Our very last stop was in Florence and the Tuscany region. No European experience is complete without a stop in Italy. We decided to spend Valentines Day in Florence, but really the charm of the place is diminished by throngs and throngs of Chinese tourists in search of their Guccis and Pradas...hehehe....
Highlights in Florence were the Uffizi Gallery, seeing the tombs of Michaelangelo and Galileo in Basilica Santa Croce, eating the famous Vivoli gelati (twice!) and having dinner at the restaurant recommended by Shazza (twice too!). I can't recall the name now...but it was a fantastic restaurant...if you don't book, you have to turn up really early otherwise the queue is a bit excruciating when you're starving!
Now I remember the name of Shaz's restaurant, if you are in Florence, you should try out Trattoria ZaZa. The truffle pasta was brilliant and reasonably priced too!
Siena is a really pretty city in the Tuscan region. The historic centre of Siena is a World Heritage site. Highlights for me were the Siena Duomo and the Piazzo del Campo, and eating the traditional Siena cake. We also visited San Gimignano, a small medieval walled city in the Tuscan region and climbed one of the old towers to catch an aerial view of Tuscany. On the way back to London from Florence, we saw the Eiffel Tower from the plane. Sadly I said goodbye to Paris!
Friday, August 01, 2008
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Lisbon, Portugal
We went to Lisbon with Shaz and Rose back in February. Lisbon is a traditional European city with ornate buildings, cobbled streets and trams. On our first day, we visited the UNESCO World heritage protected Jeronimos Monastery built in 1502, saw the iconic Belem Tower by the water and the Discoveries Monument in Belem, where Christopher Columbus stopped by on his way back to Europe after discovering the New World. The day was ended by joining the local queue for the famous Portugese egg tarts!
Day 2 was spent in Sintra, a UNESCO heritage site. We visited the National Palace with its iconic twin chimneys and the medieval Pena Palace. Shaz took us to a great restaurant called Tacho Real which was a finalist for a 2008 Michelin star (just as well, before it becomes expensive)! Back in Lisbon, Rose and I tried some strong Portugese coffee at a traditional cafe near our hotel.
Our final day in Lisbon was spent riding the Santa Justa elevator, visiting St Georges Cathedral and the Bairro Alto and the Alfama District, whilst Garry spent half the day glued to his mobile with his "mistress" (Guess who?). Again, we decided to stuff ourselves with more egg tarts before boarding the flight back to London! I think all of us were happy not to see another tart for a while!
Day 2 was spent in Sintra, a UNESCO heritage site. We visited the National Palace with its iconic twin chimneys and the medieval Pena Palace. Shaz took us to a great restaurant called Tacho Real which was a finalist for a 2008 Michelin star (just as well, before it becomes expensive)! Back in Lisbon, Rose and I tried some strong Portugese coffee at a traditional cafe near our hotel.
Our final day in Lisbon was spent riding the Santa Justa elevator, visiting St Georges Cathedral and the Bairro Alto and the Alfama District, whilst Garry spent half the day glued to his mobile with his "mistress" (Guess who?). Again, we decided to stuff ourselves with more egg tarts before boarding the flight back to London! I think all of us were happy not to see another tart for a while!
Friday, June 06, 2008
More of California
I can't believe it's June now and I'm still blogging my Jan trips. Oh well, I hate doing things half-way so I'm going to persevere and try and complete my blog up till our last trip!
More time was spent in California, Deb's hometown! Deb took us to San Diego one weekend and on the way, we stopped by at San Juan Capistrano, a Spanish missionery, La Jolla (a beachside resort) and Gastown. We visited Hotel del Coranado in San Diego (an old Victorian hotel) and the world's largest zoo, San Diego Zoo. I had to say hi to my favourite apes and the cute pandas! We also drove to Palm Spring and passed one of the largest windfarms in California.
Pics of LA Disneyland...where dreams are made!
Deb took us to the Getty Villa and Getty Museum in LA to soak in some culture!
Our last weekend in California was spent in Santa Barbara. Deb took us to an old courthouse in Santa Barbara where she did a few court appearances. We also visited Solvang, a Danish town in California. When we first arrived in Santa Barbara, the weather was crazy. It was so windy and rainy that we stayed in on our first night and had pizza for dinner. We almost got blown away getting out of the car, I was so afraid that Deb's car door was going to come apart!
More time was spent in California, Deb's hometown! Deb took us to San Diego one weekend and on the way, we stopped by at San Juan Capistrano, a Spanish missionery, La Jolla (a beachside resort) and Gastown. We visited Hotel del Coranado in San Diego (an old Victorian hotel) and the world's largest zoo, San Diego Zoo. I had to say hi to my favourite apes and the cute pandas! We also drove to Palm Spring and passed one of the largest windfarms in California.
Pics of LA Disneyland...where dreams are made!
Deb took us to the Getty Villa and Getty Museum in LA to soak in some culture!
Our last weekend in California was spent in Santa Barbara. Deb took us to an old courthouse in Santa Barbara where she did a few court appearances. We also visited Solvang, a Danish town in California. When we first arrived in Santa Barbara, the weather was crazy. It was so windy and rainy that we stayed in on our first night and had pizza for dinner. We almost got blown away getting out of the car, I was so afraid that Deb's car door was going to come apart!
Friday, April 04, 2008
Los Angeles - Home of Deb!
12 Jan 08 - After San Fran, we returned to LA for a long stint to catch up with Deb, a very patriotic Los Angelean, always quick to show off the best of the city (I still remember the lengthy debate between Deb and Garry as to whether LA or Perth would be a better place to live, let's just say the debate went on for ages, I dozed off in the car for a while and when I woke up, they were still going on about it and it went on the next day....and the next...of course, I was voting for neither...tried to throw in London as a contender but they just ignored me!!)
My favourite architecture in LA has got to be the Walt Disney Concert Hall designed by world renowned architect Frank Gehry (I think he was also the one who designed the Freedom Tower on Ground Zero in NYC). I love how the stainless steel curves of the Concert Hall shine in the sun. After taking pics of the Concert Hall, we drove to the home of Baywatch (the famous Muscle Venice Beach), Rodeo Drive (saw the hotel where Pretty Woman was filmed - remember the last scene when Richard Gere kissed Julia Roberts on the staircase outside the hotel?) and the Chinese Kodak Theatre (where we saw the famous hand and foot prints of celebrities). A scary accident happened when we were at the Kodak Theatre. A guy fell down from an escalator and was badly hurt, the whole area was closed off and I saw one of the ambulance officers carrying a see through plastic bag filled with bloodstained clothing...it was quite unsettling being so close to the accident.
Celebrated the end of the night with Pinks' hot dogs (a famous LA icon - fresh hot dogs homemade on the spot and stuffed with chilli). We had to queue up for a whole hour and to make it all worthwhile, we ordered more than we could consume. Hands down to Aldo who ordered a cheeseburger, 3 hotdogs, onion rings and fries, all for one person!
LA had an amazing variety of Asian food. The Asian ranch 99 supermarket was as big as a typical coles/woolies. It was so busy in "Din Tai Fung" (Taiwanese chain restaurant that specialises in dumplings) that they had to hire a whole team of Mexican people to hand make the dumplings. We visited the Huntington Library which did not only have an amazing collection of art but the gardens were just great. I loved the Desert Garden. The Library also had a Japanese garden, an Australian garden and a Chinese one which was also under construction. These grounds were all donated by the generous Mr Huntington. Universal Studios was another highlight for us.
We visited the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels near Deb's office which cost about US$20m to build. It's an unually modern building with a mausoleum in the basement where we saw Gregory Peck's tomb. After the Cathedral, Deb took us to see the Olvera Street Mexican market in downtown LA and the famous Union Station.
My favourite architecture in LA has got to be the Walt Disney Concert Hall designed by world renowned architect Frank Gehry (I think he was also the one who designed the Freedom Tower on Ground Zero in NYC). I love how the stainless steel curves of the Concert Hall shine in the sun. After taking pics of the Concert Hall, we drove to the home of Baywatch (the famous Muscle Venice Beach), Rodeo Drive (saw the hotel where Pretty Woman was filmed - remember the last scene when Richard Gere kissed Julia Roberts on the staircase outside the hotel?) and the Chinese Kodak Theatre (where we saw the famous hand and foot prints of celebrities). A scary accident happened when we were at the Kodak Theatre. A guy fell down from an escalator and was badly hurt, the whole area was closed off and I saw one of the ambulance officers carrying a see through plastic bag filled with bloodstained clothing...it was quite unsettling being so close to the accident.
Celebrated the end of the night with Pinks' hot dogs (a famous LA icon - fresh hot dogs homemade on the spot and stuffed with chilli). We had to queue up for a whole hour and to make it all worthwhile, we ordered more than we could consume. Hands down to Aldo who ordered a cheeseburger, 3 hotdogs, onion rings and fries, all for one person!
LA had an amazing variety of Asian food. The Asian ranch 99 supermarket was as big as a typical coles/woolies. It was so busy in "Din Tai Fung" (Taiwanese chain restaurant that specialises in dumplings) that they had to hire a whole team of Mexican people to hand make the dumplings. We visited the Huntington Library which did not only have an amazing collection of art but the gardens were just great. I loved the Desert Garden. The Library also had a Japanese garden, an Australian garden and a Chinese one which was also under construction. These grounds were all donated by the generous Mr Huntington. Universal Studios was another highlight for us.
We visited the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels near Deb's office which cost about US$20m to build. It's an unually modern building with a mausoleum in the basement where we saw Gregory Peck's tomb. After the Cathedral, Deb took us to see the Olvera Street Mexican market in downtown LA and the famous Union Station.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
San Francisco
10 January 2008 - We were in San Fran for three days after Las Vegas. San Fran has got to be one of my favourite US cities. It is a very quaint place with old trams, hilly roads, character Georgian houses (remember Full House?) and yummy sourdough clam chowder. We saw the iconic Golden Gate Bridge and visited Fisherman's Wharf and Ghiradelli Square (where the original Ghiradelli chocolate factory was located).
Sorry, it's really taken me a while to finish this travel blog but I hate doing half-baked jobs so I will persevere...Ok, I've uploaded a few pics of our Alcatraz visit. It was interesting to see where the likes of Al Capone and the Birdman (well-known notorious criminals) were imprisoned. Pretty eerie seeing the "A" Block and the "D" Block where highly dangerous criminals were kept off in maximum security from the other criminals. Just to finish off on a lighter note in San Fran, we went up to the top of Macy's and tried the famous Cheesecake Factory's Godiva cheesecake! Funny enough, we also bumped into Bianca (Garry's friend from med school) and her mum at Bloomingdales in San Fran. Bianca has been training in Toronto and was holidaying in San Fran with her mum for a couple of days. What are the chances of bumping into Perth people on the other side of the world?! Quite high apparently!
Sorry, it's really taken me a while to finish this travel blog but I hate doing half-baked jobs so I will persevere...Ok, I've uploaded a few pics of our Alcatraz visit. It was interesting to see where the likes of Al Capone and the Birdman (well-known notorious criminals) were imprisoned. Pretty eerie seeing the "A" Block and the "D" Block where highly dangerous criminals were kept off in maximum security from the other criminals. Just to finish off on a lighter note in San Fran, we went up to the top of Macy's and tried the famous Cheesecake Factory's Godiva cheesecake! Funny enough, we also bumped into Bianca (Garry's friend from med school) and her mum at Bloomingdales in San Fran. Bianca has been training in Toronto and was holidaying in San Fran with her mum for a couple of days. What are the chances of bumping into Perth people on the other side of the world?! Quite high apparently!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Las Vegas and Grand Canyon
7 Jan 08 - We were in Vegas for three nights and went on a day tour to the Grand Canyons. Thanks heaps to Elisa's cousin (Jane) and Elisa's aunty for putting us up in the Monte Carlo and treating us to a nice dinner at the Venetian (after her jackpot win!). Jane even got us access to one of the special lounges on the 32nd floor in the Monte Carlo but funny enough, a month later, the 32nd floor actually caught on fire.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Canada
26 Dec 07 - We spent the first two days of our Canadian holiday on the Rocky Mountaineer train that took us from Vancouver to Lake Louise through the Rocky Mountains. Unfortunately on the second day, a freight train in front of us broke down and damaged the track which then had to be repaired. We ended up being stuck overnight on the train in the mountains whilst the track was being fixed. We passed the time playing cards, cluedo, hangman, and even "I spy with my little eye...." (we must have been really bored). Luckily Denning was smart enough to bring his laptop & DVDs along.
28 Dec 07 - After a long train journey, we spoilt ourselves by staying at the Fairmont Lake Louise for two nights. We went skiing at the Lake Louise Ski Resort near the Fairmont and also horse-sleighing around the frozen Lake Louise. Really wanted to try dog-sleighing but it was booked out months before. Experienced extreme cold at Lake Louise (went down to -15 degrees), I was so afraid that my toes were going to fall off whilst we were on the sleigh!
3 Jan 08 - We returned to Vancouver after visiting Lake Louise, Banff and Calgary. In Vancouver, we visited Stanley Park, Vancouver Aquarium, Capillano Suspension Bridge (the world's largest suspension bridge), Gastown and Chinatown. Highlights in Vancouver were seeing the cute otters and beluga whales at the Aquarium and eating lots of cheap fresh salmon sashimi.
28 Dec 07 - After a long train journey, we spoilt ourselves by staying at the Fairmont Lake Louise for two nights. We went skiing at the Lake Louise Ski Resort near the Fairmont and also horse-sleighing around the frozen Lake Louise. Really wanted to try dog-sleighing but it was booked out months before. Experienced extreme cold at Lake Louise (went down to -15 degrees), I was so afraid that my toes were going to fall off whilst we were on the sleigh!
3 Jan 08 - We returned to Vancouver after visiting Lake Louise, Banff and Calgary. In Vancouver, we visited Stanley Park, Vancouver Aquarium, Capillano Suspension Bridge (the world's largest suspension bridge), Gastown and Chinatown. Highlights in Vancouver were seeing the cute otters and beluga whales at the Aquarium and eating lots of cheap fresh salmon sashimi.
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