in Australia. It's awful that it can be -25 degrees in Moscow and 40+ with bushfires in Australia. We certainly can't complain, the daytime temperatures are rarely below -2 here and lately as high as 7!

We have a lot to report on since Christmas. Firstly, I should write about our New Year's Eve in Paris. Simon was here for his 3 week visit and we wanted to him to see a bit of Europe. The train trip from here is only 3 hours and well priced, so heading to Paris for the weekend is achievable. We had a great time (despite being bloody cold), walking along the Champs Elysee with a million other people and waiting under the Eiffel Tower to see in 2006.

We were a tad disappointed when midnight came and there were no official fireworks! Apparently they're only a "summer thing". I had just assumed that NYE and fireworks went hand in hand.

Still, we enjoyed the atmosphere and checking out the sights the next day. Peter has climbed the Eiffel Tower 3 times this year!

Year 2005 in Cities

Since moving to live in Europe, we have been taking advantage of the cheap flights and mass of nearby destinations available to us. Inspired by Jason Kottke's post The year in cities, here is the list of cities I spent one or more nights in during 2005.

Adelaide, Australia
Melbourne, Australia
Geneva, Switzerland
Zurich, Switzerland
Venice, Italy
Paris, France
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
London, UK
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Galway, Ireland
Killarney, Ireland
Kilkenny, Ireland
Dublin, Ireland
Zermatt, Switzerland
St Moritz, Switzerland
Vaduz, Liechtenstein
Lucerne, Switzerland
New York, USA
Skopje, Macedonia

Peter's list is almost the same, except with Brisbane and Luxembourg instead of Tashkent and New York.

This is, without a doubt, the most traveling I have ever done in a year. However, I'm sure many of you (such as the 23 Australians I know who came through Geneva on holiday this year!) will have much more impressive lists. Let's see them then!

Hitting the Slopes

We survived our first go at skiing in Switzerland! After 2 hours of learning what is meant to be the easiest form of skiing, cross-country, we were tired but enthusiastic. Peter got the prize for the most improved, and the best at getting up after falling down. Simon and I took to it quite quickly, with only a couple of falls or stumbles. Simon did a pretty good job of masking his boredom, whilst looking longingly over at the snowboarding school.

Brettaye was our resort of choice and the slopes were packed with downhill skiers and snowboarders (definitely not a cross-country skiers paradise). Our instructor, Michael, was excellent - very patient and helpful. Now we have a grasp of the basics, it's time to buy some skis and get out to practice!

Christmas day was great. We spent it with the lovely Pembers, who welcomed us into their home for Xmas with their family and friends. One of the many highlights has to be last night's dinner, when we all went on sleds, pulled by a snowmobile, through the falling snow, to a fantastic restaurant. An incredible and memorable experience for all of us.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas! It's about 2 degrees here in Geneva and the snow has just started falling. We are about to head up to the mountains for lunch with another Australian family. Tomorrow we'll have our first skiing lesson!

Joyeux Noel et une bonne annee 2006!

Ciao Bella!

During Claire's last weekend visiting us, she took us out for a scrumptious dinner at Auberge des Trois Coqs (our favourite local restaurant). It was a special night with a small band playing downstairs and lots of atmosphere.


On the Saturday, she and I went into Geneva for some pre-Christmas shopping, lunch and sight-seeing. The shops were packed with people, but we managed to squeeze through the crowds to get our last minute gifts, and buy each other some earrings (Claire got gorgeous little snowflake ones).


We climbed the towers of St Peter's Cathedral in Geneva Old Town, up some very narrow spiral staircases, to see the lovely view over the city and lake. It was a bit overcast, the view would be even more stunning on a clear sunny day. See Claire pictured on the balcony of the north tower, just as light snow started falling.


On Sunday, we went driving through the Jura mountains, which was covered in a thick blanket of snow. It's a very picturesque drive from the warmth and comfort of the car. Too cold to get out! This is the area we hope to go cross-country skiing. There are many kilometres of trails to choose from.


Once home again, I cooked soup and roast turkey for Christmas lunch a few days early. I must say, it was pretty damn good! I even made stuffing for the first time and that worked out very well. The French champagne was also very nice.

Catch up

Time to play a bit of catch up with this website! Since I last wrote we have:

• been visited by friends Kerrie and Bob;
• been to celebrate Geneva's l'Escalade;
• Peter spent a week working as an 'Invited Expert' at a statistics meeting here in Geneva;
• spent another week with Claire after she returned from her whirlwind tour of Europe;
• driven Claire to Zurich yesterday to catch her plane to Singapore then Australia;
• returned from Zurich with son Simon who is visiting for 3 weeks

As you can see, a lot has been happening and I can't believe it's Christmas on Sunday.

Firstly our weekend with Kerrie and Bob was spent having a moules and frites dinner in nearby France (yum), market shopping on Saturday morning, spending a freezing cold afternoon/evening at l'Escalade and then a nice Sunday drive in the snow covered Jura.

L'Escalade is an annual event in Geneva celebrating the defeat of the Duke of Savoy's forces when they attacked Geneva in 1602. It is celebrated with lots of vin chaud (hot wine) and lovely soup, reminiscent of the boiling cauldron of soup that was tipped on the heads of Savoyard soldiers by a clever woman.

The old town comes alive with heaps of people dressed in period costume (some on horseback like the guy on the left), pipe bands, sword fights, cannon explosions and a general party atmosphere. Pity it was about -5 degrees!

The following Thursday, Claire returned from her tour with senses overload, having visited 8 countries in 12 days. She had a great time, but I think was pleased that it was over and there was no need to get up and on a bus at 6.30 again.

We spent her second week here doing a bit of shopping, relaxing, checking out the old town (including climbing the cathedral tower) and having a special Xmas lunch, roast turkey and all. Yesterday Peter drove her to Zurich airport (3 hours away) where he exchanged her for young Simon who arrived about 2 hours before Claire was due to depart. Perfect timing!

Simon was very excited to be here and see his dear Dad again. When I got home from work he was asleep on the couch - exhausted from the 36 hours of travel it takes to get here from Adelaide. I, and probably the roast lamb Peter was dishing up for dinner, managed to rouse him from sleep and we had a great time catching up on all the news. He and Peter visited me at work this morning and we took Simon on a quick tour of the Palais. Tonight I think we are having fondue as it's perfect weather for this - ie freezing.

Claire Arrives

My sister Claire arrived last week for her first visit to Europe. After a good night's sleep to recover from any jet lag, we dragged her up into the mountains to try out our new sled. That's her tearing down the hill in the photo!

During the week she visited the Chateau de Chillon at Montreux, did the tour of the UN and spent time exploring Geneva. We've been out for dinner at the local Korean restaurant and she and I hit the shops at Balexert on Thursday night.

She's now off on a Contiki tour for 12 days and will be back to stay with us for another week after that. We're looking forward to hearing about her travels to Amsterdam, Munich, Innsbruck, Venice, Rome, Florence, Lucerne, Paris and London. Wow!!

Snow in Geneva

Well, the first snow of winter hit Geneva on Thursday night - about 10cms of it. This was most unexpected as we were told it doesn't usually snow here before Xmas. It seems that there's been a pattern of freak weather ever since we arrived!

It was so nice to step outside and find this carpet of clean white snow. We still walked to work, all rugged up in coats and gloves. It was cold, but very still and the fresh snow hardly even made our shoes wet. I'll have to get some decent walking boots so I can get some grip up killer hill.

Click here for more of our 'snow' photos on Flickr.

Skopje

Last week it was off one plane and onto the next, this time to Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. I was going for work and Peter came along as well. We were there for 4 days - just enough time to look around the city. Macedonia is a small country with a population of about 3 million people. It has a troubled economy with unemployment currently around 37%. Skopje is the most populated area and the city was destroyed by an earthquake in 1963. The partially remaining railway station bears monument to the event, with its clock still frozen at 5.17pm.

The people I worked with were lovely, very welcoming and committed to their work. The country has applied to join the European Union, so agencies are busying themselves with bringing work practices in line with EU standards.

A day or two after we got there it started to snow, the first snow we've seen since arriving in Geneva last March. Peter trudged around in it and took lots of photos.

Skopje has quite a few modern shops, bars and restaurants, but its problems were evident in the crumbling footpaths, unfinished buildings and the number of old cars on the road. The prices of food and clothing were about 25% of Geneva prices and we enjoyed trying the local food - stroganoff style casseroles with rice and vegies. The Macedonian red wine was pretty good too.

New York

I spent the last week at head-quarters in New York, attending an orientation course for 'junior' professionals. The picture on the left shows the view from the ladies' bathroom!

The course was a great opportunity to meet other people and learn a bit more about the organisation. New York is as exciting and huge as I remember from my first visit last March. The main differences this time were the autumn colours in Central Park and the slightly warmer weather.

I used the trip as a chance to catch up on some shopping (slightly cheaper than Geveva) and go to a Broadway show. The show was called Movin' Out - a dance musical set to 24 of Billy Joel's songs. It was different to what I expected, in that there was no dialogue (just dancing and the band), but it was excellent.

Since my last visit the cost of rooms seems to have doubled so I decided to stay in the West Side YMCA. It was a great location (adjacent Central Park), but with a shared bathroom 2 kms down the hall and paint peeling from the walls, it was almost comfortable! At US$70 a night it was cheap for New York. See the photo on the right for my mini-view of Central Park.

Luxembourg

I (Peter) visited Luxembourg to attend a meeting at Eurostat as part of my work for the UN and Jess has given me a rare opportunity to post this blog entry.

Luxembourg is a seriously small country - its entire population is less than half that of Adelaide. It borders Belgium (don't dare call Luxembourgeans, Belgian!!) and it couldn't think of a name for its capital - so it called the city Luxembourg.

It oozes wealth and cleanliness and is beautifully European. Luckily I had time to walk around the city, including its old town in its late autumn splendor and with hardly a tourist in sight.

I visited the history museum where I saw a rather confronting exhibition "the Grand Pillage" about the stealing of art and other artifacts by the Nazis in World War 2 (Luxembourg was annexed by Germany in 1940 and liberated in 1944).

Excuses, Excuses

It's been very busy here and I'm afraid I've been neglecting to update this blog! No one's been complaining though, so perhaps our loyal readers have been busy too!?

Recent news is the visit we had from Sandy and Peter (friends from Port Elliot) last weekend. They had been touring around Greece, Italy and Switzerland before they arrived in Geneva for a 3 day visit.

On the Friday it was a public holiday. We left Peter home working (he is busy with a couple of UN contracts) and headed off on the famous chocolate factory tour. I was the first opportunity I've had to go as I'm usually the one working! Unfortunately, the factory tours were closed for the winter season, so I still haven't seen it. Good news for my waistline though!

After the failed visit to Cailler, we went to see the chateau at Gruyeres and that was very nice. On the way home we also stopped at the Chateau de Chillon and the Olympic Museum - it was a jam-packed day! Sandy and Peter went off the Paris on the TGV the next morning, where they were spending 6 days before heading home via Singapore.

Train Tour of Switzerland

We spent Mum & Dad's last week here on a fantastic train trip around Switzerland. With our first class tickets in hand, we headed off from our local train station to our first destination: Zermatt.

Switzerland in Autumn is absolutely stunning, and with clear blue skies on 6 out of the 7 days, the weather couldn't have been better. Our afternoon in Zermatt was spent taking the railway up to Gornergrat at 3089 metres.

The next day was the long (9.5 hours) but wonderful train journey to St Moritz on the Glacier Express, one of Switzerland's famous panoramic railways. Despite the gentle rocking of the train and the sunlight streaming through the windows, we all resisted napping in order to keep our eyes on the spectacular views. Train enthusiasts would have a greater appreciation for the incredible way the railway twists and loops up the valley to St Moritz.

Arriving at 7pm, we decided to spend two nights in St Moritz to give us a chance to explore the place the following day. Most things were closing for a break between the summer and winter seasons, but we managed to find a interesting museum, then had lunch in a restaurant on a mountain top overlooking the town. We followed this with a much-needed 1.5 hour walk through the forest back to our apartment.

The next day it was off on the train again to Liechtenstein, a tiny country (26 x 12 kms) between Switzerland and Austria. We stayed in the quaint capital, Vaduz (population 5,000) and enjoyed a walk up a steep hill to look at the Vaduz castle, home of their head of state: Prince Hans-Adam II; and his family. We didn't spot any royals though!

Next destination was Zurich, Switzerland's largest city. We decided to keep our visit here to just a few hours, enough time to visit the Zurich Zoo (great!) and then head down to the beautiful city of Luzern, where we stayed for two nights. One of the things I was keen to do was take the cog railway up Mt Pilatus. The railway is the steepest of its kind in the world with a gradient of 48%, but this is nothing compared with what you see from the top. The views were the truly unbelievable! The sounds of a woman singing and a Swiss horn echoing across the mountains really topped it off.

After a great time in Luzern, we arrived back in Geneva on Thursday afternoon - enough time for Mum & Dad to organise their packing in preparation for flying home on Friday. They would still be in the air as I type this, about 4 hours away from Adelaide after 32 hours of travelling. It was very sad to see them go - it's such a pity Australia is soooo far away and they can't just pop over anytime!!

Click here for all pics on Flickr of Mum & Dad's visit.

Dee & Ian Visit

During Mum & Dad's stay we also had a visit from my auntie Dee and uncle Ian. They were at the end of an 8 week tour of Europe, taking in places such as Slovenia, Czech Republic, UK, Switzerland and others. It was great to hear of their travels and following their recommendation, Slovenia has now edged up on our priority list as a place to visit.

Whilst here, the girls (Dee, Mum and me) hit the shops including the markets at Ferney. See Mum and Dee pictured outside a lovely patisserie after we purchased a calorific and yummy afternoon tea.

On the Saturday night we went to dinner at the Trois Coqs, a small restaurant within walking distance from our place. It was a fantastic evening. The restaurant was lovely, excellent food and service, and of course great company!

A Fine Time

We're back after 9 days of driving around the beautiful Emerald Isle (click here for all photos). Ireland is a great place - friendly people, non-smoking pubs, Guinness, neolithic sites, dry-stone walls, castles, peat bog, rolling green pastures and suprisingly, very little rain. The weather was not as beautiful as the clear Autumn days we're now getting in Geneva, but apart from making me want to eat big bowls of Irish stew every day (which I did only once), it really didn't affect our holiday.

This trip was my first experience staying in B&B's and there was certainly no shortage of choice. We had only booked our first night's accommodation, leaving us the freedom to decide when and where we wanted to stop for the night. Being off-season there were virtually no problems finding a room. The highlight was the lovely house we rented for three nights in Killarney. After eating a hot breakfast for 9 days in a row, it will be a while before I want to see any more eggs or bacon! I won't mention the black and white pudding.

Dad did all the driving, and with the help of our GPS (and three wonderful passengers!), he did a brilliant job of navigating around the country. The roads were challenging - narrow and bumpy, but not too busy. We started off in Northern Ireland, landing in Belfast then driving north to the Giant's Causeway the next morning. From there we headed west to Donegal and drove anti-clockwise around Ireland through Ballina, Belmullet, Galway, Killarney, Waterford, Kilkenny, Dublin and back to Belfast.

It's back to work for me now, whereas Mum and Dad have headed off to Paris for a couple of days. Peter is back on the tennis court and bike riding while the weather lasts.