All roads lead to…

We headed to Rome for the weekend to meet up with mum and dad. Despite speculation all week that Alitalia would go bust at any minute we took off late on Friday night. It was pretty evident though that they had cut back on cleaning and general upkeep of the plane in order to pay for fuel!!

It was also an experience getting between the airport and the hotel – I’m sorry but as well as our taxis driver drove, I still didn’t feel safe overtaking someone, on the wrong side of the road, while going around the corner and all this while going 160kms an hour!!!

On Saturday we work up to the bluest sky that we have seen since we left Australia! We took the hop on – hop off bus around town which was great. We then joined the massive queue for the Colosseum and went off to the Roman Forum. All so amazing and we had a great time being noisy tourist. In the afternoon we visit St Peters Square and enjoyed the sites.

On Sunday we wandered around town and soaked up the atmosphere at the Trevi Fountain and Pantheon. The weather was just perfect and we both really loved Rome.

Mum and dad are onto Sorrento tomorrow and then off to Sicily and David flew out to Munich this evening for Octoberfest – lucky things!!!

Starting house hunting this weekend as we are moving at the end of next month. This will be our 5th month in 4 months and hopefully our last in a while!

Happy Birthday Michelle – hope you have a fantastic day.

Julia & Jeremy – wishing you a wonderful wedding day on Saturday. I’m sure you will have a beautiful and amazing day.

Published in:  on September 23, 2008 at 8:34 pm Leave a Comment
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Time for a Bath….

Well we had a fantastic weekend in Bath. After a very yummy breakfast on Saturday we headed into town. While Dad and Dave watched the rugby at a pub, Mum and I headed to the Fashion Museum (http://www.fashionmuseum.co.uk/)  and Reception Rooms. Fantastic clothes on display – mum and I tried on a corset and hoop skirts! Very fun but the lack of breathing could  be a problem. The Reception Rooms were also lovely, straight out of a Jane Austin Novel!

We then wandered around the town which is so pretty. The afternoon was spent in the Roman Baths and Bath Abbey – both fantastic places. http://www.romanbaths.co.uk/ Took lots and lots and lots of photos.

Another yummy breakfast on Sunday morning and then we headed back into town. Mum headed to the Jane Austin museum while the rest of us wandered around for a bit.

We stayed in a lovely B&B while we were in Bath and would definately recommend it to anyone planning a visit – http://www.high-beeches.com/

In the afternoon we headed down to Longleat, http://www.longleat.co.uk/. On the way we stopped off at the Westbury Horse – it is one of a number of huge horse carved into a hillside. It was HUGE and on such a steep hill that it was a bit concerning standing above it.

Longleat is the home of Lord Bath who is a eccentric character (to put it mildly). As all Lords should have, he has his own safari park. It was great, you drive around and the animals all wander past you – giraffes, deer, lions, tigers, wolves, sea lions (ok, these don’t walk around the car but you do see them)!! There is also a great monkey enclosure where the monkey jump on your car and basically try to remove anything they can. Our hire car was lucky but a few cars going around lost aerials, trim and windscreen wipers!

We then went through the house which was just beautiful. On our way home we drove past Stonehenge. We didn’t go in as it was pretty late, but conviently the traffic was bad as we drove past so we got a great view anyway.

Mum and Dad headed to Venice yesterday and are enjoying themselves. We are heading to Rome for the weekend to spend some more time with them. Well, that is as long as Air Alitalia do not go bust before we fly out on Friday night so keep your fingers crossed for us!

Published in:  on September 16, 2008 at 8:14 pm Comments (1)
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Where have we been, did you miss us?

Well I have been a bit late in updating our blog. The hard drive died on our new laptop (crazy cat hour and laptops don’t mix) so that has taken a to couple of weeks to be sorted out but it is all fixed now – thanks to an Indian call centre and courier.

The sunshine I mentioned in my last blog only lasted a day! So to cheer ourselves up I went shopping with Erin on Sloane Square and Kings Street in Chealsea. Lots and lots of fantastic shops so it was quite an indulgent day.

Mum and dad arrived on 4th September and have spent the last week traipsing around London Town being tourists. Last Saturday we did the “must see” sights – Westminster, White Hall, Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace and all in flooding rain which was an interesting experience. On Sunday we went to Hampton Court Palace which was just beautiful. Had a lot of fun in the maze and all played the part of noisy tourists very well!

Last night (Friday) David and took the train out to Bath to meet Mum and dad who had driven out in the morning to see some historic houses. We are staying in a lovely Georgian guest house and am currently watching the mist (sounds so much nicer that fog) rise off the fields from our bedroom window, very pretty. This morning dad and David are off  to watch the rugby while mum and I go to the costume museum. Really looking forward to having some time out of busy, busy London.

Our stuff that we shipped over finally arrived! It came on the same day as mum and dad which was lucky as we needed the extra sheets and towels but our flat is bursting at the seams. David is very happy because his XBox and golf clubs have arrived. He and dad played a golf during the week in Richmond – very, very green golf course.

Time to get up now, I can smell breakfast….

Published in:  on September 13, 2008 at 7:10 am Leave a Comment
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