Home Sweet Home

Thought I should put a last note here to let everyone know we are home safe and sound and to apologise to Kaye for the lack of Hongkong photos! I'll just have to show you them at my place Kaye! Thanks everyone for reading our blog, we had a blast and it was great to get comments from home so we didn't feel so far away. We are pretty happy to be home, especially to our own beds, and finally getting the body clocks back in order. If we haven't caught up with you yet, we are looking forward to it and we will see you soon...

Love the Royals.

Hongkong Experience - Part 2

Today, although we were still up a bit during the night, we are all feeling a lot better thanks to a better nights’ sleep. We went to the Kowloon side today, being the mainland side of Hongkong to visit the markets. The Ladies’ Market was our main destination, a block from Nathan Road which is Hongkong’s most famous tourist strip. The Ladies’ Market is a bit of a misnomer as the market sells almost everything you can think of but seems to specialise in small electronics, clothing, shoes, jewellery and leather goods. Particularly ‘under the table’ copies of brand name watches and handbags and ‘on the table’ label goods. I was surreptitiously offered Tiffany jewellery, Bulgari and Chanel watches and Gucci and Prada handbags, plus other replica expensive gear which was then brought into the shop from ‘out the back’ and you had to have a quick look while they stood lookout for police I suppose.


The boys thoroughly enjoyed negotiating bargain deals for the things they bought and all in all a lot of fun could be had for a couple of hundred dollars.

Now we have overcome the worst of our jetlag, found our way around and sorted the trains out it is time to go home tomorrow which seems a shame.

Hongkong is a pretty cool place and here is some idea of the prices of things:

Meal out at flash restaurant: NZD$115

Bottle of beer from 7/11: NZD$2.50

Meal out at McDonalds: NZD$16

iPod Touch 8GB – genuine article at proper shop: NZD$260

iPod Nano 8GB - not real article but good working copy at market: NZD$45

Converse sneakers in shop: NZD$44

Converse sneakers at market: NZD$21

So, it is certainly reasonable cost-wise to come and stay and shop here. I am sure we could have found cheaper places to eat, but the trade off would have been as described in Part 1.

Another few comments about Hongkong –

It is immaculate, other than a few strange/bad smells at times the place is absolutely free of rubbish and graffiti which is quite a feat for such a crowded city.

There is obviously a vast amount of wealth here – there is a huge concentration of Porsches, Maseratis, Ferraris and new Mercedes/Audis on the road. And they have a low level of car ownership because of the cost of fuel – about NZD$2.80/l - only 77 cars per 1000 people.

Because land here is at a premium, you can only lease a space in a cemetery. It costs HKG$20,000 for 6 years. (About NZD$4000). After that you are dug up and turfed out – literally. Hence, cremation is a popular option!

I will post up some pics from the airport tomorrow - bye!

Hongkong Experience - Part 1

We were very lucky it seems to leave Europe when we did. And so far, our flight is still on although we are confirming the time now as the flight we are on originates from Heathrow which still may be closed tomorrow.


In the meantime we are experiencing Hongkong through a veil of jet-lag as we have been awake through the middle of the night and therefore have been feeling a bit jaded as we try and keep it together all day in this full-on place. Yesterday morning we ventured downtown and Starbucks and McDonalds have never looked so good (There are 288 McDonalds Restaurants in Hongkong)!

We had a wonderful tour around Hongkong Island yesterday. What a place of contrasts. Hongkong Is. Is very mountainous and we went to the top of the highest mountain for the view over Victoria Harbour which was quite sensational. There are apparently 39 beaches on the island, and one that we saw was a manmade beach complete with sand from Bondi Beach. It was really pretty.

We visited a fishing village with a difference – it was on the water. We had a sampan ride around the village where the fishing families live on houseboats and have their fishing boats tied alongside. Some even had separate rafts that they kept their dogs on. It was fascinating to see. Unfortunately this way of life will soon be over for these people as the waterway the village is on is being reclaimed for development, as has a lot of land in Hongkong, and they will lose their houses and their means of livelihood which has apparently been this way for generations. Our guide told us that they all need to get other jobs anyway as the South China Sea has been fished out. That’s progress for you!

The Chinese are generally very polite but the wall of people everywhere you go is quite something. The population density is so great that it would be equivalent to the entire population of Tauranga, Mount and surrounds all living in Matua (51,000 people per square km). As you can imagine, this is taking it’s toll on our tired selves.

Our guide recommended a Chinese restaurant to us as we have been struggling a little with finding somewhere for a meal while avoiding the slimy noodles in our hotel. We have seen a few small noodle houses which would be a good option but they are invariably full and although we are not averse to queuing for a table (we have been doing plenty of that), because the restaurants are so tiny there is no room inside to queue, and of course with the wall of people outside, waiting outside is not an option either. So we rocked up to this restaurant with high hopes until I picked up the brochure of their speciality dishes: 100 year old egg anyone? Or maybe a whole snakefish lightly tempura’d and tied in a knot on your plate? Or maybe I could tempt you with a whole chicken sitting up like jacky, bright yellow, with it’s head still on, comb intact? We couldn’t get out of their fast enough. Where are the Western style Chinese restaurants when you need them? We headed back to this huge shopping centre that has the 11th, 12th and 13th floor jam packed with restaurants and selected a nice, safe Thai restaurant...



See Part 2...coming soon..X

Hongkong

We landed in Hkg just after 4pm yesterday and made our way to Hotel in Wan Chai which is on Hongkong Island – for those who don’t know – Hongkong is made up of 2 main islands – Hongkong Island and Lantau Island, plus the New Territories on the mainland. Wan Chai is near Causeway Bay which is an upmarket shopping area. Wan Chai itself is a former Red Light District that provided ‘services’ for G.I’s in the Vietnam War but apparently has resurrected itself into a nice little shopping and eating area. In fact, most of Hongkong was fishing villages and hovels until last century which would account for the now futuristic cityscape that has sprung up very quickly. We are hoping to go on a tour of Hongkong Island tomorrow which will give us a bit more info on this fascinating place. We were very tired by the time we got to the hotel yesterday, so had dinner in the hotel restaurant before hitting the hay. The hotel is quite nice, but we are back to 4 of us in 2 beds in a rather small space! It’s always hard work eating foreign food when you are tired – you feel like something comforting and familiar – but the noodle dishes with veges that we thought would be okay for dinner were kind of gross and slimy with vegetables that none of us could name and only Chris and I would eat.


Today we caught the shuttle into Causeway Bay, only a short drive away but the hotel has a free shuttle. The weather is pretty yuk – smoggy, misty and raining so it feels kind of like we are on the set of Tokyo Drift – misty, wet, dark narrow streets filled with tiny shops, neon signs and millions of people and round every corner huge shopping centres. Kind of surreal. A quietish day today, Jordan is pretty tired so we had dinner while we were out – we found a CPK Restaurant – the same one as we went to in L.A – for dinner, so that was easy and headed back to the hotel. The weather isn’t clearing up till Saturday, even then I don’t know if we will see the sun, but there is certainly plenty to do and see so we will keep you posted!

Loving and Leaving London

Well, we are at Heathrow awaiting our departure for Hongkong. We have thoroughly enjoyed London. We saw a matinee performance of Jersey Boys on Sunday afternoon (yes Cherie, we took your advice and got the last minute cheap tickets - thks!) which was fantastic. In fact Chris thought it was right up there with the best things we have done since we have been away and the boys loved it too. Yesterday we ticked off Harrods, Harvey Nicholls and Selfridges as well as all the other exorbitant shops in Knightsbridge and Oxford street. The boys got the electronic boy things they had on their shopping lists and we wore our feet out. Today we had to check out of our apartment at 11.00, but Laura kindly let us leave our baggage at her place and we went right into the City for the day. We went to a 'Britain at War' experience which was kind of strange, walked the London Tower Bridge, strolled alongside the Thames and walked around the Tower of London. There was the 'London Dungeon' experience but the queues were a mile long and the boys are still suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from the House of Horrors at Universal Studios and apparently the Dungeon is the 'scariest experience in the U.K'  - so we gave it a miss!
London has a certain 'familiarity' about it which has made it an easy city to enjoy, we have felt quite at home. Everyone says it is expensive, but we haven't found it eye-wateringly so - our accomodation was fantastic and well priced and it was great to be able to cook in the apartment. Liam said today that at home a meal out is a treat - on holiday a home-cooked meal is a treat! Laura provided us with 'Oyster Cards' which are pre-paid travel cards which you can use on the tube and the bus and have a daily cap. The kids were free on the bus and a day pass on the tube was only 2 pounds each for them so it has been fairly inexpensive to get around. Although we are all a bit over public transport - Chris and I are looking forward to our cars. There are also lots of lovely parks and green spaces to enjoy which was surprising - I thought the city would be a lot more 'closed in' than it is. Paris and Barcelona don't really have the green open spaces that London has - those cities have what they call 'hard recreation areas' which are all concrete which isn't as attractive. All in all it has been a nice stay which we will have the memories of during our 12 hour 50 minute flight tonight! Love to all..

Relaxing and Enjoying London

This morning was just like a normal Saturday morning at home - (except it's Sunday!). We left the boys to relax in the apartment and wandered down to the local Farmers Market, which is just like ours, even the same size and in the grounds of a school, except the food definitely had a more English bent. We had a wander, a sample, bought some food to cook this evening, - English sausages, fresh dug spuds and purple broccoli - and also one each of a lot of lovely looking cakes and Cornish pasties so we can have a sample -  had a coffee at the local bakery and wandered back to the apartment. We have decided to have a bit more of a relaxing day today as yesterday was pretty busy - we went into London City and Madame Tussauds. When we got to M.T's the queue once again was very long - 3 and a half hours wait. We blanched at that of course so a tip from the staff was to go into the City, buy your tickets there (the queue was much shorter if you had pre-purchased your tickets) and come back after 3.30pm when things had quietened down a bit. We took this advice and caught the underground into Trafalgar Square, sussed out our tickets and took a trip to one of the more obscure sites - The Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garrett. What a funny place, obviously the site of an old hospital theatre in the attic of an old building, there were graphic displays of the old ways of treating illness and injury and a talk on how amputations were performed. A bit of an eye watering demo. And the thing with these more weird places is they have no queues so we are making a point of searching them out. Madame Tussauds, of course very touristy, was very well done and the boys really enjoyed it.
There was a big football match on yesterday afternoon, a semi-final between Chelsea and Aston Villa, so the hooligans were out in force in the city and the police had closed a couple of pubs and were on the streets in numbers when we were coming home. In the absence of any rugby the boys have taken to watching the football on T.V. Talk about desperate!
We have sussed out the buses and the underground and more or less got a grip on where things are so we are back into the City this afternoon to catch a matinee show.
The sun is shining and although the days are cool around the edges are warm enough in the middle. We have certainly be lucky with the weather on our trip - it's been fantastic. More soon...

Shopping, A Palace and 5 Star Living in London

Wow, it sounds great! We we arrived in London yesterday to a gorgeous apartment that is attached to a lovely home in Kensal Green - a very nice area, close to Notting Hill, Kensington and Portobello Road Markets. The weather is lovely and very spring-y. The apartment is to-die-for gorgeous, I have been a little remiss and didn't bring a UK adapter (will try and get one tomorrow) so can't charge my lappy,so none of our pics today sorry, but have a look at the apartment here -  and it is even better than the pictures! The Indian Restaurant we went to for dinner last night was fantastic and today we have had a very interesting a varied day. Laura who owns the apartment has an exhaustive library of everything to see and do in London and I scrambled my brain last night trying to work out an itinerary for the 5 days we have here - there is so much to do! Given we are close to Kensington and a palace of some description is a must - we visited Kensington Palace where Lady Di (and others of course) lived. The palace is under refurbishment until 2012, but in the meantime as they restore and refurbish, a fantastic art installation called the Enchanted Palace is being displayed in some of the Great Rooms which still bear the beautiful artworks, ceiling paintings and some furnishings as well as the exhibition of modern art, fashion and performances. It is difficult to describe but it was a fantastic experience that kept us wandering and interested for a couple of hours and this link may give you a bit more of an idea. And no queues!
Shopping in Kensington High Street and Portobello Road afterward made for a long and interesting afternoon. Portobello Road with it's bohemain atmosphere and antique stalls was particularly interesting and quite a contrast to Kensington High Street. In Kensington all the women were beautifully put together and gorgeous, a few blocks over in Portobello Road they all looked like they were in their pajamas. We struggled back to the apartment laden with shopping - a trip which was made even longer when we caught the right bus - but it was going in the wrong direction.
The apartment is very close to a pub - of course, so Chris and I snuck down for a pint before dinner which we cooked at home tonight. Home cooking is something we have missed when we haven't been in an apartment and I think I have been in danger of scurvy from not eating enough veges. (Well, maybe not quite!).
We are enjoying everyone being able to speak English, London obviously is a very multi-cultural city, but the onus at last is on others to speak English rather than us trying to decipher the local language which is a welcome relief. 

Another Day in the City of Love

It was a warmer day to day, and in the interests of staying away from the queues that are hours long we searched out another of Paris’ more obscure sights – the Incorruptible Nun. In a beautiful little convent and church is the body of Saint Catherine Laboure who died in 1876 and in 1933 her body was discovered still intact like the day she died and today it is still the same. We have a postcard with her picture on it, but Mass was underway when we went in so we couldn’t get close, although they also have the body of the nun who founded the convent on display as well. She is displayed in the gold case on the left of the photo. Saint Catherine is displayed beneath the statue of Mary on the right. It was an extraordinarily beautiful little church and a serene setting in the middle of a busy and very upmarket area. We went across the road afterward to Bon Marche which is Paris’ oldest department store and very beautiful with all the expensive designer brands.


A trip to Les Halles Forum which is an underground shopping centre followed – amazing! Apparently this is also hated by Parisens – they don’t do the ‘mall thing’ – I imagine it’s probably too tacky – but the shopping was great!

We have used the underground to get around Paris and thought it prudent to get a Metro sorted before we get to our next destination which is a much bigger city.

I am sad to leave Paris, it’s very, very lovely and so are the French – all those who told us we would love it were right! Anyway, it’s off out for our last evening in Paris, the evenings have been lovely – light and with a spring feeling in the air – and then packing up for London tomorrow. On the upside it will be for the first time in a month that we will be in an English-speaking country. The language thing has been okay really but all our communication has been at a very basic level and Chris is busting to get a newspaper to read in English!

Goodbye Paris!

The Paris Sights

Today we visited the Montparnasse area on the left bank of the Seine. The bicycle tour people recommended we visit the Montparnasse tower for an amazing view over Paris. Most people will go to the Eiffel Tower for their view over Paris, but the queues are soul-destroying. The Montparnasse Tower is a big black skyscraper (in fact the Parisiens apparently hate it – as many hate the Eiffel Tower - and say it looks like the box the Eiffel Tower came in.) and you can make your way to the helipad on top for the most amazing views of the city including a wonderful view to the Eiffel Tower, the Sacre Coeur, The Louvre , Arc de Triomphe and all the famous monuments. We then had lunch in a very authentic French Bistro - T G for the French phrase book and the helpful waiter to decipher the menu!  We then visited Les Catacombs which is an old mine – 20m underground that has passages that run for 2km. In it are the skeletons of hundreds of thousands of Parisen commoners that couldn’t afford proper burials that were previously buried in mass graves. Due to the unsanitary conditions of these mass graves they were exhumed and from the 17th century were placed in the old quarry in decorative fashion so what you are literally seeing are masses of skulls placed between mountains of tibia bones – quite bizarre! A bit of shopping followed and we are now resting tired feet!

The food shops – chocolate, pastries, fruit, charcuteries etc are gorgeous – once again it would be wonderful to shop their every day. I have nosed in a few antique shops but really need a week here by myself to do that justice.  To give you an idea a meal out is costing us about E60 on average ($115 NZD) and buying water and soft drinks at a restaurant is more expensive than buying wine. A bottle of coke or water at a restaurant is about E4 and a carafe of wine is about E8 (about 6 small glasses.) so maybe it is time we introduced the boys to red wine!

Last night we went to Little Tokyo, which is just down the road, for dinner to a restaurant called Higuma and had lovely Japanese noodle soups and dumplings – the meals were about E10 a head which is pretty good, although once again add E18 for a drink each.

Cost aside, we are charmed by Paris, it is a beautiful city.

The boys are bursting from the lack of open spaces and grass to run around on. Amazing we have seen so little of it and what grass is in Paris is not allowed to be walked on. So Liam and Jordan have been improvising and found an old soccer ball and have been playing soccer at any opportunity in the square opposite the hotel. Thankfully people smile indulgently rather than tell them off if they cop a near miss!

Postscript: Dinner tonight E26 - a bargain at last! Kebabs and a drink chosen by the boys!

Paris by Bike

We arrived in Paris yesterday after a 1.5 hour flight from Barcelona. We checked into Hotel Favart - which is a small hotel in the Opera district which I think is in the 2nd Arondissment of Paris. Paris is divided into 20 districts or arondissements that circle outward from the 1st in a snail pattern, so being in the 2nd district means we are pretty much in the cente of Paris. The first thing we have noticed is the cold - much colder than anywhere else we have been - a high of about 8 deg C today - Brr! Although we got a bit of rain yesterday, today at least has been sunny which was wonderful for our bike tour of the city. This pic is of us on the Seine river bank with the Notre Dame cathedral in the background on the left. The bike tour today was fantastic - we wandered around yesterday a bit lost, but today our tour, which lasted about 6 hours, has given us a good orientation of the city and it is fantastic to get an overview of all the famous sites and now we can get a plan together for the next couple of days of what we want to go back to. Not only did we see some of the famous sites today including the Louvre, the house where Jim Morrison died and many palaces, cathedrals, museums and churches (as you do!), but we also discovered some other gems such as the restaurant and rat shop that featured in the kids' movie  Ratatouille (we won't be going to the restaurant - dinner is about 2000 E a couple because they arrange for the lights on the Notre Dame to be turned on for their guests.), a gorgeous patisserie for lunch, lots of antique shops and shopping areas and the work of a guerilla street artist who has placed all these mosaic 'space invaders' at various points all over the city. He then takes photos of himself with the art and blanks out his face. He has a website and books and no-one knows who he is. He has done the same thing in other cities all over the world including New York, London and Barcelona. Jordan and Liam both won 5 E each off Chris by spotting them around the place - they are all different though. You can tell I was quite taken by this!  Check out his website here. Here is an example of the art:

Our guide, Pamela was a charming Chilean girl who is in Paris studying French.She had lots of wonderful stories and was very knowledgable about the city. Today being a public holiday there were plenty of tourists out strolling but not much traffic which was great. At the end of the tour they gave us a list of recommended restaurants and things to see that are hopefully not the typical tourist traps. It was great day and we are now resting up with the next difficult decision being where to go for dinner. The hotel is fine, but obviously the difference is that we are either in our rooms or out, rather than the living space we had in the apartment. At least we have 2 rooms here, wich have an adjoining bathroom, and for 148 E a night including breakfast is a pretty good deal in what is a very expensive city. Paris is a lovely city and we can't wait to explore for tne next couple of days.

Feels Like a Holiday!

Our last 2 days in Barcelona have been pretty relaxing. More time on the bus, bit of shopping, eating and drinking as well as the Royal 500 Championship. We have been back to our expensive tapas restaurant for dinner because it is so exceptionally good and have seen some of the famous sights. The Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's famous cathedral which has been under construction for over 100 years is quite fantastic. It is walking distance from our apartment, but unfortunately the queue to go in was hours long and stretched around 2 sides of the block so going in wasn't an option. We visited the Parc De Guell which was a public park designed by Gaudi originally as a housing development, which failed. One of the 2 showhomes built was lived in by Gaudi and now houses a museum dedicated to his work. It was really interesting and it made me wish I had the time/inclination to queue for hours for the 2 other Gaudi designed residences that are on display in one of Barcelona's main streets. Unfortunately, these also are queues 2 blocks long and are that long all day and all night - I haven't the stomach for it!
The crowds have been quite incredible, probably because it is Easter and it has been a bit of a struggle to walk along the main streets - which is amazing because 2 blocks over the place is like a ghost town! Once again we have been very thankful that we are staying away from La Rambla - the main tourist street. We walked La Rambla yesterday which was a great experience for the boys - street performers everywhere. And today we went back to La Boqueria the famous market which was lovely, but once again, so packed with people you couldn't move. That didn't stop the boys from spending 20 E at some amazing sweet stalls, but after finding our way home after that we have spent the late afternoon relaxing and enjoying some peace. We leave tomorrow early to catch the plane for Paris. The video below shows the boys with a street performer, it's not too long so shouldn't take long to download.. Hope you are all enjoying a lovely Easter.

Getting to Know Barcelona

We wandered around last night and had a lovely meal at a tapas bar, but having walked to the main tourist area it was reasonably expensive. This morning we got on the Hop On Hop Off bus (thanks for the tips, Di) and did one of the 3 routes the bus takes which was about a 2 hour trip around the sites and is a great way to orient yourself to the city. The main tourist areas - particularly Las Ramblas which is a pedestrian street whcih takes you down to the waterfront - are absolutely thronging with people. It may always be like that, but there are school holidays on and with Easter this weekend it is likely to be very busy. We have now realised that where we are staying is off the beaten tourist track a little and is therefore very quiet but only a short walk to the main areas.
Barcelona is really interesting with heaps of lovely shops (many of them very expensive - at least it's free to look!) and gorgeous neighbourhoods with lovely buildings. This below is typical of the neighbourhoods we have seen.

And of course there is plenty of evidence of the Gaudi architecture. Tomorrow we will do the other bus route which will take us to the Sagrada Familia.
Being Good Friday tomorrow the shops are shut so we went to the market and stocked up. The local market has a beautiful flower shop in the front, the markets in the middle with the butcheries, fish shops and charcuteries and fruit and vege shops and then a supermarket behind that, so there is everything we need while we are here. See our stock up below -  we are enjoying trying different things so are cooking in our apartment tonight, and of course given that it is Spring here (although it's pretty cold), strawberries and asparagus are on the menu.
Happy Easter everyone.

Goodbye Portugal - Hello Barcelona

Our last day in Portugal was a whirlwind of sights as the Sandlants did an awesome job of showing us around. We went into Lisbon today which is home to 4 million of Portugal's 10 million inhabitants. First stop was Christo Rei - a massive monument and statue of Jesus from the top of which you get a great view over all of Lisbon. From there we went over to the Lisbon side of the river and saw a movie on Lisbon's origins and

the most beautiful church, which was part of a monastery and dated from the 1500's. Unbelieveably that is the first church we have been to see in Europe so far.
 Inevitably, food was also top of the list and the Sandlants took us to a wonderful baguette shop, which despite the line that ran out of the shop and down the street,  didn't take us long to get hold of these wonderful hot chicken and salad baguettes with the ubiquitous (in Portugal anyway), hot chips and garlic aioli. The kids had a great time running around in the open spaces and the weather was lovely, albeit freezing if you were in the wind. Portugal is on the Atlantic coast of course, rather than the Med. The water temps therefore are 15 deg C is winter but only climb to 16 deg C in summer, so it's pretty chilly water even for the hardy kiwis. The Sandlant Surfers are in steamers all year round.

The kids really enjoyed each others company and roamed the neighbourhood and played as much rugby as they could - Luke enjoyed the company of some boys to play rugby with. Thanks heaps Craig and Leann for your awesome hospitality and we look forward to seeing you at home June 1 - have a great time with Phil and Mike and a fun holiday before you come home to brave the winter! O, and do you think you could bring home a case of that red wine!

An early start this morning and we were in Barcelona at 10am. Liam is pretty exhausted so once we found our way to our apartment the kids watched a movie and Chris and I went out for supplies.  Just  2 blocks from the apartment is a lovely market and supermarket - despite my phrase book we end up with 600 grams of ham instead of 6 slices and our beautiful block of gouda style cheese - 'Is it okay for slicing?' - de-rinded and sliced for us! I have given myself (and the boys agree), 10 out of 10 for the apartment we have. It is in the Eixample District of Barcelona and very close to everything we need to see and is on the top floor of a beautiful old building. The apartment is tiny by our standards but has 2 bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom and a sitting.dining room off the lounge. It is decorated beautifully in a sort of mix of modern/shabby chic. We look out onto the rooftop terraces of other apartments and have a rooftop garden we can use ourselves. That's all we have really seen so far as everyone is now asleep despite it being 3pm - siesta time! Love to all.

O, and PS: I have added a little more on 'commenting'to the top left box on the blog.  Commenting has been a bit problematic for some, hopefully this will clear things up cos we love to hear from you. X

Portugal Photos

I couldn't get these photos up yesterday so here they are today:

Wined and Dined in Portugal

We arrived in Portugal about 9pm at night and Billy, true to form, greeted us to take us back to their place with a chilly bin filled with beer, wine and water. It was great to see them and it was after 2am before we all got to bed. The next day, after coffee and ham and cheese rolls and the cafe literally next door to their apartment building, we visited a beautiful old monastery in the Sintra hills which is a World Heritage site and forms the hinterland behind Cascais where they live. Cascais is a beautiful seaside town and we have been amazed at how clean and lovely it is. Cascais is almost part of Lisbon – sort of like the Mount’s relationship to Tauranga – but with a population of around 100k is a city in it’s own right. So after we had visited the hills we came down after seeing the beach where they have been honing their surfing skills into Cascais and walked the waterfront boardwalk in order to work up an appetite for the lovely chargrilled chicken with piri piri (a local chilli/pimento sauce) washed down with a jug of sangria for lunch. Half a small, chargrilled chicken each with chips and salad is about 7 E. What we have seen in Portugal is so much cheaper than we have seen anywhere else in Europe. We went to the local supermarket to have a look around; great wine about 2 E a bottle, 10.40 E for 30 small bottles of beer or .75 E cents for ½ doz eggs or a fresh chicken 1.99E. That said though, fuel is expensive at about 1.12 E per litre. We had dinner last night at a small, local restaurant. I tried bachalau which is a traditional fish made from salted, dried cod which is everywhere. You can cook it a number of different ways apparently, but it was served last night with heaps of garlic and butter sort of grilled. Quite a firm, obviously salty white flesh which was quite nice but very rich with all the butter!


Today we have been back to Sintra hills, but the other end, to a gorgeous palace that use to be inhabited by the Portuguese royalty. It is now a museum and very beautiful with lovely grounds and a small town at the bottom with gorgeous cobbled streets and lovely buildings.

The kids have been having a ball and the Sandlant children have been enjoying other kids to speak English to – all 3 of them are fluent in Portuguese.

We have been enjoying wonderful hospitality and it has been very relaxing not having to worry about public transport or to try and speak the quite unusual language.

Photos: At Last!

We are at the Sandlants enjoying their lovely town and having a great time. More on that tomorrow. In the meantime, here are some photos:

Naples and on our Way to Portugal

Naples was another big city – pretty dirty and yuk really. However we went on the ships’ tour to Pompeii which was really interesting. Amazing how sophisticated the city was almost 3000 years ago. Of note was the ‘menu’ of products available both in the food market and the red light district (!) which they had in pictures to cater for the different languages of the people who lived in the city. The ‘menus’ were painted on the walls and as you can imagine in the red light district of Pompeii were suitably graphic!


So we finished up the cruise this morning having had a few drinks with the people we had met last night. The kids stayed out with their friends till late too, it was great for them to have free reign of the ship. So, we arrived back in Genoa this morning and having caught the train to Milan and the bus to the airport we are now awaiting our flight to Portugal to catch up with the Sandlants. We are looking forward to seeing some familiar faces and relaxing in the company of friends.

Our Final Cruise Impressions: (In un-PC format)

Jordan: Too many old Germans. The waterslide was cool. The food is like it has come out of a can and I am really tired. Not much to do for kids. The ship was huge. Favourite Port: Rhodes.

Liam: A lot of old people but it was cool. The shows were good. Favourite Port: Rhodes and Malta.

Chris: A good way to cover a lot of ground and see many countries in 12 days. I thought the ship was great. Favourite Ports: Rhodes/Malta – Malta very spectacular. Great to see these cities from the water. I was ready to get off the boat today.

Lynda: The ship was beautiful, lovely to have such nice surroundings. Feel a little bit ‘peopled-out’ as the ships’ passengers created a huge crowd everywhere we went, particularly bad in places that were crowded anyway. Got my angry pants on a few time with people who were smoking in non-smoking areas and people who were pushing in in queues. All in all, it was a good way to travel, however it’s pretty busy being somewhere different every day and I am looking forward to the next 3 weeks being at a bit slower pace. Favourite Port: Malta – what a beautiful place.

There is no free wifi in this airport so hopefully I can put some photos up while we are at the Sandy’s. X

Malta and Messina, Sicily – Not Enough Time!

We arrived in Malta late yesterday and got on a open top bus tour at 4.30pm, which was a lot cheaper than the ships’ tour, being 30 E for the four of us rather than 40 E each. We only had a couple of hours of daylight though which was a shame because it was absolutely beautiful. Malta is a group of islands, with 3 main islands with a total surface area of about 320 sq km, 90 km south of Sicily. It gained independence from France and England in 1964 and was the most bombed piece of land on the planet in WW2. Limestone buildings and ancient fortifications run down to the sea in the beautiful port of La Valetta, and inland the gardens and vineyards were lovely. We went to the old capital city of Mdina and had a look around. The cities are immaculate with very little rubbish and no graffiti and beautiful buildings in yellow limestone with green shutters and wrought iron balustrades. It was definitely on the ‘must go back’ list, and it was a shame to have so little time there, but we were held up by the previous days’ turnaround and the cruise people did the best they could in the circumstances. Will post photos soon of this lovely place.


Today we are back in Italy, in Messina, the main port of Sicily. We took at taxi to Taormina, which is Sicily’s main resort town and very lovely with labyrinthine streets, gorgeous buildings and probably the nicest shopping we have seen in Europe so far – that is – real shops rather than the tacky tourist fare. It was about 40 minutes drive, and it’s a pretty quiet drive for us in the car most of the way as the exceptionally high speeds the taxi drivers drive render us all mute! We were dropped back in Messina city afterward and found a lovely pizzeria for lunch – thin and crispy pizzas with mozzarella, ham, anchovies, olives and capers washed down with a glass of red wine. My stomach is expanding at a rate of knots. I think Chris is still in credit after being sick! Our last full day on the ship tomorrow, we are in Naples for the day. The cruise has been good in lot of ways, particularly the ease of getting from place to place – go to sleep in one country and wake up in another – but I think the length of time has been enough and we will be ready to move on when we get back to Genoa on Saturday.

Crete and Another Man Down

We had a full day at sea between Alexandria and Crete, and during that time Chris also fell ill. So he was flat on his back for 36 hours and has only come right this morning as we head towards Malta. We only had a short port time in Crete – 4.5 hours – so it seemed like a waste of time to be on a bus for that time so the boys and I caught a taxi into the main city of Heraklion. Crete has it’s own separate culture as it is quite distant from other areas of Greece. We wandered around the town, had a greek coffee in Lion Square (well, the boys had a juice) and went shopping at the markets. We are a little over the food on the boat, particularly because of the illnesses, so I went to a bakery and bought fresh buns, spinach pies and donuts to smuggle back on the boat for lunch. We left port at 2pm only to get 5 hours out to sea and the boat turned around again. Someone on the boat was very ill and they turned around and steamed back and transferred this person to another boat from one of the islands that met us. Apparently they only turn the boat around in cases of medical emergency. We think someone missed the boat when we were in Athens, but it’s too bad if that happens. They do have a hospital on the boat so could deal with broken bones etc., so it must have been quite serious.


So we are a bit delayed for our arrival in Malta, but they have had the boat at full speed - which is around 22.5 knots rather than cruising speed which is around 13 or 14 knots – to try and make up for lost time. We are due in Malta at 3.30pm.

We have spent a bit of time on the ship the last couple of days and the boys have been spending hours on the waterslide and in the spa pools with some American children they have met. I have looked around the shops – everything from clothes, jewellery, watches, perfume, cosmetics, booze – all not really to my taste. They do a roaring trade in duty free cigarettes because as you can imagine, with the ships’ population being mostly European, everyone smokes like a train. And I have been doing the aerobics class. We have met a few people, Canadians, Americans and Aussies. A nice couple who are American (although he was originally a kiwi) and stationed in Germany in the military were great company for me on the Egypt trip and we have caught up with them for a drink since.

Everyone seems to be at full health today – fingers crossed! X

Contrasts and Chellenges - Rhodes and Cairo

We spent Saturday in Rhodes – this is a large Greek island, but as we were only in port for 6 hours we decided to walk the town. It is very gorgeous – the oldest inhabited medieval town in the world and a world heritage site. There is the old town and new town and we just wandered around the cobbled streets of the old walled town and saw where the Knights used to live and the Palace of the Grand Master who was in charge of the knights. It is boy heaven and the boys had a blast – all the beautiful little medieval buildings are filled with tacky souvenir shops with swords, knives, armour and headdresses as well as figurines of all the Greek guys – Spartan warriors etc. – I don’t really know the names! Needless to say, the boys spent up. Rhodes is a pommy package tour destination and it was heaving with people, it would be chaotic in summer, but we could still appreciate the beauty of it.


Alexandria, Egypt was the port of call for the next day, but that evening about midnight Liam came down with what we are sure was a bout of food poisoning (I since know of at least 6 cases of it on the boat from the people we have talked to). We all only got about 3 hours sleep and when the sun came up there was no way Liam was going to be able to cope with the 13 hour tour to Cairo to see the pyramids. So, Chris stayed on the boat with Liam and Jordan and I jumped on the bus – there were 50 buses off the ship today – 2500 thousand people.

We travelled 3 hours to Giza, had a look at the pyramids, looked at more pyramids, went on a jeep ride through some desert area and rode camels back to a country club for lunch, then more pyramids, shops and back to the boat. That’s it in a nutshell, but Egypt is a total culture shock – it is filthy and derelict and I know this is only my impression from a day, but it seems to have little to redeem it. The trip to the pyramids was quite scary – touts were manhandling people, putting headdresses on you and expecting you to pay, one guy was lifted bodily onto a camel and only when he threatened to jump off did they let him down – they were wanting him to pay for a ride, even the guards were offering to take a photo and then wanting you to pay them. We said no to them, but when they are carrying AK47’s that possibly wasn’t a good idea in hindsight! I am also amazed that you are able to touch the pyramids - normally anything like this you would think would be fenced off as it is so precious.
The jeep and camel ride was fun, and it was nice to try some local food, rice with cinnamon spices and nuts, chargrilled chicken, stuffed baked peppers and other stuffed veges, flatbread and dips. I was glad they fed us Egyptian food rather than dish up chips and burgers to the tourists. The trip to a Papyrus factory and a souvenir shop was certainly a case of milk the tourist so Jordan and I refused to buy anything on principle. It was a long day and we got back to the boat at 9pm. Liam was a bit brighter and they had had a very quiet day. Thankfully because Liam was ill they will refund his and Chris’ tickets – they are otherwise non-refundable - the trip was 145 E for adults and 102 for children so for the four of us it would have been a NZ$1000 day. Liam’s ship’s doctor visit and assorted medications cost 105E (about $NZ200).

Anyway, a sea day today and we arrive in Heraklion, Crete tomorrow and hopefully Liam will be back at full speed. Once again, sorry for lack of photos. I will post photos as soon as it is not costing me an arm and a leg !

A Beautiful Day in Athens

We were off the ship early this morning to meet our driver for the day. I had booked a tour from home with Pauls’ Taxis and we were collected by Pauls’ son, Jim who took us all over Athens for the day for 200 Euro. This turned out to be fantastic, because not only did we escape our 3900 friends, Jim was able to negotiate the Athens traffic and get us to all the sights quickly and well before the tour buses. The traffic in Athens in horrendous - as you can imagine in a city of 5 million people and 7 million cars - and as Jim says, the stop signs and traffic lights are just suggestions. That doesn’t seem to stop the multitudes of motorcyclists from running the gauntlet, a lot of them without helmets – we saw a lot of near misses. We also saw the Acropolis, Temple of Zeus, the Greek and Roman Agoras (ancient markets), the modern Olympic stadium, the Acropolis Museum, the top of the highest hill and the changing of the guards at Parliament. Whew, no wonder we were knackered! Liam was quite blown away by the fact that the guards have to stand completely still and barely blink – something he obviously was thinking was impossible. One of the guards had some allergies or something and his nose and eyes were streaming down his face and he couldn’t do anything about it. Poor bugger. Jim also took us to the Plaka for lunch – gyros, baklava and donuts. We looked around the shops and then visited the marina to see some amazing superyachts. All in all it was a great day – the sun was shining and Athens is a pretty cool place. Greece certainly seems like a place it would be worth spending more time. As you can see, I haven’t added any photos for the last couple of days. The internet access on the ship is horrendously expensive and painfully slow, so by the time I upload a photo I have chewed through 10 euro worth of internet access. I’ll add some more photos maybe tomorrow in Rhodes if I can find some free wifi somewhere! X

Katakolon, Greece

Today we were at Katakolon, Greece for the day to visit Olympia. We went on a ship tour (us and our many shipmates) to the ancient site to hear the mythology and see the sites. We then did a little shopping in the village of Olympia. We haven’t done a lot of buying, the odd thing for the kids but other than that the only interesting thing is the lovely greek food and we are not allowed to take anything that is not packaged back on to the ship.
Once again the logistics of moving around this number of people is impressive with 29 buses pulled up and waiting when we docked this morning at 8am. We had a bit of a sea running last night and it’s a weird feeling to be going up and down like a boat in something that feels nothing like a boat – more like a small town. I forgot to mention yesterday the 1500 seat theatre on the boat that had a pretty impressive show on last night. We have been getting a bit hi-de-hi this afternoon – I went to aerobics, Chris went to the gym and the kids have had a great time on the waterslide hanging out with new friends. The weather has certainly warmed up as we have moved south with a high of 20 deg today – okay for a sunbathe if you stay out of the breeze – any yes Kerrie, there is plenty of flesh on display!

The Ship as Big as New Zealand

Well we made it to Genoa and onto the ship without too much more drama. Got our wits sorted re: the train and said goodbye to Mariola and her beautiful hotel breakfast and headed off. Kelvin the Aussie said on the train that the ship would blow us away because it was about the same size as New Zealand. Well, the smart arse wasn't that far off, Here are a few facts:
Length: 333 m Total number of passengers: 3,959 (90% of whom are German!), total number of crew: 1332. 5 swimming pools and 12 spa pools and 27000 m2 of surface area. There are shopping malls, spa centres, fitness centre, heaps of restaurants, tennis court, squash court and on and on. It's nuts. Look at the truck in the photo below to get an indication of the scale:

We are finding it a bit tough being part of a herd of 4000, esp. the Germans who all seem like the cliche you'd expect, but that's part of the experience I suppose. They manage the logistics of this number of people quite well, although it tests our patience. The boys are having a blast though as we knew they would. More soon! X

Cinque Terre and our Last Day in Rapallo

Well the day started at 4am as we are all having a bit of trouble adjusting to the time change still. Hopefully we will sort ourselves out in the next couple of days - it's not good having a 3 hour afternoon sleep and then not being able to sleep at night! Today started as a mixed bag - I got us a 50 euro fine on the train for not validating our tickets in the station - I thought they would have a machine on the train -boo hoo! However, we fared better than Wendy and David from Christchurch who we met in the train station who are going on the same cruise as us - she got her purse stolen in the train station with all her credit cards etc. in. What a nightmare! We were on the train to the Cinque Terre which is 5 beautiful villages all built into the rocky coast. Supposedly they are all still working fishing villages, and they certainly do fish, but tourism would be the predominant income stream as this place is now a World Heritage site and marine reserve. The villages are thousands of years old and all built into the rocky coastline in the most amazingly precarious way. Paths link all villages and you can travel between them by train also. On the trip we also met Aussies Calvin, Colleen and Taylor, who are also on the cruise with us.  They have also just finished a cruise on our boats' sister ship so it was great to talk to someone with some insight as to how the cruise works. Here are some photos of these gorgeous villages. It has really been worth the trip to Rapallo to see these amazing places - Corniglia, 1 of the villages had 382 steps to get to it from the train, so we are not short of exercise, thankfully because we have been drinking our share of beer and red wine and eating pasta, bread and cheese!:

We have really enjoyed Rapallo where we are staying. the hotel has been fantastic and really well located and they recommended a lovely restaurant, Bella Napoli where we have eaten both nights here - lovely antipasti, pasta and red wine (Chris and I have polished off a litre jug each night - I normally never drink red wine!) It has felt like a lovely and authentic Italian experience. Off to Genova tomorrow to board our cruise. We are all hoping to sleep through the night!