Dublin & Andrew's birthday

We flew to Dublin for a long weekend (10-12 March). Everyone tells of the friendly, welcoming Irish people, so we were expecting a lot. We were off to a good start with Ryanair, the budget Irish airline. We usually get Eastern European crew whose English isn't too good, but this time we had quite a good Irish captain & crew. I clearly remember this quote from the captain (in a strong Irish accent): "Once we take-off we'll take a right, head to Liverpool, then take a left to Dublin" as if he was just driving us up the motorway!


Once in Dublin we caught the bus to our hostel, we ventured out into the city. First things first we had to eat, so following Lonely Planet's recommendation we had brunch at Gruel. Pretty good.

Wandering around we saw the old parliament building (now a bank), and a very decorated pub preparing for St Patrick's Day celebrations the following weekend.





We went to Trinity College and did a walking tour which was guided by one of the history students there. We finished at the Library where we saw the the famous Book of Kells and the Long Room (a long room full of books).






This sculpture is found outside one of the libraries. Interesting.









Walking along the road we saw Christchurch Cathedral and the Medieval museum to the left.






Next we walked to Dublin castle, of which there isn't much left. It didn't seem worth going inside.







There was a nice park next door, and also the Chester Beattie Library (an award winning literary museum???). We didn't have time to visit that. Maybe next time!





We went into St Patrick's Cathedral...





















Off to the Guinness Storehouse where they used to brew Guinness. The new brewery is just next door. Very good displays of the beer making process and a nice glass of "the black stuff" at the 360° bar with great views of Dublin (through the rain).








We took a hop-on, hop-off bus tour around the city, mainly for the transport rather than the tour itself, but it was also good to get the commentary. We went around the loop nearly three times over the 24 hours. The Kilmainham Gaol was fascinating, especially since our knowledgeable guide gave us lots of history about the jail and also Ireland. There have also been a few films made in the gaol - Michael Collins, The Italian Job and In the Name of the Father.









Peering into a cell, prisoner's writing "Beware of the Risen People That Have Harried And Held. Ye That Have Bullied And Bribed", and the jail Chapel where Grace Gifford got married.

Many were sent here due to their part in rebellions against the British. One highly respected prisoner had this cell, complete with fireplace (the picture on the wall describes what it was like for him).




Other scenes from Dublin:

O'Connell St and the "Spike"












Some colourful and elaborate doors.













The Ha' penny bridge (it used to cost a half penny to cross it).

Old Georgian Buildings.



Overall Dublin seemed to lack some of the character that a lot of European cities have. We struggled to find all the friendly Irish people, not helped by the large number of (mostly eastern) European immigrants which made you question whether you were actually in Ireland!

We are now looking forward to our drive around Ireland in May. Hopefully once we leave the city we will find some nice (real) Irish people!!

Happy Chinese New Year!

We headed into Trafalgar Square today to check out the CNY celebrations into the year of the Pig. There was a large stage setup in the square and we got there in time to catch the dragon dance. As to be expected there were lots of people and moving around was a bit of a mission.
From the square we headed to Leicester Square where fireworks were due to be set off. After grabbing a bite to eat we watched the fireworks. They were good, though not quite as spectacular as it would have been as it was in the middle of the day!
Then we decided to walk through Chinatown and here the crowds were massive. There were a few lion dances occurring through the area and as such were causing blockages as people stood to watch. At one point we were caught is a mass of people who were all just shuffling to where they were going. We squeezed our way into a Chinese supermarket to grab a few things, then squeezed out way out of Chinatown, and back to Trafalgar Square to catch our bus home.

Back in London

We're back now!

We had a good time back in NZ with the two weddings and catching up with everyone - it was good to see you all! And the weather was great, well we thought it was after cold London, I didn't wear any longs the entire time I was there.

After stopping for a further three nice warm days in Singapore on the way back, we arrived at Heathrow to cold rainy London weather. The temperature wasn't too bad, it's just a bit miserable.

Getting home was a bit of a mission with two tubes, train and bus and all the stuff we had with us.

Our landlord had the house all heated for us, which was a nice welcome, after struggling through the rain.

Off to NZ

We fly back to NZ tomorrow, will be good to get some warm weather - hopefully!

We have two weddings to go to, and plenty of other things to keep us busy. Not looking forward to the long flights!

New Year's Eve party

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!!

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!

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.

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.

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 .

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!

Catchup with Kumuka people in London

Today we met up with some people from our Kumuka tour. We caught the bus to Trafalgar Square and had a look around there (Nelson's Column, National Gallery). We were supposed to meet them in Charing Cross tube station just underneath the square. Unfortunately there are two parts to the station so we were all in different places! It's also very hard to find out where other people are when you are underground and mobile phones don't work!.
But we found them eventually.












We headed to Leicester Square to grab some lunch at an Italian place and caught up with everyone's news.

After that one of the girls wanted to check out the New Zealand store in Covent Garden (its actually a combined NZ, Aus. South African and Canadian store). There we found all the things we can't get in a normal supermarket, like L&P, Tim Tams, Marmite etc etc. We'll definitely be going back there when we are craving for some NZ things.



From there we headed back to Embankment Pier. We split up at this point as a couple wanted to do the Tower of London and the rest of us decided on a circular cruise on the Thames. It was a beautiful day for a cruise though very cold as we sat on the open top deck to see all the sights.
The cruise went down the river past Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, past the Tower of London, under Tower Bridge and many many more (too many to remember).











After the cruise we walked from Westminster pier to Whitehall and walked past the Banqueting House which one of the girls wanted to go into, so we checked it out. It was built by Inigo Jones in the early 17th-century, after a commission from James I. It has an amazing ceiling, painted by Peter Paul Rubens.
(not allowed to take photos, or steal them, so here's a link)

We wanted to watch the new James Bond movie but couldn't seem to find a theatre which was showing it! So in the end, we got some dinner at an Indonesian place and headed home.

We have internet at home!!!

WE GOT INTERNET INSTALLED TODAY. YAY!!!

It's been so long and is really frustrating not being able to look things up, send emails and update the blog!!

Allyson & Paul's whirlwind visit

Allyson and Paul were at our place when we got back from Berlin. Since we had work we hardly saw them and they only stayed two nights before they had to go again. Won't be long before we are back in NZ and will see everyone again.

Back to Berlin

The alarm went at 1:45am, after not much sleep. We were out the door by 2:25 for a 2:41 train to Victoria. From there we walked to the coach station and had a 1hr15 coach trip to Stansted airport. The joys of cheap airfares at silly times of the day! The airport was busy and security checks very tight. Our backpack was searched and tested for explosives (there were a few gadgets in there :-). We just made it to the plane on time, although got delayed by other passengers.

Once in Berlin (Shonefeld) we caught the S-bahn (suburban rail) but had to change to catch a bus for one stop because a section of track was down for planned maintenance. In total it took 9 hours in total to get to hostel in Berlin!

Dan and Beck's gave up waiting for us at the hostel (understandably!) so we wandered down the road looking for lunch. We found a shopping centre with a cafeteria but they didn't speak english so there was a lot of pointing and nodding!

Back at the hostel we met Dan & Becks & Dan's school friend Sascha. Sascha was new to Berlin (from Barvaria) so we were all keen to have a look around. It was good having German translator too!

We went to the flash new Hauptbahnhof (main train station) and tried to get cheap train tickets to Wolfsburg to visit Autostadt (VW museum and factory). We were too late for cheap tickets so decided not to go.




From there we walked to the Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Holocaust Memorial, a long walk down to the Siegesaule and back, then back to the Reichstag where we caught the elevator and spiral walkway up to the very top. It was dark (and cold) by this stage but had a great view over Berlin beautifully lit.
















We went back to Sascha's flat for dinner which was a couple of HUGE (50cm) pizzas, gluhwein, chocolate, Lebkucken (like gingerbread) and other junk food! We played cards and learnt our German numbers as we tried scoring ourselves (good excuse when we got the numbers wrong).

We caught bus and U-bahn (underground train) back to hostel. The buses are very punctual and have a display so that you know what the next stop is, so you know when to get off!

We had a late start on Sunday, after quite a late night. We met Dan, Becks & Sascha at Holocaust memorial to go through museum underneath the ground. It was a good museum though fairly intense with lots of information (as is common to museums like these). It was still raining once we got out, and decided that it was time to have some lunch. So we had some German food in a nearby cafe - Andrew tried Weisswurst, a white veal and pork sausage that is boiled which you have to peel the skin (made of pork guts) off to eat. (which Grace thought was a bit strange).

Following lunch we headed to Warschauer Str to see the East Side Gallery and walked the entire length to Ostbahnhof which isn't too long but when you're in the rain, it can feel like forever! So needless to say we were rather wet at the end of it.





So it was the perfect time to then get along to Fassbender & Rausch (the chocolate shop with large chocolate sculptures of famous Berlin landmarks) for some hot chocolate! And cake. They had some interesting flavoured hot chocolates, Grace tried a hot chocolate with chilli in it, she didn't like it very much.









After purchasing some chocolates for later consumption we headed back to Sascha's for dinner again, and cards. Then it was time to say goodbye to Dan & Becks as they were going to Autostadt the next day.

On Monday, we checked out Potsdamer Platz, and did some shopping! Soon it was time to head back to London, and the 9 hours it took us to get home. We caught the Stansted Express back to Liverpool St and then bus home.