Here they are. My top ten highlights in no particular order!

1 ) Travelling over the Swiss Alps
2 ) Swimming in Santorini hot springs, Greece
3 ) Hiking in Patmos, Greece
4 ) Hard Rock Cafe, Prague
5 ) Watching Liz trying to raise her right eyebrow, Travelling to Milan
6 ) Learning to yawn with my mouth shut, on a train somewhere
7 ) Crepes and Gyros in Greece
8 ) Phantom of the Opera, London
9 ) Dinner in Plaka, Athens
10 ) Sharing a pizza, Prague

So this is the last time I will write about this trip. We left off in Paris. Our trip from St Pancress to stratford was fairly eventful as we sped our way though a maze of underground carriages at lightening speed to catch our train to Stratford on Avon. We made on the train to Stratford with three minutes to spare. Just glad we raced there because we were told initially that we had PLENTY of time by the ticket salesperson.

It was great to see Auntie Chrissie waiting at the station when we arrived. I had spent four months living in Stratford ten years ago and Chrissie became like a second mother. We packed the car full of all our luggage and made our way to Chrissie’s home to meet Uncle Kevin carving the roast lamb and Carren with a Welcoming smile. It’s amazing, I felt home because this was my family.

Carren had taken a few days off work to show Liz and I around a bit. We had both been in the area before and done all the standard tourist stuff, so Carren planned a few fun activities and a couple of lesser known tourist activities.

It was all about the Cotswolds on wednesday as we took a leaiurely walk around a few towns in the quaint and beautiful area. Thursday became a dedicated shopping day. We all got into the spending mood and did our best to meet our luggage limit on the plane home. Friday we met Stuart in Oxford and walk around the colleges for a bit. That night we finished our stay with a grew dinner in an old mill English resturant. Great food and great company always makes a great time.

I know it’s very condensed but it was so great. We never did much but rather spent time catching up with the family, relaxing and slowly taking it all in.

Saturday was a surprise day for Liz. I had organized with Dan to get ‘Phantom of the Opera’ tickets, which is Liz’s favourite show. She has always dreamed of seeing it on broadway. So we got all dressed up and made our way to London. The show it unbelievable, and this was the second time I had seen it. Every single aspect of the music, vocal performance, set design and production was absolutely flawless. I would pay to watch it again, in fact the man sitting next to me on the night had seen it five times and still loved every minute.

After the theatre we made our way back home but not without stopping at another horror themed attraction with live actors whose sole aim is to scare your pants off.

Our last day was Sunday! We slept late, went to church, walk around Cambridge and relaxed before we set off on our 30 hour trip home!!

Anyway, enough about that, Paris is fantastic! Not the best city I have been to, the people are short and abrupt. One such person was not even keen to help in finding change for the crepes I just bought! If you let that get to you though then you will live a miserable life. Paris did have a few special surprises in store for me.

The first was arriving at the Paris Train Station needing to draw some Euro’s to pay for a taxi to get to our hotel. The ATM’s we were pointed to were vandalised and out of order. On returning to the tourism office to find alternative banks, an annoyed teller directed me to the nearest banks – four blocks away!! Sensing the irritation level rising with Liz I found a Café and sat her down to order hot chocalate and look after our luggage. I then set off to find the banks. At this point I realised the train station was not in the best area as I ran past at least seven sex video stores, and a host of others retailers of the same ilk. Found a bank, drew some money, ran back to the Cafe to find Liz a little more relaxed but without hot chocalate. Turns out the waiter did not understand English!!

The weather was overcast and lousy. This set my expectations very low for decent sights and photo’s. So with my low expectations we set off from our hotel room to make the most of the one evening we had in Paris. The evening turned out to be brilliant.

After fillng ourselves on pizza and pasta we found the Eiffel Tower which was very close to our hotel (in fact we had an amazing veiw of the tower from our room). Taking the lift up the tower did play with my mind a bit. Although you are enclosed in a very secure box, seeing how high you are gives you a weird sensation of falling. I also kept having visions of dropping my camera off the edge! The veiws were awesome in spite of the cloudy surroundings. We even played with the idea of having a glass of champaign at the top but at 10€ a glass we figured it would be a waste. Especially seen as our palates are only resered for the finest lime and soda or cola tonic and lemonade.

Walking around Paris after descending of the 318m Eiffel Tower we stumbled on a small concert in the square across the Seine river. The concert was a display of two Scottish Marching Bands. We were blown away with the skill, syncapation and rythm of the one band in particular. I ended up buying a CD to remember the music. This concert made some great photo as well. This probably ended up being the biggest treat for my on the trip so far. The musicianship was excellent and whenever you have seven drummers on a stage it has to be awesome.

Later we took a boat trip along the Seine to get in as many sights as possible the shortest time space. We lasted on the top of the boat for about 35mins and then carried our frozen eyeballs and fingers down stairs to warm up. The trip was pretty cool. It started at the Eifell Tower and went past the Notre Damme turned around and came back. We saw pretty much everything except the Arc de Triomphe so we decided to walk up there the next morning.

The trip turned out to be great. Maybe a bit to short but we made the most of it and loved it! Looking forward to a week in the UK now!

P.S. I will be home in South Africa this time next week! Time has flown. No regrets at all!

Magrit had a very detailed itinery planned for our stay with them. It included trips to France and Italy, trips into various places in Switzerland and an evening of Opera. Needless to say we were very excited for stay with them.

Once we had unpacked our bags Liz and I were split up for the first time on the trip so far. Liz and Magrit went to visit a five story wedding gown retailer while David and I took a typical tourist walk around lake Luzern and the old town. Liz was suitably impressed with the wedding dresses and came back with a catalogue of ideas to bring back to SA. I returned from my trip with about 200 photos of lake and ready for a two hour nap. I remember liz trying to wake me up but with little success. Guess all the travelling had caught up with me.

Our next day with Magrit saw us boarding a train to Milano. The fashion capital or the world and also the home of the famous Duomo! So as I readied myself for an expensive day of shopping we set off into the streets of Milan.

The Duomo was fantastic! The entire building must be about 12 stories high and is made entirely out of marble. The interior of the cathederal has the most exquisite sculptures and stain glass design I have ever seen. I eventually had to sit down in the pews to attempt take in the detail that was there. Just as my brain was about explode Liz announces that she wants to walk on the roof. Thankfully there is a lift and 20mins later after buying tickets etc we found ourselves on top of the Duomo. Spectalar veiws of Milan, at least they would have been if it wasn’t for the 24 cranes erected around the city.

After a morning of walking it was now time for lunch. The returant chosen was our second roof resturant of our trip and overlooked the Duomo. Before we sat down my meal was pretty much decided for me. Daniel, my brother in law, insisted that I try the pizza when I was in Milan, a friend Adrian van Rensburgh had told me to have espresso and I am a fan of Tirimisu which is an Italian speciallity. So there you have it pizza, tirimisu and espresso. Liz followed Daniel’s instruction with a pizza and wrapped the meal up with an Italian chocalate desert.

Stomachs satisfied the real fun began with an afternoons shopping expedition.
We did not have enough money! Everything looked great and most of designers have not reached South Africa yet. Liz was in her element! I just wish we were spending someone else’s money, I would have bought alot more then!!

We slept most of the way back to Switzerland. We were competely exhausted so we decided to take Wednesday easy with a sleep in, a trip to Rhine Falls and home to dinner. Wednesday turned outo be exactly what we needed to get back on our feet. I was also very glad we saw the falls because it wasn’t in the initial itinery.

On Thursday David and Magrit took Liz and I on a train through the Alps into Italy. The train took us through the only pass open. The winter had been terribly cold before we arrived and avalanches had closed all of the passes except this one. The trains are installed with panaromic windows so the veiws are incredible. The only problem was that almost all the photo’s taken had a reflection from the window so I would take the opportunity or short trains stops to hop out the train and take a few ‘reflection free’ photos! This brings us to one of my biggest adventures of the trip. Liz has asked to write this section because let’s face it, I won’t describe the level of my stupidity correctly.

Liz tells the story
So as Mike said he had hopped on & off to take pic’s, these were always done in a hurry as the train doors close without warning & off you go. I’d been doing this with Mike, mainly to get a specific shot for my dad(which we got) so at our third to last stop Mike hops out to get a shot of this lake & I was watching him from my seat, Mike was casually taking his time, not even looking back to check the doors were still open & I was thinking “he can’t be THAT stupid” it turns out he can! From my seat I hear the doors close & Mike is still at the waters edge, so I get up to press the button to open the door & shout at Mike for being so doff, except the doors wouldn’t open. Margrit shouts & I shout,he doesnt hear, but he hears me tapping on the glass & turns around in time to watch the train leave him behind. He didnt know what to do so he runs along side the train for a bit & watches us choo choo away. I felt so sorry for him but at the same time was so annoyed at his stupidity! David speaks to the conductor to find out another train will be along in an hour, he could get onto that & meet up with us in Ticano 10mins before we catch our bus. I told them that Mike won’t wait an hour he’ll jump into action & try fix it his way instead of sitting doing nothing. Then I find out there are no more trains coming, but he can get on the next bus. Now there was no way of communicating with Mike-no cell phone or anything, all he had was the camera & wallet. So the conductor radios the station for someone to find Mike & tell him. Mike was in Italy & was meeting us back in Switzerland & I was sitting with his passport & ticket. We arrive in Ticano where Mike will eventually meet us. We sit down & order lunch, David then goes to find the busstop where Mike will arrive & the time. I decide to walk down the road to find a market, I couldn’t find it so I turned back & in the far distance behind me a hear “ELIZABETH” I turn around & there comes Mike walking down the road. I couldn’t believe it-all my annoyance had now gone & I was laughing at the fact that he had made his own plan & had gotten to us quicker than the bus & what were the odds that we were both on the same street. I was guessing Mike had hitched a ride,til I got to him & he was pouring with sweat. Then I found out he had run from the border…10kms. I still can’t stop laughing! What a dork, but it’s so funny!! Only Mike!!!

The photo I was taking when I got left behind

It’s Mike here! Time to hear my side of the story!

I was getting very frustrated that every photo we took had a lovely reflection and had worked out that everytime the train stopped there was a short opportunity to get a few ‘reflection free’ photos. So in the small town of Poschiavo the train stopped right next to a beautiful lake. Seeing this as a chance to get some lake side photos I hopped off he back of the train to take a few snapshots. I did not hear anyone call that the train was leaving (on previous stops we were warned before the train left) until I heard Liz tapping on the window. I turned around just in time to see the train making it’s way down hill – WITHOUT ME!!

The only thing I could think of doing was to run after the train which made me feel a bit like a dog chasing a car tyre. What was I going to do if I actually caught the train? Jump on the back, swing myself up onto the roof, find the nearest open window and slide in to safety? So I decided to stop running and to find a different solution.

I turned around to find that every person who was staring at me chase down a train had suddenly dissappeared. There were no shops that I could see and even the station looked empty. So like Forest Gump ‘I ran’. I figured that at least heading down hill alongside the train line meant that I was heading in the right direction and that I would be easy to find after I keel over from dehydration or have an allergic reaction to running.

I ran approximatly 5km in my jeans, thinking to myself about happy I was that I made the fashion mistake of wearing running takkies with my jeans. Coincidently the blisters on the feet had also just finished healing. I arrived in an even smaller town called Brusio (I think) and was starting to get fed up with running down the steepest hill known to man, so I decided to find a taxi or a bus that could take me the rest of the way.

My first attempt was shocking. I walked into an almost empty resturant to find that nobody spoke english. Not even my broken Afrikaans could help as I was being stared at by an old Italian women who was desperately trying to help! Eventually she led me outside and pointed downhill and held up her hand indicating 5mins to the bus stop, or so I thought! I ran downhill towards the ficticious bus stop and passed and group of people, one of which seemed to call out to me so I turned to find out what she wanted and twisted my ankle. All this to find out that she didn’t want anything. I think she wanted to see me twist may ankle.
Limping towards my bus-stop-shaped mirage I passed a guy just about to leave in a car. I looked at him with sad ‘lost tourist eyes’ (it may be a good time to tell you that I am running down this hill in the Swiss Alps carrying an SLR camera with a freaking huge lens attached in my one hand) and he obliged to give me a lift. This is the moment that he realises that my Italian is as good as my Uzbeckestani as I stare blankly at him chatting away and ocassionaly mutter the only Italian I know, ‘Gracia.’ I had also just finished the only piece of exercise I had done in the last week at 7000m above sea level, so I was wheezing like crazy. This prompted the very kind Italian to finish his ciggerette in record time to avoid the seemingly inevitable asthma attack.
2km later I got dropped off at the itallian border when I realised I did not have my passport on me. I was lucky to find an English speaking Italian who listened to my story patiently and let me through the border. He also gave me the good news that the next town, Tirano, was the last stop for the train and that it was a 25 minute walk from the border. I knew that I had a bus to catch in less than 30mins or else I would be left in the bottom part of Switzerland with no way home. So my only choice was to continue running. Eventually I arrived in the town and got directions to the train station, on the way there I saw Liz walking down the same road.

It’s a good time to mention that most of the way down I was praying that God would turn this potentially ‘ruin your day’ moment into a better ending. Seems that He did just that by making sure I never caught the bus down. Two days later though – my quads are still not talking to me.

South of France

After all that excitement Liz an I were taken into France on Friday to visit a few French towns. This turned out to be a lovely day, both relaxing and interesting. First stop Riquewihr which is a small picturesque town surrounded by French vineyards. What stood out as the most unique aspect of the town was the use of flowers almost everywhere. The entire town exploded with colour.

Colmar was the next town we visited which is quite a bit bigger than Riquewihr. The plan was to do some shopping but every store in the town was closed. France was celebrating the end of World War 2 with a public holiday. The good news was that the parking was free.
We had lunch in Colmar, which ended up being the specialty dish of the area, ‘Tarte Flambè.’ The tarte is basically a small pizza without a tomato base. The pastry is also fairly time like a foccacia. After lunch we set off explore the town a bit more and then headed our way back to Zurich.

It’s the weekend!!

Saturday morning came and we marched off to the Zurich Market. I found a second hand msic stand with tons of jazz music so I was left there while Liz went to see what she could find. A few hours later we found a some new friends (Aude and Thomas) and had lunch on the side of the river. We almost spent the entire afternoon there but we needed to get back to the house to get ready for the Opera.

The opera was very good. A modern interpretation of ‘The Magic Flute’ by Mozart which was entirely spoken and sung in german. This made it a bit difficult to follow but we had read up on the story line before so we were not completely lost.

Sunday we relaxed! Thank goodness! I took a day away from the camera, we touched base with family, went on a relaxing walk in the Swiss countryside and packed our bags for Paris.

After checking ourselves into the most awesome hotel in Prague. (Liz found this online and it turned out to be cheaper than all our other options) We booked our day sightseeing tour for Saturday!! The idea is to do a tour ok Saturday and see all the sights, then on Sunday we can relax and experience Prague through coffee shops and casual walks.

Friday night we ate dinner at the most expensive resturant in the world. At least the most expensive meal we have had until now – Cafe Praha. The meal wasn’t that spectatular (give me Harveys in Durban anytime) and it cost 1300 Korona’s after a 20% discount. That’s about R 600.00!

So Friday night became the night we decided to eat pizza for the rest of the weekend. Pizza is about 60 korona each or as Liz would say 60 Kahoonas!!

We were up at about 8am on Saturday morning in order to make it to our tour by 10:30! We found the tour very interesting and got to see just about everything Prague has to offer! Our tour guide had a lovely dry sense of humour which Liz and I both appreciated! The tour included the matyrs against communism who burnt themsleves alive, a boat trip along the river, a traditional Czech lunch ( liz had goulash and I had the fried cheese), the famous Charles Bridge and of course the Prague Castle!

The castle was so impressive that we decided to spend some of our Sunday back at the castle to take decent photos.

Later on Saturady night we joined the second part or the tour for a Ghost Trail. Apparantly Prague is known as one of the most haunted cities in Europe so a tour company has put together a walk at night where they tell you the ghost stories of haunted city. All the stories were claimed to be based on real life and were at least 20% true! It was good fun and very simple and humorous with the odd person jumping out of the alleys to give you a fright.

Sunday started out very relaxing with a bit of a sleep in, a walk around the local market and as we said earlier a fair amount of shopping. We finished the day at the castle for a better photo shoot and then made our way back to the Old Town Square for dinner in a small Itallian resturant where we shared a pizza. Then off to bed as we had to be up at 4:15am to catch a flight to Zurich!

At least this was my first impression as I was driven to our hotel by a taxi driver who took every opportunity to extend our trip further than the necessary to maximize the cost of the already expensive fare! The driver dropped us off at the hotel after explaining that it is best not to walk around the town as we may be mugged. Upon arrival to the hotel our tour director then informed us that the street running alongside the hotel was a known drug selling hotspot and that we should expect a strong police presence in the area. These are all the things that you look for when starting out a tour in a country you don’t know from a bar of soap.

Things started to get alot better from that time forward. We went out to dinner with our contiki tour group in the area called ‘Plaka.’ The area was packed full of great Greek stores and little corner cafe’s. Liz opened the tour spending with a purchase of a lovely Greek top after dinner. We had dinner at a full Greek resturant (go figure) including greek dancing, live music, and of course ‘the Zorba!’ Many ‘OPA’s’ later the celebrations had come to an end and we made it back to the dodgy hotel for some sleep – satisfied that Athens is in fact a beuatiful city with deep history and a worderful culture.

I would recommend you visit athens if you have the chance. Just stay away from the taxi’s and make sure you spend alot of time in the Plaka area and visiting the acropolyse.

MYKONOS
Mykonos was great! The idea is to get lost in the back streets of the town and discover Mykonos on our own! Liz and I took to the streets with new found friends Mark and Janine and spent the first part of the evening embracing our ‘inner tourist’ by taking photos of everything we could find. We arrived in the town late afternoon so the natural lighting was perfect!

After all the photographic dreams had been reached we decided that food was a great idea! Our tour guide Dan recommended a meal called a Gyros ( yee-ross). Gyros is close to a wrap in South Africa bit it uses a much thicker pita to wrap your filling in. The filling is always the same, lettuce, tomatoe, French fries, onion and then you choose your meat – pork or chicken!! What more could you ask for? Especially because they are cheap and filling!!
Desert was next and this meant walking through the streets for 10mins tofubd the crepes! Basically pancakes with whatever filling you wanted! My recommendation – nutella and almond! Fantastic!!

Everything was pretty much done and dusted in Mykonos now so we headed on back to our cruise ship for a good nights sleep to get rid of our jetlag!

It does need to be mentioned that Mykonos got extremely coldonce the sun went down! At least I got the test drive my new winter jacket!

KUSADASI
This stop was only a few hours long but was well worth it! We spent the first part of the morning touring the ancient ruins of the Ephesians! A very informative tour in a city that is mentioned so often in the New Testament! It was great to visit the site that Paul was so involved in, to sit in the theatre that be preached in, see the prison he lived in for a few tears and understand the civilisation a little more! Truely an awesome experience!

After the tour we went on to a leather factory that made the softest leather jackects I have ever felt! It took a lot of will power not to leave the factory with a souvenior that looked like a jacket and was made of leather.
The temptation of one shop was defeated but we were then dropped off in the middle of every tourist trap in Turkey! The Turks are the best sales people I have ever come accross and they are not shy to drag you off the street into their store either! We almost made it through Tourist Trap Central when I remembered that Turkey is well known for it’s role in the drumming and percussion industry. Turkey is home to three cymbal makers, Zildjian, Sabian and Istanbul cymbals. So I decided that I needed to take home some small part of the Turkish music culture. So by the end of the morning I had purchased a Darabuka!

PATMOS
I had been looking forward to this island since the cruise began abs it was better than I expected. Patmos is where God showed John the vision of Revelation. The cave where this happened has bow been turned into a chapel and is deemed the holiest place in the world. Even the Vatican is less holy than this cave as God never spoke to any man at the Vatican.

We got to do some much needed exercise up to the cave and were angle to enter the cave itself. Personally I felt the the cave was not well portrayed. The significance and meaning of the events in the cave were never explained to interested tourists the decoration is steeped in Catholism where the book of Revelation has meaning across all Christian denominations. All in all it was great to hike up Patmos and see the site of Johns vision.

After the hike we made it slowly back to the town and spent sometime shopping and catching another crepe (ham & cheese)! Liz loved the shopping and I loved the crepe!!

RHODES
The best part of Rhodes was that we got to spend the whole day there. The city/town is split into two main parts, old town and new town! New town is the more cosmopoliton area while old town holds the history of Rhodes. Rhodes was a prosperous medieval city complete with Nobleman and women, knights and peasants. We never took any planned tours around the town because they were quite expensive and the town was fairly easy to navigate with the use of Janines book on Greece!
The plan was to explore Old Town for the morning and then hit the beach in the afternoon but Old Town blew us away! We spent almost the whole day there with only a short break to jump off the 5m platform into the Mediteranean Sea at Elli Beach!

CRETE
This city does not come recommended to anyone going to Greece on holiday. Basically it’s where the ship stops to fill up with fuel so they let you get off and explore. The place looks like Durban and has very little to offer tourist in search of greek culture. A very big city and probably where most of the industry of the Greek Islands happens so if you are looking for work it may be useful, but not for touring! Needless to say that withing 90mins of touching Crete soil we were back on the ship catching the sun on the pool deck.

SANTORINI
What a refreshing change from Crete! It all started as we watched the cruiseliner approach the island covered with white washed houses. I took photos but it’s hard to capture the landscape of the island. Santorini, along with three smaller islands surround a dormant volcano. The volcano is not extinct and is continually monitored at 80 degrees to make sure it won’t be erupting soon.
All four islands used to be one island before the last eruption which cause the land to split into the islands.

The first stop was a small port just below a Santorini village where we caught a yacht to the volcano for a hike to the top. A completely unique experience! Walking on a volcano is not easy as the paths are covered with loose stones and ash, so you slide around a fair amount as you climb up. At the top you have the veiws of the volcanic craters, the panoramic sights of all four islands and the annoying people getting in the way of all your photos! Flipping tourists!

After the volcano hike the yacht set course for 20mins to the hot springs. The idea here is to swim out to the hot springs on the coastline of the volcano. The catch is, that even though the water in the springs is about 25 – 30 degrees (I think?), you have to swim through water roughly the temperature of a magnum icecream in winter first. I thought Liz would chicken out as she really hates the cold! Her small body almost shuts down when it gets too cold. Liz surprised me by making it all the way to the springs and back (which is worse than getting to the springs on the first place!). I was very proud of her!

Next stop, Santorini for a whirlwind exploration that lasted about an hour. 20mins waiting for the bus, 20mins riding the bus up the cliff face and 20mins to see the beautiful city! I would love to go back there again sometime, we just couldn’t take it all in the time we had. My approach was ‘shoot now – look later’, so in 20mins I took about 400 photos as I made my way up the path towards the cable car, which was our lift back to the port. Liz visited every shop she could and found our shot glass for our collection. Mission Accomplished!! She also managed to find two cookies the size of a small island which were welcomed with open arms!

Santorini was amazing – just needed about a day there to take everything in.

Friday was our last day in Greece! Around 10am we were already on at the airport waiting for our plane to Prague which left at 4pm. We had planned to do the Acropolyse tour in Athens on our last day in Athens but the entire city went on strike for labour day so we missed our chance. The good news was that we got a free trip to the airport after our cruise. Wooohoooooo!!

See the Pics

The last two days were spent in Cambridge and London and were an absolute blast. We stayed with my brother In law Daniel who took it upon himself to show us around Cambridge on Friday. My best was punting in the canal which turned out to be a lot more work than it looked. We had lunch at the famous Subway franchise and had what can only be described as the best sandwich known to man.
After a fight at the bank trying to get money we visted the Cambridge Market on the way to Kings College Chapel which was commissioned by King Henry VI. I over heard a tour guide saying that the windows of the chapel (which are the most exquisite stainglass artistry) are valued close to a million pounds! There is a photo of the Kings College Chapel on the previous post on this blog.

Cambridge is simply amazing. The kind of place that feels like home. People riding on bikes everywhere and students making their way to the various colleges that make up Cambridge University. Stunning parks and canals are picturesque and relaxing. Although nothing is familiar it has a quality that is inviting and almost homely.

London was next on the agenda. Although London doesn’t share the same familiarity and homeliness as Cambridge it is a city that one almost feels priveledged to be visiting. This is my third time here and I had no idea what to expect. Daniel and a friend of his Gunta took us on a rollercoaster tour that started at the London Eye continued to the London Bridge Experience, Madame Tussauds, and finshed with a great time of coffee shops, steakhouses and shopping on Oxford Street. Liz spent about 3 hours in various shops in Oxford and only left with a pair of stockings. Not what I expected but at least our credit card doesn’t feel like we hate him.

Special thanks have to go to Dan and Gunta for an amazing day in London. Couldn’t live there but would love to visit it again sometime.

So today we were up early to catch our Aegean Airlines flight to Athens. We should be landing in about 2 hours! Until then I will continue to enjoy listening to the jazz music channel which has been very impressive.

Can’t believe so much has happened and we are only on day four. Now I know first hand that travel is addictive – especially when you are travelling with such a good friend.

That’s about it for now!

Dan has taken us around the whole of Cambridge in detail and we have taken so many photo’s. I can’t wait to get them into the editing suite when I get back home. Its quite late now so I wont be writing much here. We are off to London in the morning (Dan and Gunta have planned a big tourist day, shold be great)  and hopefully all the cash issues will be sorted out then. Not much fun travelling with no money.

Cambridge is amazing! So much beauty and the weather has been amazing, which is rare apparantly.

So who is ‘M.E?’

Liz and I (Mike.Elizabeth) have been married for just over two years and we have dreamed of travelling together for most of the time we have known each other. We have both travelled a bit on own, but never together! So here begins the adventure we have been dreaming about!

Once all the tickets were bought and the final itinery organised we were able to start focusing on the real important stuff.
Liz bought new luggage bags and we both hit the shops to find winter jackets for the trip! It’s less than three weeks before we leave and the temperatures are still way below Liz’s happiness threshold! I tend to get a little grumpy when uncomfortable and cold too!

We have also had a very important conversation that would have caused big problems on the trip.

PHOTOGRAPHY!!
We both love photography but Liz likes quick shots of people, funny situations, memorable times, family etc. I tend to enjoy taking ages finding the right shutter speed and apperture settings for each shot! Needless to say that I would get annoyed that the photos are not ‘artistic’ enough and Liz will get seriously upset as I spend ages shooting a photo of a duck on the Seine River while the doors for the Eiffel Tower lifts are closing!
Our solution? Two camera’s and alot of ‘grinning and bearing it’ from both sides.! We’ll let you know how this turns out!

Well that’s about it for now! I will probably write more when we are away.

This is Mike signing off for the evening.