Happy New Year!!
We went to a new year's party last night a our landlord's place (the flat below us). We met some of the neighbours and his family.
It was a good night, especially when the karaoke started!!
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Friday, December 29, 2006
Canterbury
We caught the train to Canterbury today to catch up with Anna and meet Niall. Anna's an old English friend who spent a year studying in NZ and we met during her time in Engineering school. It was great seeing her again after so long - 4 years!
We couldn't go to Canterbury and not check out the cathedral, so that's what we did.
It's a large Cathedral with large grounds, it made for an interesting visit, though it was much better after I found a small guide book which told me about what I was looking at!
After the cathedral we had lunch at a cute little pub called the Cherry Tree and caught up with each others news.
We then headed back to Anna's parents place in Nonington for a cuppa and chat while it poured with rain outside - what miserable weather!
We couldn't go to Canterbury and not check out the cathedral, so that's what we did.
It's a large Cathedral with large grounds, it made for an interesting visit, though it was much better after I found a small guide book which told me about what I was looking at!
After the cathedral we had lunch at a cute little pub called the Cherry Tree and caught up with each others news.
We then headed back to Anna's parents place in Nonington for a cuppa and chat while it poured with rain outside - what miserable weather!
Brussels
We hopped on Eurostar at Waterloo (only about 20 minutes away by bus). While waiting at the station we discovered by reading the Metro newspaper that the weather forecast for Brussels was 0 degrees with fog. Colder than we were expecting and much colder than London!
We arrived at Gare du Midi station and met up with Yvonne (one of Grace's old school friends).
We caught the metro back to her place and met Andrew (Yvonne's boyfriend) and dropped our bags off before heading back out. We realised at this point that the weather forecast was right and it was indeed very cold!
We walked to the St Michel Cathedral and walked through it. Beautiful stained glass windows.
We then headed towards Grand Place and walked through Galleries St Hubert which had lots of chocolatiers. It started snowing very lightly at this point. Pretty cold.
We checked out Grand Place before finding a place down a side street for lunch. They have lots of restaurants selling a €15 3 course lunch.
After lunch, headed to the Christmas markets. The atmosphere was still very festive and it was nice to experience a little bit of cold European Christmas.
Yvonne showed us a landmark - the Mannekin Pis. There is a myth behind the pissing boy that is something to do with putting out a fire and saving the city. We're not convinced, but this little guy was attracting a lot of attention!
Went to supermarket to pick up some stuff for dinner. Yvonne and Andrew were making a traditional Belgium dish for us which consisted of endives wrapped in ham and baked in a cheesy sauce. It didn't turn out as well as she'd hoped but we thought it tasted good!
The next day we slept in and eventually got up and headed to the Musical Instrument Museum in a beautiful Art Noveau building. It was a large museum with lots of different types of instruments. Visitors are given wirelesss headphones where they can listen to snippets of music played on the various instruments at various listening points.
After the museum we headed to the Palais de Justice. We walked past the arts museum on the way as well as one of the royal palaces (though the royal family don't actually live here, they stay at another palace on the outskirts of the city).
Headed back to Grand Place to get to the supermarket to buy some stuff for dinner that night.
As it was really cold, we didn't stay out for long.
On our last day, the weather got better, there was sun and it was warmer. We checked out the comic museum - for those who didn't know Belgium is the home of Tin Tin. The museum was interesting though it contained way too much information.
After the musuem we headed to the Christmas markets and grabbed some bratwurst for lunch. We also bought some chocolate from Neuhaus chocolatier. Then we headed to Parc du Cinquantaire for a look around before it was time to head back to pack up.
We met Yvonne for dinner before leaving on the Eurostar.
We arrived at Gare du Midi station and met up with Yvonne (one of Grace's old school friends).
We caught the metro back to her place and met Andrew (Yvonne's boyfriend) and dropped our bags off before heading back out. We realised at this point that the weather forecast was right and it was indeed very cold!
We walked to the St Michel Cathedral and walked through it. Beautiful stained glass windows.We then headed towards Grand Place and walked through Galleries St Hubert which had lots of chocolatiers. It started snowing very lightly at this point. Pretty cold.
We checked out Grand Place before finding a place down a side street for lunch. They have lots of restaurants selling a €15 3 course lunch.
After lunch, headed to the Christmas markets. The atmosphere was still very festive and it was nice to experience a little bit of cold European Christmas.
Yvonne showed us a landmark - the Mannekin Pis. There is a myth behind the pissing boy that is something to do with putting out a fire and saving the city. We're not convinced, but this little guy was attracting a lot of attention!Went to supermarket to pick up some stuff for dinner. Yvonne and Andrew were making a traditional Belgium dish for us which consisted of endives wrapped in ham and baked in a cheesy sauce. It didn't turn out as well as she'd hoped but we thought it tasted good!
The next day we slept in and eventually got up and headed to the Musical Instrument Museum in a beautiful Art Noveau building. It was a large museum with lots of different types of instruments. Visitors are given wirelesss headphones where they can listen to snippets of music played on the various instruments at various listening points.After the museum we headed to the Palais de Justice. We walked past the arts museum on the way as well as one of the royal palaces (though the royal family don't actually live here, they stay at another palace on the outskirts of the city).
Headed back to Grand Place to get to the supermarket to buy some stuff for dinner that night.
As it was really cold, we didn't stay out for long.
On our last day, the weather got better, there was sun and it was warmer. We checked out the comic museum - for those who didn't know Belgium is the home of Tin Tin. The museum was interesting though it contained way too much information.
After the musuem we headed to the Christmas markets and grabbed some bratwurst for lunch. We also bought some chocolate from Neuhaus chocolatier. Then we headed to Parc du Cinquantaire for a look around before it was time to head back to pack up.We met Yvonne for dinner before leaving on the Eurostar.
Monday, December 25, 2006
Our first cold Christmas
Today was our first Christmas in London which we spent with some other family-less kiwis.
We went around to Trudy's where Trudy, Rob (and flatmate Debbie) were putting on a feast of a lunch for us. Initially we thought we would have to walk to get there but we managed to get a lift in the back of Kirsty's van which we were thankful for.
Here's a photo of our feast:
Unfortunately (or fortunately) it wasn't cold enough, so we didn't have a white Christmas.
We went around to Trudy's where Trudy, Rob (and flatmate Debbie) were putting on a feast of a lunch for us. Initially we thought we would have to walk to get there but we managed to get a lift in the back of Kirsty's van which we were thankful for.
Here's a photo of our feast:
Unfortunately (or fortunately) it wasn't cold enough, so we didn't have a white Christmas.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Les Miserable
We saw Les Mis at the Queen's theatre last night - one of Andrew's favourite musicals. It was really good. We were surprised to see that the theatre was quite small compared to the Aotea centre in Auckland but it was a good size .
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Santander - Spain!
We got into Santander in the early evening, checked into hotel, and got ready for dinner at 9pm. We thought this was late, and were getting really hungry, but it's early for the Spanish! We got there a bit late and still had to wait at the bar for a while (what a shame) before we could go into the restaurant because they weren't ready.
Dinner was at a restaurant by the ocean beach, waves rolling and crashing in just below us out the window. We started by handing around secret santa presents. One stashed away his hangover recovery kit for use in the morning, another set up his 'Pin the Melons on the Babe', was blindfolded and started playing! We had tapas (as the Spanish do) to begin with and for mains we had a long board covered with loads of meat. Desert was a delicious selection of cakes and sorbet - yum!
After dinner we headed off to the casino. This is the entrance, with some bikes on display:
We had to show our passports and sign a bit of paper with our details on it. I'm not sure exactly what it was for, but it took a while to get through everyone. Finally we were allowed in.
There were a few successful people, but one topped it all off. He was sitting at the pokie machine of all things, and after a few bets he almost won €40 and got rather excited. Two bets later he won €500.
After the casino, some feeling broke, we headed back to the restaurant which had a bar below it. It pretty much sucked, other than the free round of shots that we got given because we dined upstairs!
After a long sleep-in on Sat, we dragged ourselves into town by train. It was raining, and we'd missed breakfast so we headed straight for tapas at Mercado del Este, a indoor "market" with shops and a nice cafe. Since Spain pretty much shuts down between 2-6pm, all there is to do is eat and drink.
We took a long walk to the peninsula where we went for a "train" ride around the area and saw the Palace de Magdelena. It poured with rain while we were on the ride, which was lucky for us since it was covered.
Looking out to the peninsular (through the trees) and island off the peninsular:
The city waterfront:
Boys diving:
We had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant with some of the others.
On Sunday we got up in time for breakfast. We caught the train into city again and had another walk around. We checked out the cathedral but there was a service on. A security guard told us (in Spanish) that we couldn't go in but to come back at a certain time (well, that's what we THINK she said). Sure enough, we came back and she waved us towards the door. It was fascinating, with two levels to it.
We had Tapas for lunch again at the same place as yesterday. It was raining again so we spent a lot of time inside. When we finally went to the sweet shop, it was closed (we were after 2pm) so we made our way back to the shopping centre which was open. After a cuppa it was time to get to airport. We saw a taxi about to drive away so banged on the window and said Aeropuerto. She nodded so we piled in. We think she was due to be on another job, but thought she could squeeze a short one in beforehand, because she drove like a maniac! It was really wet too, so we were all hanging on really tight. Luckily it was a very short ride and we made it alive.
We had no problems at Stansted airport since we only had our carry-on luggage, then got the express train. Getting home fromt the train station took forever though because we had to wait ages for our bus. We will be trying an alternative route next time!
Dinner was at a restaurant by the ocean beach, waves rolling and crashing in just below us out the window. We started by handing around secret santa presents. One stashed away his hangover recovery kit for use in the morning, another set up his 'Pin the Melons on the Babe', was blindfolded and started playing! We had tapas (as the Spanish do) to begin with and for mains we had a long board covered with loads of meat. Desert was a delicious selection of cakes and sorbet - yum!
After dinner we headed off to the casino. This is the entrance, with some bikes on display:
 |
There were a few successful people, but one topped it all off. He was sitting at the pokie machine of all things, and after a few bets he almost won €40 and got rather excited. Two bets later he won €500.
After the casino, some feeling broke, we headed back to the restaurant which had a bar below it. It pretty much sucked, other than the free round of shots that we got given because we dined upstairs!
After a long sleep-in on Sat, we dragged ourselves into town by train. It was raining, and we'd missed breakfast so we headed straight for tapas at Mercado del Este, a indoor "market" with shops and a nice cafe. Since Spain pretty much shuts down between 2-6pm, all there is to do is eat and drink.
We took a long walk to the peninsula where we went for a "train" ride around the area and saw the Palace de Magdelena. It poured with rain while we were on the ride, which was lucky for us since it was covered.
Looking out to the peninsular (through the trees) and island off the peninsular:
The city waterfront:
Boys diving:
 |  |
We had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant with some of the others.
On Sunday we got up in time for breakfast. We caught the train into city again and had another walk around. We checked out the cathedral but there was a service on. A security guard told us (in Spanish) that we couldn't go in but to come back at a certain time (well, that's what we THINK she said). Sure enough, we came back and she waved us towards the door. It was fascinating, with two levels to it.
We had Tapas for lunch again at the same place as yesterday. It was raining again so we spent a lot of time inside. When we finally went to the sweet shop, it was closed (we were after 2pm) so we made our way back to the shopping centre which was open. After a cuppa it was time to get to airport. We saw a taxi about to drive away so banged on the window and said Aeropuerto. She nodded so we piled in. We think she was due to be on another job, but thought she could squeeze a short one in beforehand, because she drove like a maniac! It was really wet too, so we were all hanging on really tight. Luckily it was a very short ride and we made it alive.
We had no problems at Stansted airport since we only had our carry-on luggage, then got the express train. Getting home fromt the train station took forever though because we had to wait ages for our bus. We will be trying an alternative route next time!
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