The southeast...

more of a test for the facebook links than anything...

Paris - Easter 2009

Hello,

Little overdue but we managed to get five days in Paris over Easter.

Initial plans were for four days but I managed to make a mistake and book the train back a day later than planned and we only found out on the day we were expecting to leave.

Despite having to call the boss and explain which took some of the shine off the last day we had a great time.

We managed to check out all the usual touristy places - The Louvre / Mona Lisa, Champs Elysses, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dam, Sacre Cur, Mont Marte and Versailles. All this involved a fair amount of walking which caught us out a little having packed only jeans not expecting the bonus few degrees coming from the relative cold of London!

Highlights this trip were Versailles where we enjoyed walking in the gardens of the castle and the fresh food after months of deep fried english junk.

We stayed away from the snails and frogs this time, and managed to avoid ordering beef tartare at the last minute, maybe next time?

Photos can be found on the usual link to our Picasa album.

Dave

Amsterdam & Andorra

Hey All,

Since the last post we've managed to get away on two trips.

Amsterdam was a three day weekend - we took off Friday morning (after Kim almost had to pull the plug with a mystery illness) from Heathrow with Mark and Jo.

The weather was fairly cold still but over the course of the weekend we got to check out the Heineken Brewery, Anne Franks House, a Sex Museum went on a Canal Tour. Other than the organised touristy stuff we managed to check out several pubs and spent some time walking around the streets checking out what is a fairly compact city. For those that haven't been there Amsterdam is a mecca for packs of British and American blokes. Outside that it is a really great place for tourists and getting from the Airport into town must be one of the most pain free experiences ever with a train running regularly from the airport right into the central city in less than 20 minutes - I wish everywhere was a well setup as this...

Next up was a week skiing in Andorra, a little country of covering 468 square kilometres in the Pyrenees between France & Spain. Being late in the season the conditions were fairly similar NZ. This was the first time we have been a part of an organised tour and we quickly realised this is how the Brits travel, that said things were well organised and after getting ourselves to Gatwick early we flew to Toulouse in France before taking a bus through to the resort village of Arinsal. For Kim it was her first real skiing and she signed up for a week of lessons, come Friday she was doing pretty well and was a real advertisement for getting lessons...

Arinsal is setup well for beginners and intermediates with a little steeper terrain, for those seeking a bit more of a challenge it is connected to the area of Pal by Funicular (Cable Car) and there there is plenty of steep terrain and trees. I managed to get over there one day, but with the spring conditions things were a bit 'sketchy' in places. With a coating of fresh show though this place would be amazing and you could easily ski or ride down through the trees to the road between the villages.

We spent the last day checking out the capital Andorra la Vella, which for want of a better description is like a duty free shop with streets running through (Andorra is a tax free country) before returning to the village to watch the final week of the Six Nations, including the all important Wales v Ireland decider.

Overall a great holiday, and we are already looking forward to the next, Paris for Easter...

Take Care,

Dave & Kim

Waitangi Day Pub Crawl

You may have seen it on the News, well I was there to see it in person. The 2009 Waitangi Day Circle Line Pub Crawl.

It was definitely an experience to be drinking in Londons streets with thousands of other Kiwis and a good day was had by all. Unfortunatly there was a fair bit of walking involved and we had to cheat a bit by taking the district line with the circle line down for maintenance.

As you would expect it I bumped into several people from from home, including some old work colleagues and school friends - perhaps the funniest was bumping into Josh Sinton, my little bros best friend from primary school and his sister.

Anyway it was great fun, I hope to be a bit more organised for next year and get some costumes!

I've put up some pictures from later on in the day.

Dave

Prague Xmas & New Year

Hey All,

I managed to get the pictures up a few weeks ago, but year end at work has had me fairly busy until now.

We went with Elle & Jason some friends of Kims form university for a week, probably longer than necessary but we did get the chance to take a trip out to the Karlstein Castle and to Terezin Concentration Camp, both fairly interesting but as you would expect the concentration camp was a bit grim.

We also managed to try a few of the local brews, and why not - the pubs were the only warm place in town!

Take the time to have a look at our pictures using the link here.

Dave