Doug & Jodie

Toulouse

We flew out of London on Friday night, to have an early start in Toulouse. We started Saturday with breakfast in the main square, before walking around the city. We visited an old monastery which has been converted into a museum, it housed some magnificent works of art in the form of sculptures, paintings and statues. We picked up the car in the afternoon, and visited Albi on the way to Francis & Adam’s. Albi has a massive cathedral that is made entirely of red bricks. It is the largest brick cathedral in the world.

Rivecave

Francis and Adam have found an amazing piece of heaven. They own a small hamlet in La Truel which is in the middle of French farming countryside. We spent 4 nights with them, the first 2 of which they cooked up a storm. Starters, mains, cheeses and desserts meant we were completely full at every meal. We sat outside to enjoy the late evening sun. During the day, they helped us with some routes to follow, to see some of the country side, most of it was following the Tarn river and some of the gorgeous villages along it. We visited (and drove over) the highest suspension bridge in the world near Millau (pronounced mee-yo).

Montpelier

Our hotel was located in the old town, which has mostly been pedestrian-ised. We walked around to discover the Arc de Triomphe and old square. The buildings in this part of the town are mostly unchanged since they were build hundreds of years ago. The streets were filled with antiques stores, restaurants and hairdressers.

Carcassonne

We were staying just out of Carcassonne in Aragon. Our hotel had a pool and a really comfortable room, so we took the afternoon off from sightseeing and wine tasting, to lounge around the pool. That evening we visited Domaine de Cabrol, a small winery (couldn’t resist) before heading into Carcassonne to see the old castle and have dinner. The castle was a bit of a let down, as it had been turned into a commercial spectacle, and had lost a lot of charm. There was a Best Western hotel inside the castle, and plastic swords for sale on every corner. Irish and English pubs added to the let down. We walked into the centre of town to find a restaurant was created from an old stable and yard. We sat in the yard, which had pretty tables, filled with flowers and trees. We had our first genuine cassoulet here !

Saint-Émilion

A wine lovers paradise ! The old town consists of restaurants, wine outlets, a church and a few houses… but mostly wine outlets. We walked around the town, negotiating some of the cobbled streets before heading to the “B&B”. This is no ordinary bed and breakfast, but Chateau de Pitray. This wine making family has been here for 6 hundred years. The family were very accommodating and friendly, arranging dinner for us on both evenings in some of their favourite restaurants, which did not disappoint (Frog legs included). We went for walks around the grounds, when not travelling around the countryside, and on one of them stumbled upon a boar hunt, dogs, horses, men in red coats, bugles… the works !

We had a fantastic time in France. Most days were filled with warm sunshine, cheese, baguettes and wine. what more could you want ? The countryside is beautiful, the people are friendly and we really didn’t want to go home. We took our time and tried to avoid the tourist hot spots. This was definitely our best trip to date !

Well I must admit I did get a little nervous about the big 3-0! However, in the end it wasn’t so bad; in fact I had a great birthday week – thanks largely to my family and my Doug

I woke in the morning to the smell of pancakes cooking, these were then served to me in bed along with my gift from Doug – a gorgeous Longines watch with little diamonds to mark the numbers, it’s stunning. Then I headed off to work and spent most of the morning taking phone calls from Australia and receiving packages from my family, flowers and champagne from Greets and eating birthday cake with my colleagues. I took a half day off and headed to the world renowned Sanctuary day spa.

This place was pure indulgence!! I snuggled up in little alcoves with cushions and blankets whilst wrapped in my robe, reading and being served food and drinks, I enjoyed some time in one of the lounges, fell asleep by the carp pool (above) – yes a huge pool of massive carp! I also fell asleep in a sleep lounge where you wear a headset with this voice that literally sends you to sleep and with a word wakes you up after 40 mins!! I soaked up the heat in the steam room and the spa and ended the day with a massage!
So, completely relaxed I headed off to meet up with Doug, Gareth, Kris and Liz for dinner in Brick Lane (yum curry).

On Thursday night the celebration continued when Amanda, Ben, Yumi, Eric, Laura , Julien and Doug and I went to the Anchor and Hope on the Cut at Waterloo. This was a fantastic gastro-pub, with great food. Laura and I enjoyed yummy pigeon (I checked, it wasn’t from Trafalgar Sq, apparently it was posh pigeon from Yorkshire), Doug and the boys had the lamb shoulder (for 5ish) – they made an impressive dent in it. The girls gave me a lovely gift of loads of Molton Brown products – yum!.

Thursday night Doug finally let me know where we were going for my surprise weekend getaway; we were off to Paris again to stay in the same palace we stayed for our engagement (St. James).
Plus we were booked into Moulin Rouge for Saturday night. So, Doug and I headed off to City Airport Friday night, with an initial glitch in the flight booking that we will never forget – a couple of tears and a bit of anxiety later we were a little poorer but actually booked on a flight to Paris for that day

We took a cab from Orly airport to St. James and it felt like coming home, it is the most gorgeous building in the 17th Arrondissement, near Ave Foch and Port Dauphine station – the posh part of Paris apparently. We weren’t given the room overlooking the fountain with little balconies but a great two story room with a lounge. We ordered some French cheese and enjoyed the complimentary red wine!

The next morning after a sleep in we strolled off towards Viktor Hugo (near Eiffel Tower) and enjoyed some coffee, hot chocolate and pastries for breakfast in a local patisserie. Then we walked to the opera house and did some shopping in Galleria Lafayette, ending up in St. Germain (near Notre Dame) and took some photos of the restaurant we got engaged in – it was then we realised it was a Guy Savoy restaurant (Frances most famous chef)! Later we enjoyed some savoury crepes in a great little creperie with a disco bathroom – had to be seen to be believed so I made Doug go wash his hands just to check it out, not recommended for epileptics).

We went home to watch Leyton play in the Australian open and had a nap (heaven), then organised for the concierge to book us into a ‘locals only’ restaurant in Montmartre for dinner. It was definitely only locals and we were looked at from down their noses but we applied our best French and I think they warmed to us – but we did have to take a punt on the meals, crème brulee for dessert was a safe bet. Afterwards we went to our 11pm Moulin rouge sitting, we found it a little disappointing – I would have liked to have seen it in it’s hey day 20 or 30 years ago before it became so commercial but still it was spectacular.

The next day we found another patisserie for our croissants and juice, lazed around in our room until 2pm then headed off to Charles de Gaulle airport. The most romantic and thoughtful birthday ever! Thank you to my beautiful boy who always goes out of his way to make me happy and I know he was thinking how much I would be missing my family at this time, he went to great lengths to make up for it –not that he needed to he just wanted to – I’m a pretty lucky girl Any trip with Doug is wonderful but it was pretty special to be in Paris and just do as Parisians do.

22nd of December

After a smooth flight from Stansted airport, Kris Gareth, Jodie and I landed in Salzburg. We almost lost Jodie’s skis’ but we did lose the car, before we had even taken possession of it! The car company couldn’t remember where they had left the car. We got my new Garmin 250W Sat. Nav. up and running (although it had some strange directions, due to me leaving it on pedestrian mode) which took us through the Kriskindle markets, on our way to the hotel.

The Dokorwirt Hotel was lovely, just outside the town itself. We spent the evening back in town, wandering around the markets (in the freezing cold), before taking in a traditional dinner of goulash, pork and strudel for dessert.

23rd of December

Kris booked us onto the 9:30am “Sound of Music” tour, which included a hotel pickup (not a return trip, as we found out at the end of the tour). The tour started with a visit to the site where the Von Trapp family fell into the lake (which was frozen), so we took some photos before heading to the Gazebo which the “I’m just 16 going on 17” scene was shot in.

The tour headed out of town, to view more sights of the movie. The last stop, before returning to Salzburg, was the town of Gilgen, where the movie Von Trapp’s were married in the cathedral. The town also has an small restaurant which has won award for its’ strudel (which we naturally sampled).

24th of December

We left Salzburg for St Wolfgang and the ski fields. We stopped in Gossau to see if we could find somewhere to ski. To Jodie’s delight, the ski lift was right next to the road. In a flash she was kitted up, and up the mountain. We’ve been in London for over a year, and Jodie has been dying to go skiing.

Gareth, Kris and I spent the morning learning the basics of snowboarding, and by the afternoon… we weren’t much better.  We had conquered the mountain (well half of it) which took 2 hours. Jodie in the mean time was wearing out the leather on the ski lift chairs, by the number of trips she had taken.

We left the ski field and headed to the quaint village of St Wolfgang. The Sat Nav thought we wanted to view the town from the goat tracks for some reason, but we found the hotel eventually. Jodie and I enjoyed a bath and some champagne, before dinner. We had a fantastic 5 course meal, before heading into town in the evening for Midnight Mass. The entire service was in German, but was lovely nonetheless.

25th December – Christmas !

We woke up and headed out of town for the ski fields again. Today, Gareth and I took on the entire mountain. Kris took the smart approach and changed the board for skis. After a great day of boarding, with mountain conquered, we headed back to the Furian hotel in St. Wolfgang. Once again, we had a fantastic dinner, before retiring to the rooms for some nightcaps.

26th of December

Sadly, we had to leave Austria. Jodie and I took a walk around the small town, to take some photos and enjoy the early morning light. The whole 5 days were filled with bright sunny skies, as the photos will show. We’ll have to go back one day, St Wolfgang is a fantastic place, with summer sports being dominated by water skiing. Thanks to Jode for organising the trip and to Gareth and Kris for being so easy going and great to travel with.

View Larger Map

We had a short trip home, for a few reasons. We had much to organise for the Wedding, our engagement party, Jo& Rob’s wedding, as well as catching up with all of our family and friends.

The whole time we were home, we fought off the jet lag, but ended up falling asleep around 8pm every night and waking up at 5am.

Jodie was a bridesmaid at Jo’s wedding, which we attended on Friday the 26th of October. It was a lovely wedding, held at a small church on top of Kangaroo Point, with the reception at the Alan Border Cricket Club.

We had a brief sleep in, before meeting up with Jode’s side of the family in the city.

The engagement party, which was at Siana on the river, was a fantastic night. Thank you again, to all who travelled from far away. Almost 70 people, great food and booze made for a great night.

We spent some time with friends and family wherever we could. Our quietest time was spent up at Yagaburne and Glen Iris, the rest seemed to be a bit of a blur. Some days we had four or five appointments a day, before dinner with friends or family.

We had a great time, and we’ll be back in a matter of months !

Budapest, May 2007

For the first Bank holiday long weekend of the year we escaped London and headed to Hungary for our first trip to Eastern Europe. We headed off Friday afternoon and arrived in Budapest late that night, checking into our 5-star (bargain price though) hotel (Andrassy Hotel) on Andrassy Avenue – the main street which extends from Heroes Square to the Western Bank of the River Danube which looks across to the Eastern Bank and the old town of Buda.

The next day we ventured down Andrassy Avenue for a great lunch in Café Menza – here we had our first authentic Hungarian goulash followed by goulash mains and some lumpy doughy type substance … yum? Next was the gorgeous St. Stephens Basilica, where St. Stephen’s hand lays preserved in a glass box, over a thousand years old! Yes a little morbid. Then on to Gerbaerd, where they supposedly serve great cakes, but after being snobbed and then blatantly ignored by the waitresses I was trying to speak to, we walked out and bought ice cream cones on the riverside. Then we walked over Szechemyi Bridge to Buda, caught the Fununcular up the cliff and spent the afternoon wondering around the Buda castle, admiring the view of the river and Pest and exploring the museum. Caught a cab to the hotel and enjoyed the most amazing meal in ‘Baraka’ the restaurant in the hotel – we completely splurged on the most amazing food and wine.

The next day we explored the City Park and Heroes Square, where the Thermal Spas are. Caught the quaint little metro, with the tiny stations, down to ‘Terror Haza’, the museum detailing the history of communist Hungary and the secret police – this was all set in the building where prisoners were tortured and hung in the basement, very eye opening. Then on to the river where we enjoyed a beer and some more goulash on a floating pub on the Danube. That night we put on our party frocks and headed to the Hungarian National Opera House to see ‘Karnyone’ a comic opera. Such an amazing experience! We sipped wine in a little nook of the bar, velvet seats and wooden floors – such a beautiful old building. We of course didn’t understand a word but had an unforgettable night! Finished with dinner at ‘Goa’, an asian fusion restaurant where we talked the night away, as always, over a bottle of wine.

On our last day we went the very long way around to Vaci, the shopping district, finishing up with lunch in a French café, sitting in the sunshine watching the people go by. Ice cream again as we walked home. After a long journey back to London – complicated by me rushing us on to the wrong train at Gatwick and ending up at Victoria instead of London Bridge. Made it home finally, making plans for our next trip!!

Lisbon
We arrived in Lisbon on Thursday night, after leaving work early. We got through customs and collected the bag, before reading that the bus into town had stopped running. We caught a crazy taxi into town, who dropped us off in (what seemed like) a dodgy area of town. We got to our room, which was small. Not small in square feet, but small in volume… basically I could only stand up straight, in about 30% of the room/bathroom. We woke up to realise we were in the centre of the city and decided to have a look around for breakfast, after seeing the breakfast area in the hotel. We found a great place in the main square, in the sun. Breakfast in the warm sun, was great after being in the UK for nearly 5 months.

We headed up toward the Castle, negotiating the windy streets, which were all created using tiles. The old architecture was amazing throughout the entire city. We missed the castle, but ended up at one of the viewing points near an old church, where we stopped to take some photos.

The whole day we were walking around commenting on how nice the sun was. We toured the city, catching the tram down toward the waterfront, where we caught a bus to the Belem region. Belem is famous for (among other things) Pastrie De Nata ! We grabbed lunch in a great little restaurant, with outdoor seating. We sat in the sun and enjoyed fresh seafood and an ice cold beer.

After taking in some more of the sights we walked along the water front, where we took a break and Jodie took a nap in the park.

Sintra
Sintra is a beautiful district, west of Lisbon. It’s a very hilly region, densely populated with castles, palaces and tiled streets, winding between quaint cafes and souvenir shops. We had a fantastic lunch in the village centre, with sounds of the clock tower striking. We had dinner in a tiny little café, then sat in a port/wine bar sipping 80 year old port.

The next day we took a walk around the National Palace, which is like an adventure playground. We climbed the hill to visit the Moorish Castle, which was quite spectacular.

Scotland Christmas tour. 

Well, the weekend has begun, and Jode doesn’t have to work for another 5 days ! The next few blogs will obviously be about Christmas and our trip to Scotland. We’ve added another photo album called Christmas, which already has some pictures of the hamper we received from the family and the parcel we received from Lou.

Now every diver you talk to has stories about diving some magical, tropical reef, where they saw everything and more… ours is not dissimilar! Yesterday, in the evening, we went to visit the dive shop next to our resort, to arrange a dive. They asked us to fill in the usual waivers and a dive history. I hadn’t dived in a few years, while Jodie hadn’t for about 8 years. The next day we were explaining our diving experience to the Portuguese couple that had been running the dive shop for 1 year. The look of horror in the woman’s eyes when Jodie told her 8 years was pretty amazing….picture a deer in headlights! We got our fins fitted and tried on shortie or spring wetsuits, which were placed in a bag for each of us. (There were 6 certified divers and a novice), the adventure started with a short ride in a long boat, out to the dive boat, which was anchored some 80m away.

We boarded the boat in choppy seas, and proceeded to have the usual boat tour (drinking water, toilet etc…).  We were then told that the boat ride was an hour to get to the dive site (given our previous snorkelling adventure, we knew a speed boat would get us there in about 15 minutes). EVENTUALLY we got to Bida Nok Island, where the dive master kitted up and proceeded to jump over board, in search of a royal parks board placed concrete anchor. Shortly after, we were invited to inspect our gear and get ready. Minutes later we were in the water, all giant strides, no back flips off rubber dinghies here!

Jodie has had some trouble with her ears in the past, hence the long time between dives. She told the dive master about it, and he made sure she was ok on the way down. From the surface was could already see the bottom and schools of fish, some 9 meters below. We headed off in search of promised treasures which first appeared in the form of a sea horse. The dive master (Cas) spotted it under some soft coral. Each diver took turns to get close and watch it blinking its’ eyes. We moved on while all around us we could watch parrot fish eating off the reef, while angel fish, emperor angel fish, moorish idols,   anemone fishes (Nemo’s) schooled around the rock face. We saw beautiful starfish and lobsters hiding in the rocks. Cas, picked up a sea cucumber and got Jodie to hold her hand up, so he could allow it to attach to the palm of her hand.

Soon, it was time to surface. We headed back to the boat in choppy seas, where we were greeted with lunch. On the previous day we got to choose lunch, Jodie and I hose chicken sandwiches. Some French guy got tuna… nice choice for a rocking boat. J Jodie and I sat in the middle of the boat and ate our lunch. I was really proud of her for completing the dive, as she nearly pulled out (partly because of the fear of her ears hurting and partly because of some confidence which had slipped away over 8 years).  It wasn’t long before we moved to the next dive site, Bida Nai Island. The sea and wind had really picked up now and the boat struggled to get into a position to be anchored. Eventually, we let the boat drift a little and chose to enter the water from the south of the island (basically a drop off and swim to the island). We were told that the plan was to swim around the island, as the reef went all the way around. The island itself was sheer wall all the way around, with reef below, so no sand to speak of.

We headed down, this time to an area which seemed richer with sea life. We started the journey swimming through a cave, which lead to the east side of the island. We gathered around a jelly fish, each taking turn to touch it (on top of course).  The whole way around the island, we were able to look up the rocks, to the surface. We came across a small turtle, about 50cm in length. He fed off the rocks as we congregated to watch him. Shortly after that we came across a reasonably sized moray eel, hiding in some coral, near the sea bed. It was almost black in colour. These were just some of the things was saw, but schools of reef fish, coral and even some tuna (in the water, not a lunch box) could be seen which ever way you looked. The second dive was a lot longer than the first, we surfaced after circling the island, again to choppy seas. The dive boat took the best route home possible, by travelling at the back of the islands, where it was calm and sheltered from the wind. All in all, a great days diving!