Über Dusseldorf

NOW I know where Jerry Springer got his tv studio set from :)
Landschaftspark, Duisburg-Nord, Rhineland.
Post-industrial, apocalyptic Disneyland, without the rides. Or the cheesy grins.

flickr photo link: <Dusseldorf, 08-09 Nov 08>
08 Nov 08 FR2177 DUB/NRN 0915/1200
10 Nov 08 FR2176 NRN/DUB 0700/0745
As far as I can remember, I've never driven a Mini Cooper before. Especially not the new Mini Cooper, now lovingly crafted by BMW but faithful to the original British designs including the huge round dashboard instruments, etc. The boot is still tiny, but the Mini goes very fast on the Autobahn, although I was too gutless to take it much beyond 140kph. Especially when overtaking trucks full of chemicals as we headed south through the industrial Ruhr/North Rhine area towards Dusseldorf. Damn, it even has a 6 speed gearbox! The Garmin lady was onboard too, telling us to "exit left and stay left", or even "exit left, keep left and turn right"... Huh? She was also of no help when a small deer darted across the road near the airport, with shooters in hi-vis jackets in hot pursuit. Maybe that deer lived another day. And on Monday morning, Clare seemed almost willing to follow the Garmin lady into a 4 lane section of one way Autobahn traffic, the wrong way. Lucky I was driving :)
So we had a quick weekend in Germany to see our friends Gerald & Sandra, before we leave Europe (we'll have to call this "Clare & Joe's Farewell Europe Tour 2008"). Faultless & UBER CHEAP flights from Dublin to Dusseldorf-Weeze with Ryanair, Mini Cooper from Sixt Rentals, Uber German design at every turn, and of course brillliant food. Dusseldorf is a great city - smart & stylish, incredibly liveable, reasonably priced in many respects, nice places to walk & visit, and in the heart of Europe. On Saturday afternoon we checked out Landschaftspark, Duisberg-Nord - 200 hectares of industrial wasteland (ex chemical plant, glassworks, ironworks, etc.) We have some photos on flickr, and will add more when we get time. The Ruhr area is still dotted with massive industrial plants and smokestacks, both abandoned and active. Pretty amazing landscape. Back into town for the evening - a few local "Alt" beers in the very lively "Altstadt" (old town) and excellent food. Great cocktail bars. All far, far cheaper than Ireland of course. Dusseldorf is definitely a party town.
Had a great German breakfast on Sunday - bread rolls, meats & cheeses (definitely Clare's favourite), then checked out the "Media Harbour" area of renovated Rhine docklands - very funky architecture & design stores with €12,000 black & white leather chairs. Go wild! Yeah, right... New apartments & hotels are still going up here. Not sure when then slowdown will hit. Apart from the incredible interior design of Gerald & Sandra's apartment (think lots of glass & steel) and our Mini Cooper, our favourite design fitting of the weekend was the "Campari Light" in our little hotel room in Gerald & Sandra's apartment building. Very nice. Possibly Italian. But we're sure this could be easily recreated with a little imagination. Sounds like a challenge!

We were up again in the wee hours of Monday morning. Flew back to Dublin, temperature 5c, and straight into the M50 Motorway traffic for my last few days of work. Next report after our leaving party this weekend...

Massif Central, France

The truly incredible Millau Viaduct on the A75 Motorway, Massif Central. We braved pouring rain, fog & hazardous driving conditions to get this shot!

Gimel-les-Cascades, in the Limousin region of Central France.

Massif Central

flickr photo link: <Massif Central, May-Jun 08>
31 May 08 FR202 DUB/STN 0630/0745
31 May 08 FR8776 STN/LIG 1035/1305
02 Jun 08 EI553 LYS/DUB 1615/1725 (Joe)
06 Jun 08 EI553 LYS/DUB 1615/1725 (Clare)
So we're sitting in the Qantas Club at London Heathrow on 13 June (well, the British Airways Lounge to be exact). It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to sit in a Qantas Club – possibly Madrid. Having membership helped us drop off our luggage at T4 around 6 hrs before the flight. Extremely useful, but what we hadn’t realised was that the Club now has real meals available in addition to the alcohol, magazines, newspapers & Wi-Fi, etc. So we really shouldn’t have spent the money buying lunch downstairs! At Belfast Airport (where we left this morning) Clare picked up (yet another) travel magazine called ‘Travel’. Reading it inspired her to get cracking about our short trip to the French countryside on the recent long weekend. The notes were left behind in Ireland, so here goes…

While Ireland generally gets the rain in winter (joke!), the Massif Central, France, gets the rain in summer... so the forecast for our little weekend trip didn't look too good. Admittedly it was only as we made a dash down the A75 Motorway to the Millau Viaduct on the Sunday afternoon that we were immersed into total liquidity - with cloud & fog. But it was worth it. If you want to drive along one of the most amazing motorways in the world, and see the French obsession with bridges and viaducts, this is definitely the place!

We started the weekend at Dublin airport, as is usually the case for us now. Only this weekend another 349,998 people were passing through the airport with us, as it was the first long weekend of ‘summer’. Given that Ireland only has around 4 million people, that’s almost 10% of the total population or around 25% of Dublin’s population. So we got up around 3am to get to the airport by 4.30am to join the herd. We only made it to the same flight the week before with minutes to spare, by sneaking into the front of the security queue, so NO sleeping in this morning. Clare ended up with 2 hrs sleep after a fairly arduous audit in Dublin that meant she got home around 10.30pm then had to pack and prepare, not just for the weekend trip but also for a work project meeting after the long weekend in Clermont-Ferrand.

This was a 2 airline trip. We took a connection out with Ryanair, firstly to London Stansted, and then checked in again for the flight to Limoges. We flew home directly from Lyon (on different dates) with Aer Lingus. That allowed us to cross the Massif Central by car, from west to east. Occupying a hilltop in the heart of the Limousin countryside, Limoges Airport was small, attractive and well organised (unusual for some Ryanair destinations!) And the weather was wonderful – warm and sunny! The lady at the Europcar counter was being harassed by Brits who refused to sign forms or turned up without credit cards, but we were eventually issued with a nice Hyundai i30 (and we did over 1000 km's in 48 hours).

We had some lunch and headed off down the A20 to Brive and into the Limousin countryside proper. Yes there were Limousin cattle everywhere and only Limousin cattle. Overall the countryside seemed empty of cultivation and livestock – no sheep, just Limousin cattle! Clare had done research for the trip while Joe had done the bookings so off we drove to find our destination for the night – we called it Aubergine. It was a B&B up in the mountains above the town, surrounded by forest. On the way, with the Garmin lady telling us where to go, we stopped to check the map at a dead end and found a flooded river with Kayakers racing up and down trying to master the white water. The B&B was wonderful, exactly as described and even with a black cat on the front sofa as a welcoming committee. Clare’s type of place! By this time we were quite wrecked as it was around 5pm. We were booked into the restaurant for dinner at 7.30pm, so instead of doing the sensible thing and resting for a bit, we sped away in the car to a couple of very interesting places Clare had researched from the Lonely Planet – Gimel-Les-Cascades. After seeing the local rivers in flood, we knew the cascades would be impressive. Following the Garmin lady again, we certainly took the long and scenic way to the cascades (why do we keep trusting her!?) We went deeper into the mountains, up hills, down dales and through some very lush countryside, past shimmering lakes and onto ever smaller lanes. The village was almost deserted with a few shops open and no other tourists at all. It was June - wasn’t this summer? Even the B&B’s appeared closed. Just out of the carpark we found a local cat who wanted a chat and came running. Then off to the ruined castle and could see and hear the cascades but couldn’t work out how to get to them. The views over the village were postcard perfect. We just followed some other people down the lanes and lo & behold, the cascades. Yes you were meant to pay to walk down to the bottom of them but the gate was closed and we could see the best from the top. We looked around and found some interesting signs in English. The sun was setting, so we wondered back to the car and found that people had come out and the B&B was indeed open and full. Looked like a party of Germans who’d been fishing, had filled the place. What with the lakes and streams around here, the fishing would be good!

To be completed...

The Italian Wedding & Lake Maggiore

flickr photo link: <Lago Maggiore & Wedding photos>

25 Apr 08 FR9428 DUB/BGY 1735/2115

27 Apr 08 EI437 MXP/DUB 2120/2255

This is Blog Post #100!
Oh wow... Of all the weekends away in the last year or whatever, I think Northern Italy was possibly one of the most theraputic and spectacular (but too much food again!) We started early Friday evening with a smooth 2 1/2 hr Ryanair flight from Dublin across France & The Alps (a truly amazing sunset over The Alps at dusk, but unfortunately no photos). A few turns and bumps, and we landed at Bergamo, about 40km northeast of Milan. Picked up a little Hertz Fiat with Sat Nav, and drove along the AutoStrada to Legnano where Tarynne, my old DHL team member from Brisbane now lives with her (fiance... now husband) Alessandro. It was late when we found our way into town - there was some major contruction going on, seemed like half the town was ripped up. After a little investigation, we located the "Hotel Elitis", our slightly dubious pre-booked 4 Star, but it was comfortable enough. Clare soon discovered a little coffee shop/nightclub that whipped us up some risotto and a couple of glasses of 7 yr old Havana Club. We fell asleep with the Italian racer boys revving their cars up and down the streets outside...

Next morning, after a very noisy Chinese tour group had left the building, we had a quick breakfast in the deserted restaurant. We met up with June, one of Tarynne's family friends, and she pointed Clare in the direction of the shoe shop across the street. So Clare did the Italian thing and bought shoes. We checked out the local supermarket for some essential supplies (and a bottle of limoncello). Downtown Legnano seemed pretty small. Not as attractive as many of the towns in Tuscany, but functional all the same, and well located with the AutoStrada running down the eastern side (North to Lake Maggiore, South to Milan).

The Wedding of Tarynne & Alessandro... We headed out for the 11am wedding at the Legnano Town Hall. Very nice it was, all done out in old wood panelling and the town flags of Italy. The wedding was a civil ceremony, conducted in Italian by an official looking bloke wearing a sash (possibly the Mayor?) and his assistant. Some obviously essential parts were translated into English (I think mainly for Tarynne!) There were lots of things we only partially understood but a very nice wedding all the same. Afterwards, Tarynne & Alessando were literally pelted with rice as they left the hall. Had a few photos outside, then we drove up to the reception venue.

To be completed...

The last plane out of Beauvais' almost gone...

flickr photos coming soon...
28 Mar 08 EI528 DUB/CDG 1815/2050
30 Mar 08 FR29 BVA/DUB 2250/2315
Paris... Going straight into our 3rd weekend of travel was quite hard, believe it or not (ooh, poor us)... It seems like the working week extends into the weekend, often with no sleep-in, punctuated only by another dash to the check-in and another European airport somewhere, where the baggage takes so long to get to the belt, and you find yourself comparing the level of customs scrutiny from country to country, and how well organised the transport services are, etc. Paris scored quite highly in that regard. But this was so short – Paris in a weekend is like peering through the candy shop window, but you can't go in. You go up the Eiffel Tower, explore the back streets and ride the open top bus with the Americans, but you barely scratch the surface of this amazing city.
We started on the Friday evening with Aer Lingus from Dublin to Charles De Gaulle T1, which was like something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey, with it's 70's chic & perspex tube travellators. We like Aer Lingus for the sheer reason that they do seat allocation, as opposed to Ryanair which is like boarding with the rhinoceros herd (for the sheer fear of being left behind?) We took the people mover under CDG to the train station, then the RER train into Paris (just over 8 Euros). This ended up about 200 metres from our hotel (Hotel Des Mines, €108/nt) on Blvd Saint-Michel in the 5th arrondissement. Nice little attic room with bath, like when Harrison Ford escaped across the rooftops in Frantic.
On Saturday morning (after we were able to get that all important sleep-in) Clare discovered a nearby carpet shop in world record time, and acquired a nice Iranian piece (what a bargain) for which we then acquired another piece of cabin luggage later that afternoon (to carry it back to Ireland). Our area was full of little boulangeries, street markets, loads of Vietnamese & Japanese Restaurants. You could explore here for days, then move onto another part of Paris... So we took the open top bus tour (still slightly cool) which took us up the Champs-Élysées, past the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower, into the traffic of Saturday afternoon in Paris – loads & loads & loads of police vans and demonstrators who seemed to be pensioners, fighting for better pensions or sick benefits, or something? In the meantime, Sue & Paul were racing to Paris on the TGV from Italy and arrived mid-afternoon. That night, we had a couple of happy hour drinks, then dinner in a restaurant cellar (we think they shoved the tourists in the cellar) which wasn't too bad (about €23 each). We took the metro to the Trocadéro to view the lights of the Eiffel Tower and barter with West Africans selling little light-up tower replicas (flashing away on our bookcase right now...)
On Sunday morning Clare discovered that she'd left her Irish credit card in the Iranian carpet shop the day before, so that had to be cancelled. Then we headed back to the Eiffel Tower, where we queued up (in increasing rain), and took the lift to the 2nd level. What an amazing structure, Clare stood well back from the edge! By this point it was really raining, so Clare, Sue & Paul headed for the Musée d'Orsay while I went to the nearby Musée de l'Armée and the Tomb of Napoleon at Les Invalides (originally built as a hospital and home for disabled soldiers by Louis XIV). Good way to spend a wet Sunday afternoon. As the afternoon faded away, we said goodbye to Sue & Paul and did our final sector on the open top bus tour, then back to our hotel for the shuttle to Beauvais.
Paris Beauvais Airport is part of the Ryanair model of “cheap” flying in Europe (as much as I still love 'em)... The model where you question just how far the airport could possibly be from your destination city. In this case, Beauvais is a town in the countryside of Northern France, a long long way from Paris (seemed like ½ way to Belgium). Beauvais is a large tin shed regional airport with some improvements like a little supermarket and café with crummy food. Much like Proserpine. Ryanair dominates this airport and the queues move like rhinoceros herds (from check-in queue to customs queue to boarding queue, etc.) Our plane was late (bad weather in Dublin)... Very Late... and as we became the last flight on the departure board, and Clare was due to head to China early the next day, we started adapting the lyrics of “Khe Sanh” by Cold Chisel...

“Well the last plane out of Beauvais' almost gone
Yeah the last plane out of Beauvais' almost gone
And it's really got me worried
I'm goin' nowhere and I'm in a hurry
And the last plane out of Beauvais' almost gone”

At some time well after 11pm, with our rhinoceros herd ready to stampede, the inbound Ryanair 737 touched down and achieved the fastest turnaround I've ever seen. With the threat of air traffic control delays if we didn't depart pronto, the pilot implored people to take their seats and we left Beauvais. They switched off the lights behind us. We landed in absolutely pouring rain in Dublin. Back to Annagassan at 2am. Now where are we going next weekend?

Barcelona!

flickr photo link: <Barcelona, Mar 08>
14 Mar 08 EI46 BFS/BCN 1040/1420
17 Mar 08 EI47 BCN/BFS 1500/1640
We heard the old man on the Friday evening. At first it was just an odd sound, floating down through the breezeway behind our apartment in this part of the Barri Gòtic of Barcelona. Something deep and resonant. We opened the bathroom window. After more careful listening, it was certainly a voice... quite guttural, almost as if from the devil himself. We had no idea what he was saying, but it was certainly a one sided conversation, interspersed with a laughter, perhaps slightly hysterical. This occured regularly, morning and evening, and became strangely familar during our 3 days and nights here. We're sure, now we've left, that his voice will continue to intrigue and puzzle many visitors to come.
So, Barcelona, another fantastic (too short) travel experience in Europe. We flew from Belfast International on Friday 14 March. We shared the Aer Lingus A320 with the “Shankill Junior Football Club” which made for an amusing trip, especially the 1 ½ hours sitting on the tarmac in Belfast waiting for the fog to lift in Barcelona as the (numerous) kids around us got more and more bored... But eventually we took off and the flight was quite smooth. Barcelona Airport is nice looking but the baggage handling was poor (1 hour from landing to carousel), which we've come to expect now in Europe – all the more reason to forget the check-in baggage and travel with roll-ons that exactly fit carry-on specifications, mmm, next time...
After some deliberation outside the terminal building (a typical Friday afternoon I would suspect), we ended up sharing a cab to Plaza Catalunya with an Irish couple. They were also on the same flight back on Monday.

- Story & photos to be completed -

A week in Tuscany - Part 2

Photo Link: <Tuscany photos>
A week in Tuscany - Part 2... (this is a pretty long blog entry, our longest story so far). You'll need to allow a few minutes for this one!
Tuesday means day of rest... We had mascarpone and gorgonzola over crusty bread for breakfast. Yummy!!! Then we headed off to the local CO-OP Supermarket in Radda to fill our fridge and cupboard with supplies (AWESOME pesto!) And it just bucketed down - like 4pm on a November afternoon in Brisbane. We'd all had enough of touristing in hill towns for a day, so we chose to stay at home (reading, taking photos, lying around the villa) whilst Chris & Shay walked through the countryside for 4 hrs and eventually got to Radda. Hmmm, I think there may have been some navigation issues there! We found them in the gelateria in Radda, and joined them there!
Wednesday means Siena... We got up at what seemed like the crack of dawn for the Siena Markets - not really farmers markets as in France though. The markets are one of the largest in Tuscany and surround the Fortezza Medicea. Lesson to be learned – DO NOT try and drive into Siena on a Wednesday (Market Day) – it’s probably difficult at the best of times, but after an hour of negotiating our way around the morning traffic and Italian traffic cops waving us on, we eventually found an illegal park well outside the city walls. It didn’t end up being too far from the town anyway (thanks to the Fontebranda escalator), and we were soon in the heart of gothic Siena with it’s amazing steep cobbled laneways and buildings crammed with history & tradition. The markets had loads of clothing, fabrics, household & leather goods at cheap Euro prices. And we eventually found the small food section, which was very good and fresh, it has to be said. The cappucino at Cafe Nannini (€1.10 – various locations in Siena), was very good. Strolled around then had a round of 4 drinks (about €18) at one of the terrace cafes on Piazza Del Campo, the very centre of tourist Siena. Joe checked out the Torture Museum (€8): "this series of slightly dank old chambers off a steep cobbled laneway made you glad you weren't around back then – full of suitably nasty implements and spooky music."
Siena is a true walled city, even today the vast majority of the town lives behind the walls, all 53,000 of them. The plague hit in 1348 and took out 100,000 people. The city has always been in competition with Rome, and then Florence for power and control. Clare gave the tower (Torre del Mangia, 102 metres) a miss here, but we did see:
- Piazzo del Campo
- Battistero di san Giovanni
- Santa Maria Della Scala
- Museo Archeologico
- Palazzo Chigo-Saracini
- Oratorio di Santa Caterina della Notte (Oratory of St Catherine of the night)
There is just so much to see in Siena and everything is within walking distance & very little effort (once you've parked your car and are within the city walls). We would go back in a flash. The best place we saw was the Santa Maria Della Scala, founded in the 1100's as a hospice for pilgrims, and a working hospital for 1000 years (until the 1990's), but now a museum/art gallery with a difference. The halls on the entry level have frescos depicting activity in the hospital in the 1400-1500's. Amazing. The old artworks & collectables include a large painting of Herod and the slaughter of the innocents, quite barbaric. Then you descend into the many floors below (with sloping tunnels), which include the Museo Archeologico and the Oratorio di Santa Caterina della Notte, amongst many other chapels and churches of secret societies. Clare: "St Catherines head is in a glass case down there (in the Oratario di Santa Caterina della Notte), and it's quite creepy with a very real ‘presence’ - I felt that her spirit (soul?) was there as well." We got sooooo soaked walking back to the car. We roasted a free range chook for dinner, with all the trimmings (Slow Food)... with some more Chianti Classico vino!
Thursday means Volterra... Volterra was founded by the Etruscan (ie. Tuscan) people long before the Romans got organised. The Romans didn't take the town until 260BC. It also took the Florentine empire in the 1360’s a long while to conquer them - the extreme geography certainly helped. Their heyday was in the middle ages though. The town (village?) is so interesting and has so many shops with interesting things to buy & restaurants full of yummy food. And the place didn't seem overrun by tourists either. A few buses piled in after lunch but still you hardly noticed them - not like San Gimignano, Siena or Florence. So many churches and chapels, all with doors open, and free. Even after days of churches these were all very interesting and each one different to the one before, Clare: "I couldn’t even start to describe all of the architecture styles, variations and eras (I think epochs would be more accurate here)." There's also a Roman theatre (pretty intact), one of the best Etruscan museums in Italy (all local findings) and would you believe a 14th Century jail that is still working today and has armed guards walking the walls between the turrets!!! Joe: "Volterra had an emphasis on the gothic, with yet another torture museum, to shops full of fake gargoyle statues, knives & Samurai swords and other dungeons/dragons related items. I even bought a great moulded skull with drink coasters embedded in the head... A nice touch for Halloween!" All up, a truly excellent way to spend the day. The weather held out as well, and we returned to the villa for a lamb bbq in the courtyard with appetisers, salads, many, many side dishes, and probably a dessert and definitely a few cheeses as well. And of course, a range of wines and spirits for each course.
Friday means Florence... We braved the elements and staggering volume of tourists and hit Florence (it had to be done!) Much to our surprise we had very few navigational issues and even less parking issues, but we did hit weather issues. So we strolled from our carpark into Florence at a reasonably early hour, carefully avoiding Gucci & Prada, and the tourist cafes with 5 Euro pizza slices, and we decided to join the queue (about an hour) for The Uffizi Gallery. We chatted with a student from Melbourne while we were waiting. Was it worth it? Clare: "Well we've seen the Medici family art collection now - but really I much preferred Catherine the Great's collection (The Hermitage in St Petersburg) and everything we saw in Madrid (and we didn't see everything in Madrid, art wise, by a long shot). The medieval artists were just so limited in the subject matter (seemingly about 4 topics all up) and styles (two styles - medieval church art and Medici portraits) and materials used (oil). Bring on the Renaissance and the Impressionists ASAP!" Joe: "Look, I like art as much as the next man, but the Uffizi was full of cherubs, angels, dying Saints, etc, etc. Call me an art heathen but lot of blokes were just ducking for the exit door here. Give me some Andy Warhol - you can only take so much medieval art!" Yet another bloody storm hit within minutes of getting out of the Uffizi, but we'd found the Trattoria Anita by then, way down a dark side street beyond the many Florentine tourists, just in the nick of time. Local food at local prices. In the afternoon we checked out the streets of Florence and took silly photos with the David replica, etc, etc. Chris & Shay got further afield in Florence and saw the original David statue at Galleria dell'Accademia (there are a number of copies), and went up the dome of the Duomo (Cathedral). Joe convinced Clare not to even try that one due to elevation issues (maybe she needs some therapy). For dinner we tried the nearest village and had some very traditional local fare at the Ristorante Malborghetto in Lecchi. Our final night at the villa :(
Saturday means "Disney" Pisa & Ryan's Lair... We cleared out quite early and hit the road (Pi-Fi highway) heading for The Leaning Tower of Pisa. Most of a Disney cruise liner (the first one EVER to Europe) had the same idea. So the Americans, fresh from their Mickey Mouse breakfast buffet, were pursued by quite literally a tribe of illegal immigrant watch sellers flogging fake Rolexes (they must have been bussed in from Florence). So here we were at Pisa, surrounded by a million people. The tower is leaning quite amazingly, and well worth a look, although there isn't a whole lot else to see in Pisa. So we went and found a pizza instead. After some hijinks trying to fill up the Alfa with diesel (during a whopping great storm), we finally got to the airport, right in the town. Joe very, very nearly missed the Ryanair flight back to Dublin!!! (too much daydreaming) Clare had to get the crew to page him and 11 others who were missing. It has to be said that the flight hadn't come up on the board inside the terminal, BUT STILL - bloody lucky Joe, the plane would have gone without you - it was Ryanair after all!
We give Italy 10 out of 10. And without a shadow of a doubt, the best food in the world!

A week in Tuscany - Part 1

Florence, Italy

flickr photo link: <Tuscany, May-Jun 07>

25 May 07 FR9908 DUB/PSA 2005/2350

02 Jun 07 FR9907 PSA/DUB 1730/1915

A week in Tuscany - Part 1... (this is a pretty long blog entry, our longest story so far). You'll need to allow a few minutes for this one!

Crusty Italian bread toasted with Chianti extra virgin olive oil, topped with fresh local asparagus and fried eggs with runny yolks... Washing up seems a pleasure after a breakfast like that. This was our first “farmhouse” meal at La Cassucia 1 (€605/week), our fantastic villa situated on the winding road between Radda and Lecchi in Chianti, Tuscany. The 2 bedroom villa had it's own olive grove, and as we found out, a wild pig that came around at night to root out yummy things in the ground. Yes, the Vogue stories and movies are right. From the excellent local produce & wines (the tomatoes and basil really taste better than home, wherever your home is), to the incredible places to visit (or just hang out at the villa), there’s a lot to write about this week.

Before we start, I want to thank Clare for buying me the Jack Wolf lightweight rain jacket with hood, substantially discounted at approx. €26 at the outdoor clothing store in Dundalk (a few weeks back). Living & travelling in Europe has proven to us time after time that weather here will always bring the unexpected, so whilst we’d expected 25c-30c for our week in Italy (from the forecasts), in fact we had day after day of quite cool and rainy conditions. The same thing happened in Madrid over Easter too. We just wish that Brisbane could have a couple of weeks of this weather!
Friday Night... I guess we should have realised about the impending weather as we pitched through a series of storms across France on our 2 ½ hour Ryanair flight from Dublin to Pisa (€125 return), but we landed ok and were soon into our Hertz Rental Car (about €230 plus upgrade). I happily upgraded this to a 5 door Alfa Romeo 147 (Turbo Diesel), which hugged the mountain roads in Tuscany very nicely. Our hotel in Pisa, Accademia Palace Hotel (€95) was a little difficult to find after midnight, but mainly because we didn't know the roads and didn't have a clear map. I think we actually drove very close to it in the process of being lost, but we found it in the end and it turned out to be quite comfortable and had a good breakfast included.

Saturday means Chianti... We drove off towards Chianti following our AA road map - best purchase we made before leaving Ireland. And we (well, Clare), got a local map from the hotel reception of how to get from the hotel to the main Pi-Fi highway - Pisa to Florence. We drove through the LA style outer suburbs of Pisa (flat and boring) towards the hills of Chianti. We drove through towns like Poggibonsi, until we got to Castellina in Chianti. Chianti being a wine producing region of central Tuscany that epitomises what everyone thinks is the image of "Tuscany". We got there at about 11.30am and Clare realised there was a farmers market and we should buy some fresh food before the shops shut for the weekend. No 24 hour trading here - it's all Slow Food and the better for it. What we found were:

- Farmer’s stalls with fresh asparagus and zucchinis with flowers still attached.

- Roast chickens, pig, & wonderful salamis.

- Artichokes and fennel growing wild in over grown orchards of peach and apricots.

- Red poppies by the roadsides.

- Luscious coconut and hazelnut gelati.

We drove on to Radda in Chianti (a 16th Century hilltop town), parked the car and had a lunch of rocket with walnuts & goats cheese with glasses of the local red & white wine. At 4pm we arrived at the villa and met the caretaker who spoke absolutely no English, and we spoke no Italian, but we got the message about all aspects of the villa - except the rubbish collection system (never quite understood that one!) So our images from that day were:

- Cool green forests (behind the villa).

- Hillsides full of olive groves, vineyards (in front of the villa).

- Blooming highly scented roses among the vines.

- Rosemary, almonds and sage in the garden.

- Geraniums in terracotta boxes on every window sill.

- Crusty bread and olive oil (from the market).

- Blue butterflies landing on pink pastel wild flowers.

- Cuckoos (calling in the afternoons).

- Green lizards sunning on the terrace (we don’t see many lizards in Ireland, but we had at least 5 species in our Wavell Heights backyard).

- Pecorino cheese grated over the eggs and asparagus (for Sunday breakfast - copied the Vogue cover exactly!)

- Wild boars rooting around amongst the olive groves (well that was a few nights later in the rain).

After settling in and unpacking, we ended up getting a giant pizza from Radda and sat in our kitchen and had dinner.

Sunday means San Gimignano... The next day (after the above mentioned breakfast) we drove off to collect Chris & Shay from the bus in Siena. We circumnavigated the town at least twice looking for the central bus station, and eventually realised much of the town was cordoned off due to an impending local soccer match (the home team arrived by coach with police escorts and horns blazing). By this point, torrential rain was coming down, the first of many downpours that week. Clare eventually collected them from the Café Antico, and we set out for some sightseeing. San Gimignano - a brief history lesson:

- Saved from Attila the Hun in 1199.

- Wiped out by the plague in 1348.

- Still has frescos of Saint Bartholomew being skinned alive then beheaded in Palazzo Comunale.

- Now in 2007 a major Tuscan tourist town famous for its 72 towers - well, less than that now, but still pretty damned interesting.

The "Siena" storm hit with hail, thunder and lightening cracking over the soaring terracotta towers. Joe decided to peruse the organic wine stores below the tower (Pinacoteca Torre) while Chris, Shay and Clare ventured upwards. About a quarter of the way up Clare remembered that she didn't like heights, a bit late as she'd paid her 5 Euros! With Chris’s help, Clare got all the way up until the stairs turned into a wooden ladder. Chris took some shots with the camera and Clare noticed that birds were nesting in the holes that had been used for firing arrows. Other memories from that day were:

- Cats asleep in doorways (yes of course Clare took pics).

- Torture museums (Joe has to explain that one).

- Lot of tourists and car parks!

Later on in Radda, we stumbled onto a local wine festival held in the underground catacombs. Clare, Chris & Shay had a solid session tasting the wines of the Chianti Classico "Black Rooster" producers (Joe was driving). Too much red wine, stumble, stopped for pizza, stumble, etc, etc...

Monday means Monte... Today we went to 3 historic hilltop towns that started with Monte...

Monte No. 1: Montalcino

We arrived as the town was just awaking from seista to sun showers and sudden downpours that were to characterise the day. Black clad ladies of the village were sitting in the sun and there were very few tourists. This was a village built below a 14th century Fortezza (fortress) - complete with turrets watching over the hills and dales of the Orcia valley below. Between the turrets there were holes designed for the throwing of boiling oil on those below. A bit scary - heights & rotting floor boards wise - but the view was spectacular; undulating wheat fields and pencil pines leading to ancient villas from Roman times straight out of the movie "Gladiator" (one of Clare's Russell favourites!) Wonderful gelati, as usual (I think we tried the gelati in most towns we visited!)

Monte No. 2: Monticchiello

A small hilltop walled village, windswept and blustered by showers (ok, it was a downpour!) So we took shelter in the village church with soaring vaulted ceilings and partially restored frescos. Joe did some Gregorian chants, not bad. We walked around, in the rain, then gave up with rainbows arching over the fields of wheat. Really one of Clare's best photos of the trip. Back to the car.

Monte No. 3: Montepulciano

A stunning small town of 14,000 people built upon a small volcanic ridge. It was originally an Etruscan fort with still intact burial chambers under the wine bars - sounds like the underground city of Edinburgh but less haunted!!! We missed seeing these, but did watch the ever increasing showers rolling in, from the windows of Caffe Poliziano (1868). The caffe fredo (iced coffee) and 4 types of chocolate cannoli were to die for (total about €15). The renaissance architecture was built by the Florence Medici's in the 1400’s and the gothic structures were from the previous Siena based administration, such as the 13th century gothic Palazzo Comunale on the Piazza Grande at the towns highest point. Just before another very heavy downpour, we scored the last table at Osteria dell’Acquacheta, whose specialty was 2 kg ribs of beef t-bone, just seared in a wood fired oven. No we didn't have it, nor did anyone anyone at our table (but the gnocchi and other Italian foods were bloody good!) American tourists came in from the rain looking for tables and were told to come back in an hour. Satisfied, we walked back to the car in the pouring rain and drove back to Chianti along deserted motorways.

Photo Link: <Tuscany photos>

... Continued in Part 2...

Real Madrid

Puerta de Europa, Madrid

MADRID... (There are lots of photo links in this story)

flickr photo link: <Madrid, Apr 07>

flickr photo link: <Madrid Bullfights, Apr 07>

05 Apr 07 IB3183 DUB/MAD 1835/2200

09 Apr 07 IB3186 MAD/DUB 1615/1740

Continuing our tradition of quick European Vacations from Ireland, we ate and drank our way through Madrid over the Easter weekend. We loved the parade of strange religious costumes through the streets & alleys on Good Friday. We raved about the grilled prawns in the tapas bars. The art and architecture are not to be missed, but plan your time carefully. And the bullfights, which are something you only have to see once, but are part of the history and culture of this great city.
We flew from Dublin to Madrid with Iberia. Dublin Airport was far calmer than expected and we got to our gate in no time at all. Nice airline, smooth flight. The new Madrid Barajas Terminal 4 is huge and sweeping in scale, more in kind with Kuala Lumpur or Hong Kong Airports than any other European Airport. Took a cab to the hotel. The freeways into Madrid are quick & seamless, giving you a distinct impression of being very new (and so much better than Ireland!) Our home for 4 nights was the 2 star Hostal Persal (€99/nt), in the absolute heart of the historic quarter of Madrid (100 yards from the Puerta del Sol, and very near the Plaza Mayor and the Prado, Thyssen & Reina Sofia Museums). The continental breakfast ran till 11am, which was great for us!
Joe... I slept in big time on Good Friday. Didn't get outside the hotel until early afternoon, and found some lunch at a place with a person inside an inflatable chicken suit. Not bad. Clare then spied a little Tapas Bar that soon became our favourite in the area (La Zapateria/The Shoemaker) which had grilled prawns in sea salt (absolutely lipsmacking), octopus, meat kebabs & paella. And of course bottles of the local red (very drinkable), and glasses of Cerveza (beer). Our average bill there was about €35 for 2, including drinks. We then retreated back to our hotel room and did the very Spanish siesta thing.
Clare... I decided that as it was Good Friday, I really should go to Mass. I'd checked with the hotel reception and identified the 2 main "must do" mass churches in downtown Madrid - Basilica of Crist de Medinacell and Church of San Pedro el Viejo Nuncio. I chose the Church of San Pedro (built in 1202 on top of the mosque that was here in the Muslim district in the middle ages), as it was the smaller and much older church of the two. At Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church, in downtown Kenmore, Brisbane, the two biggest and well attended masses of the year are Good Friday 3pm mass and Midnight mass on Christmas Eve. With this in mind I actually dressed decently and wandered off through the back lanes of old Madrid (Real or Royal Madrid). On my way down I noticed large numbers of people of all ages heading off in the opposite direction, very well dressed including full length fur coats, yes real animal fur, this is Spain, the land of the bullfights!
I eventually found the Church of San Pedro and sat down for mass which was sparsely attended, to my surprise. With no priest in sight the Stations of the Cross started, led by a lay attendant. So 20 minutes later it was all over. Apparently Saturday is the big day for Easter mass here. There was a small stall with religious items for sale. I bought a magnet of a saint and 2 post cards of the Mary and Jesus statues/icons ? from San Pedro. The Mary and Jesus "statues" were made of wood - quite realistic - standing on a "bed" of silver or gold that has been built to be carried around. After the mass that wasn't, I wandered off and just started popping into churches I found - loads of them. All were different, very different styles of architecture and interiors. Every one had different "statues", particularly of Mary, standing on silver or gold "beds". After the third one I was wandering through the back lanes and stumbled upon a procession of people (men, women & children) dressed liked black Ku Klux Clan people. I thought THIS IS MADRID, and just started following the procession through the laneways. I found the procession around 7.45pm. Later I found out it had started at 7pm and didn't end until 11pm. It didn't travel too far at all, but took a very slow route via small laneways dating back to the 1200's. This is what the ladies in fur coats were doing, following the procession. The people dressed like the black Ku Klux Clan were carrying large candles, others were very, very well dressed women in black "widow" clothes from head to toe, and others were carrying the Mary Statue on a silver bed. Yes, solid silver. It took around 12 men and women to carry it with many rest stops along the way. It was a cold night with frequent showers (the weather in Ireland was actually much better). Even the small children in the procession made it all the way to the church of Inglesia la Santa Cruz. At this point the police escort closed ranks and no one other than the parade people could get into the church. I think the procession of Saint Dolores started in 1592. Pity I can't read the Spanish brochure that the kids were selling. Half way through I went back and got Joe from the hotel and we got some great pics.
The next day (Saturday) we made a concerted effort to be tourists and did the Madrid VISION open top bus tour, then did lunch at the Palace of Jamon (Ham Palace). Don't even start me on Spanish hams from pigs wandering free in the oak forests in the hills. Simply wonderful. Then off to do art: a portrait show at Fundacion Caja Madrid which included Andy Warhol, Picasso & Dali, then Escher's "The Art of the Impossible" near Puerta de Europa (the 2 leaning skyscrapers - really amazing). Then dinner back at La Zapateria followed by a long stroll around the old town. We ended our night at the famous Chocolatería San Ginés. Love chocolate, then this is definitely the place for you - a favourite haunt of many Madrileños, this place serves thick cups of chocolate with churros (long sticks of fried dough) in a white-marbled bar. It's been around for well over a hundred years. All diets on hold tonight.
On Sunday we started with a stroll through the huge El Rastro flea market. Then we started on the art again (it's SO easy to get around on the Madrid Subway system). We saw photos of Madrid from the 1950's to the present, then the large Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, the best collection of European art this side of the Hermitage which holds Catherine the Greats collection. Gave the Prado and Reina Sofia a miss due to very, very long queues. (Joe says - the security guards in the museums here all carry guns - these guys are serious about keeping a hold of their art!) Then the bullfights. We had to see at least one bullfight for real. We saw 3 fights at Las Ventas and it's rather cruel. We cheered when one bull tore down the wooden stand in front of the matador, much to the consternation of the Spanish people sitting next to us. The real eye opener was the treatment of the final matador who must have been the best of the day and was carried out of stadium by a frenzied crowd of people and driven away with a police escort. Lots of excitement there!
Back to the city centre and a late night drinks and jazz session at the Central Cafe 2 doors from our hotel (stumbling distance). We had tapas and some serious drinks & cocktails whilst listening to the Lluis Coloma Trio, who were great. This was my type of bar, with a rum menu, which type of Havana Gold exactly did I want? And perfect daiquiris (lucky it was our last night).
The next day we headed back to Madrid Barajas after lunch only to discover our flight was overbooked and we had somehow been placed on standby. Clare produced her Gold Qantas Frequent Flyer Card, and we were immediately upgraded to business class for our flight back to Dublin. So we got on the plane and turned left (as they say). Now this is the life! Madrid was everything that Paris never was. The food, shopping and art are more easily found and enjoyed. Can't wait for Barcelona.

flickr photo link: <Madrid, Apr 07>
flickr photo link: <Madrid Bullfights, Apr 07>

House Of Sand & Fog

Joe... "Well we've moved into our new apartment at Annagassan overlooking Dundalk Bay (the Irish sea). This picture was taken recently on an incredibly foggy afternoon. The scaffolding on the left side has come down since the pic was taken - the developers had some last things to finish! The tide comes and goes very fast and people wander along the shore with their dogs, kids looking for shells in the mud - very Ireland! The view across the bay from our big picture window actually reminds me a little of Hawaii (believe it or not) - mountains rising out of the water in the distance. And this view changes throughout the day as the weather changes - clouds rolling across the sky with the sun occasionally breaking through. Yes, it pretty much rains every day in Ireland in one form or another. Here is a typical Irish weather forecast for the week...

Monday - some rain & sunny spells
Tuesday - mainly fine with some showers
Wednesday - sun breaking through in some areas, with light showers in others
Thursday - heavy rain & wind
Friday - cloudy with light rain, etc, etc...
You get the general picture. In the end, you just don't notice it anymore. So each morning, I cross some country lanes (watch out for those slow tractors), and join the motorway to my office at Swords which is about 35-40 minutes away. And Clare goes off to her office in Dundalk, in between her fabulous trips."

NORWAY...

Photo Link: <Norway photos>

Clare... Thanks for your cards and emails. Keep them up. Last Thursday night I got back from far northern Norway - way above the Arctic Circle (Tromso). I was there for a meeting of the EU salmon research project I am working on. It was cheaper to go on a cruise of the fjords than to stay in a hotel - and you can’t escape and end up doing twice as many meetings but still it was all amazing. It got down to -20c on the last morning in Trondheim. Unbelievably cold. I couldn’t breath and had to breath thru my scarf but still have the asthma today. On the first day I had to run out and buy a set of gloves and wooly hat. Wouldn’t have survived without them.
The cruise was spectacular and the weather held for the whole trip blue clear sky, just mind blowingly cold. Had to dress like a polar bear every time you went on the deck. Snow and ice everywhere. I’ve never seen anything like it. Will send some postcards in a few weeks when I stop for a bit. I fell over on the ice on the last morning but onto my backpack like a Xmas beetle, so no part of my body touchéd the ice and so didn’t sprain my ankle, tear a ligament, break a small bone in my foot or large bone in my thigh. Thank goodness. Didn’t even break the bottle of 7 year old Havana Rum I had in my bag. Good packing there. And we saw the northern lights on two nights. The first time was a bit poxy - like the milky way really. But the second night it was proper northern lights with the light pulsing across the sky and with green and pink bits around the edges. Couldn’t take a photo though.
Think I'll pop off to bed now and will promise to write a decent story about Norway soon. I have to go to Berlin and Brussels with work in the next few months and Joe & I are going to stay in a villa in Tuscany at the end of May with Chris & Shay. And we have a long weekend in London in March and I will take Joe to the far south of Ireland (where I go for work in remote fishing villages) on the St. Pats long weekend. Joe has a secret weekend planned for us over Easter. And the EU salmon project has a trip to Brazil in October and we're going to a wedding in Las Vegas of one of Joe's really good Brisbane DHL friends in October as well. We're going to stay for a bit longer and drive from Denver to the Devil's Tower in Wyoming (Joe says - think "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind!")

I went to Holland a few weeks ago with work to see a mussel factory (in Yerseke spelling ?) and stayed the weekend with a friend (Dorine in Nymegen) from my Africa trip centuries ago. I also went to the western part of Ireland - Connemarra about 2 weeks ago. The salmon place I did in Connemarra was all Irish speaking. The only English conversations were with me. Even the phone is answered in Irish. A totally different lost world down there. They just want to be left alone to keep on with their way of life. Since so much has changed around here (eastern Ireland) in the last 5 years, places like that are fighting to be left alone in peace and quiet. After centuries of being left alone due to abject poverty now they want it kept that way. To buy a house there you have to pass a Irish language exam - written and oral. It was the first place that didn’t ask about me being Australian - you are just another outsider from somewhere else, so exactly where doesn’t matter - Dublin or Sydney. They did ask me “Winkel - what type of name is that ?” The Dutch of course wanted indepth and precise answers to that question the other week. They actually assumed I could do their audit in Dutch! Bye for now.

Berlin, Berlin (Christmas Update #2)

flickr photo link: <Berlin, Germany, Dec 2006>
On 27 December, we took the ICE train from Braunschweig to Berlin. Very crowded, so we found some seats in the buffet car, but also very fast, so we found ourself at the brand new Berlin Hauptbahnhof in less than 1 1/2 hours. From there, we got frustrated by the ticketing machines, but eventually found our way on the S-Bahn/U-Bahn to the stylish Moevenpick Hotel Berlin, which was absolutely beautiful (our Christmas treat!) Our top floor room had a huge Philippe Starck designed bathtub, groovy lighting and chocolates magically appeared on our pillows every evening. Berlin is truly amazing, and can only be compared to London & New York in terms of scale & shopping. Clare had visited in October 1990, just a year after the Berlin Wall came down, and 1995. I'd never been there before, and I want to go back already!
You could easily stay a week and not see everything you want, from Checkpoint Charlie (very close to our hotel) and the whole Berlin Wall history (and associated museums), to Museum Island (chock full of huge museums bursting at the seams with ancient treasures) which we only saw from the outside, the Jewish Museum Berlin & the 2,711 concrete stelae of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which we saw on a bleak and overcast day, perhaps the most appropriate time. Near the memorial, next to a childrens playground and large apartment building is a simple sign showing where Hitlers' bunker was located. History is at every turn - you need to use your imagination sometimes, but remnants exist all around that help you to feel it. So, we fit all of that into 2 1/2 days, as well as the Museum for Photography and the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral), which is so massive it's almost overwhelming. The Museum for Photography features Helmut Newton, a Berliner who lived for a time in Australia and took photos for the fashion and art world. He died in 2004. Many of these attractions can be found on foot with a half decent map, or just use the S-Bahn/U-Bahn, which has a huge network of trains crossing Berlin in all directions.
Finding great food in foreign cities is of course our forté, and Berlin was no different. After Braunschweig, we'd had enough knackwursts & cake, so we quickly found an excellent Japanese restaurant, Izumi sushi bar in Kronenstrasse (try everything, it's all good). The breakfast buffet at our hotel was outstanding (but we only made it on 1 morning!) The next evening, Clare settled in with a cheese platter & a glass of red at the mindblowing KaDeWe foodhall. 1,300 different types of cheese, 1,200 sausage and ham delicacies, 400 types of bread & rolls, 34,000 products - unbelieveable but true. Clare says the listeria filled cheeses were the best she's ever had, and very filling. I settled instead for a Nasi Goreng from the local Asian takeaway! On our final day, we met Clare's friend Michael (from an African trip in 86/87) for lunch at Cafe Einstein Unter Den Linden (nr. Brandenburg Gate), had a fantastic walking tour to Museum Island & Berliner Dom, and ended up at the Vietnam Restaurant next to Friedrichstrasse Station. Authentic and quite reasonable. We found Friedrichsrasse to really be the new centre of Berlin. From pretty much nothing 10 years ago to Mini-Cooper showrooms, French department stores and European designer clothes. All too much for our budget!
That was our final night in Berlin. We ended up braving the chill to see if the queues for the viewing dome at the Reichstag had dimished in the evening, but they hadn't. So we retreated to the warmth of our hotel room to get ready for our early morning flight back to Dublin. Oh, I almost forgot to tell about the snow. Yes, as we peered out of the crooked windows of the Jewish Museum (don't miss it) on our 2nd day, snow flakes started to fall. They got heavier throughout the day, but had stopped by evening. Of course we rushed back to the hotel to get our camera, and we got a few photos, but it was just a great experience. Our flight back with Ryanair from Berlin-Schönefeld Airport was on-time and smooth. As cheap as they are (and for their poor reputation), we've had no problems yet with Ryanair, and that capped off a truly superb week away - completely different from Christmas in Australia!
All of our pictures from Berlin are posted here. Please take a look if you like.

Frohe Weihnachten! (Christmas Update #1)

flickr photo link: <Braunschweig, Germany, Dec 2006>
23 Dec 06 EI DUB/DUS 1340/1930
30 Dec 06 FR SXF/DUB 1105/1220
Haven't had any updates just recently, so it's time for 3 quick ones in a row. Happy New Year everyone... We hope you all had a good one, wherever you were. We spent the night in Dundalk, watching the local Polish kids burning themselves with fireworks in the park over the road, but more about that later. We're feeling thoroughly "reunified" after our Christmas week in Germany. We learnt a few things... about the superb "Weihnachtsmarkt" (Christmas Markets) of Braunschweig, the organisation of the Germans at Autostadt (Car Disneyland), the immense history of reunified Berlin AND the value of the Euro in Germany (compared to Ireland!)
We flew with Aer Lingus from Dublin to Dusseldorf on 23 December. We got to Dublin Airport around 5am to the busiest airport I've ever seen in my life. No kidding. Even the worst days in Australia never rivalled this. A bit like what you see on tv when Heathrow is in the fog, but no white tents on the roadways! But there was no fog this morning, this was just Christmas. Dubs can be bad at the best of times, but I guess we should have known that flying at Christmas is a no-no. We used the self service check-in terminals, which everyone does, then spent an hour in the "bag drop" queues. Then into the security line (more like a conga line!) which snaked round and round the terminal like something out of Disneyland. That took another hour, and we made it to the gate with 15 minutes to spare - phew. Dusseldorf Airport seemed pretty quiet after Dubs, but they continued the Christmas joy by taking about 1 hour to get the luggage onto the conveyer belt! Met our good friends Gerald & Sandra to have a quick tour of this sophisticated city on the Rhein. Nice Italian lunch at Vapiano, then down the autobahns for 3 hours to Braunschweig (reached 180 km/h). Met Gerald's parents, Sylvia & Peter, then off to the Weihnachtsmarkt for some delicious bratwurst, strawberries dipped in white chocolate & glühwein (Clare says it's an acquired taste)... Gerald & Sandra bumped into loads of old friends, it seemed like the place for old friends to come home and meet up at the end of the year. We all had a great night, and another experience is ticked off our list!
24 December started with a traditional German breakfast - breads, meats & cheeses. Then up out of the fog into the blue sky of the Harz Mountains to walk off some of the food - alas no snow but pretty cold. Back to Braunschweig for coffee & cake (a real German tradition), then later our Christmas dinner of duck legs, red cabbage, potato dumplings and real cranberries. Gerald's 94 year old Grandmother was there and had some amazing tales, born in England in 1912, emigrating to Germany in 1922 and staying for the WWII while her brothers & sisters went back to England. So we had a nice day, but so much food, too much food...
On Christmas Day when you'd think everything would be closed, a lot of things in Germany are open, including the impressive Autostadt in Wolfsburg, the futuristic showpiece of the Volkswagen Group in an ultra-modern concrete landscape dominated by the huge 'Pink Floyd like' smokestacks of the VW Factory. Did you know the VW Group includes Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Seat & Skoda as well as all the V Dubs? (but not many Combi's in sight)... As well as bucket loads of interative displays & cars, they have 2 huge glass car "towers" that lead to an underground VW delivery centre, and yes, some customers were even picking up their cars on Christmas Day. Anyway, we called it 'Car Disneyland' and it's well worth a visit if you're in northern Germany. On the way back, we stopped at the disused East/West Germany checkpoint at Marienborn-Helmstedt on the highway from Hannover to Berlin. More than 1000 GDR soldiers inspected everything moving between west & east until finally abandoned on 30 June 1990 after the wall came down. A great museum and such amazing recent history...
We spent another day walking in the countryside and checking out downtown Braunschweig before going for more coffee & cakes with Geralds' sisters family. A good chance to practice a little German, mmm... The next day (very cold & foggy), we took the ICE train to Berlin for part 2 of our little trip...

All of our pictures from Braunschweig are posted here. Please take a look if you like.

... Continued in Part 2 (Berlin)...

Fabo food in Poland...

Clare has been Poland for a quick business trip...
"Fabo food - lots of bacon and pork, soup, cabbage (many types), beetroot products and yes many types of cheese for breakfast. Much vodka too, but I gave mine away. I figured after the red wine there was no need for 5 vodka shots. And to be ready for 8am breakfast of cheese and jellied fish. But the blokes took up the challenge along with very large glasses of Polish beer. Wonderful weather- really wonderful. Skies like Australia. Bag somehow got soaked in beer on the way home with Ryanair, and mobile phone nicked out of bag too."
No photos for this trip, but that problem will be addressed soon (says Joe)...
Also from Clare "I read some English paper on the flight between Stansted and Dublin last night - of a celebrity poker night which was to raise money for the “The Shane Warne Foundation”. Can you believe such a thing? £10,000 ENTRY PRICE. Full of Rothchilds, Guinesses (no pic of Titanic though), Goldsmiths incl Jeminina Khan and Hugh Grant. One pic was of Hugh holding onto Jeminina by the leg. I thought he should be doing that, as I am sure its “The Shane Warne Foundation for blonde skinny women with mobile phones”. Hugh was the best poker player amongst the non professionals but didn’t make the final round to win £100,000."
Raining again in Ireland...

Black & White Photos...

Have just uploaded loads of Clare's black & white photos from 2005. They were so difficult to get processed in Brisbane, but in Ireland, no problem, and scanned onto a CD! So here are a LOT of them, uploaded onto Flickr websites...
Photo Link: <Greece 2005 photos>
Photo Link: <Gythio, Greece 2005 photos>
Photo Link: <UK 2005 photos>
The speed of uploading these photos made me fondly remember the (recent) days of having cable internet, now I'm on lousy ADSL... (Joe goes to make another cup of tea)...