MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Hi all. We've just returned to Scotland for a relaxing week off before work starts again on the 7th. We wish you all best for the coming year. Looking back we marvel at all the places we've visited and wonder if perhaps this year may be a little less exciting in the travel area. We're exhausted from our flitting around!
We really missed everyone over Christmas so we had a quick trip home to Melbourne last week...no sadly only Melbourne, Derbyshire, England, but they have a good pub lunch!

Late 2007 we managed to catch up with Jane's old school friend Melissa and her husband, Ben. Together we wandered through the empty Spittlefield markets (now we know well that its closed on Saturdays) and made a group decision to take to bus to the Borough Markets for "the best chocolate brownies in the world" says Ben (and now Greg and I!). A choir was singing carols and we drank some warming mulled wine whilst listening and perusing the stalls. Following the fabulous food we decided a rest was in order and so we watched the new film "The Golden Compass" at Canary Wharf in West London. It was thrilling to see places in the film that we'd actually been to during the year, eg. Oxford University and the Painted Hall in Greenwich (see below).

Back in Kilmarnock the Radiology department held their Christmas party at the Ayr Racecourse. It was a terrific night with lots of dancing and laughs. And might I add we scrubbed up quite well!

Work finished on the 21st of Dec for us when we drove almost 11 hours from Irvine to Brighton. We seem to be getting into the habit of driving hours and hours at Christmas. Last year we had a great time in Adelaide with Greg's family.
Our great friend Beck had arranged for 9 of us to rent a town house right in the centre of Brighton. So with 5 radiographers, a radiotherapist (and their partners) we tried not to talk about X-rays for the whole five day break. We ate vast amounts of fantastic food, played trivia games well into the night, spoke to family using Skype, shopped in The Lanes, danced the night away at the Honey Club and even managed a jog somewhere between all that.

Zaidee was horrified at the amount of food on her plate. And she hadn't seen the dessert options yet!

Sherryn enthusiastically popped her Christmas Cracker to reveal a trending looking hat (required attire for the day), a hair bobble (these crackers must have been on the shelf since the 80's) and a terrible joke (not worth repeating).
On Boxing Day we said our goodbyes and drove to Guildford to recover at Bron and Jerome's lovely house. To break up the drive back to Scotland we had a lovely 2 night stopover in York where Jane first went to school. It was great to test her 4 yr old memory. Unfortunately Dad told us the wrong house number so we made fools of ourselves taking pictures outside the wrong house for nothing. Lucky we didn't get arrested. The Minster (Cathedral) is just as impressive even though I've grown a bit since the last time I saw it.
Again the free walking tour of town did us proud - the volunteer was full of interesting facts. York has the most amazing varied history. It feels very Medieval walking through the narrow streets with houses leaning right over you.

BACK TO 27/08/07 ROMA - More than just a type of tomato.

Jane visited Rome with an orchestra in 2001 and claimed it as her favourite city in the world. After seeing a little more of the world (and being particularly bad at choosing just one favourite) this statement has been retracted, but she was REALLY looking forward to returning. We arrived on Monday 27^th AUG, negotiating the public transport with our backpacks and checking into our bargain of a hotel, very close to the Spanish Steps.

The hotel recommended a local restaurant and we walked around to our finest meal in Italy (well OK the first of many “finest meals in Italy”). The locals didn’t arrive for their dinner until 10:30, when they promptly sat and ate four courses without any trouble. We were struggling to digest our two!
The following day we ate our breakfast on the rooftop terrace and wandered to the Spanish Steps to meet Jane’s good friend, Libby from the Royal Children’s. After a quick espresso at the bar we caught the metro to the Colosseum.

We took a tour of this haunting and mind-boggling place where many a beast and man were slaughtered. Its construction started between 70 and 72 AD under the emperor Vespasian and was completed in 80 AD under Titus. Originally capable of seating around 50,000 spectators, the Colosseum was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles. It remained in use for nearly 500 years until around the sixth century.

Our tour also took us to the Palatine Hill which we found as impressive as the Coloseum. Much imagination was required though since a lot of the building materials (gold and marble) were pinched by the Vatican to decorate St Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican. This photo shows huge pillars with the marble stripped from their sides.

The palaces of three emperors were built here, one on top of the other. And their scale must have been GINORMOUS. Here is the INDOOR sports arena belonging to Domitian who held his own private chariot races in this arena.

It was a very hot day – near 40˚C! – so after our tour we stopped to paddle in the fountain.

Refreshed after our dip and having eaten some more pasta for lunch we walked on to the Pantheon where we saw Raphael’s grave. In the evening we planned a rendezvous to farewell Libby and fitted in well with the Italian’s late dining habits.

On Wednesday we met our guide from the Palatine hill for a 4 hour extravaganza tour of the Vatican City and St Peter’s Basilica. There are so many stunning things to see at the Vatican. Not only are there hundreds of paintings and statues, but there are rare tapestries woven with gold thread, ancient manuscripts and artefacts from afar (given as gifts from famous visitors) and rare hand-painted maps. The maps are impressive since they were drawn by two men sent out to map Italy with only a donkey each and one compass between them. The similarity between their version of Venice and the current one via satellite is awesome. The only differences now are a few extra bridges across the Grand Canal.

Our tour guide Hannah was fantastic, pointing out many interesting facts and some pretty funny ones two. She’d spotted Silvester Stalone on her numerous walks through the Vatican.Hannah pointed out this bath. The special marble – Egyptian Porphyry – used to make the basin, one single piece of stone, costs €20,000 per square inch.

Of course there are also plenty of paintings in the Vatican. The Sistine Chapel was incredible. We heard that the reason no one can take pictures there is that a Japanese imaging company paid for the most recent restorations in return for the sole right to any images from within the chapel. Hannah pointed out so much for us to look for and explained all the different sections to us before we arrived in the chapel itself.

The story goes that Raphael (who was already painting in the Vatican) suggested Michelangelo as the artist to paint the chapel when he spoke with Pope. Michelangelo was known as a very eccentric character and Raphael was dobbing him in, thinking he’d mess it up. Four years later, when the ceiling was finished, Raphael went with the Pope for a first peak. He realised Michelangelo’s genius and decided to honour him by painting him in to an already finished painting in the Pope’s rooms. That’s Michelangelo at the desk in the foreground of this famous work by Raphael, “The School of Athens”.We moved on to the awesome St Peter’s Basilica. Its size takes your breath away. Apparently the whole Statue of Liberty could fit under the dome! And there’s so much decadence. Here is the baldachin (cover) over the high alter, sculpted by Bernini using bronze taken from the roof of the Pantheon around 1625.

The Basilica also contains Michelangelo’s Pieta, behind a shield of bullet-proof glass. In the 70's an Hungarian-born Australian set upon the sculpture with an hammer and rather than stopping the vandalist people collected the pieces flying off as mementos! The pope issued a statement that anyone who didn’t return the pieces would be eternally damned. All but Mary’s left index finger were returned. The restoration was extremely thorough seeing as Mary’s face was the most badly damaged section – look at it now!

People also flock to the Basilica to touch the foot of St Peter’s statue – its said to bring blessings. The statue has had the foot replaced six times now!

The pope addresses the crowd in St Peter’s Square every Wednesday morning so the chairs were still set out. The Square has the highest crime rate per square meter in the world due to all the pick pocketing that goes on. It's still an astonishing place to visit. Just keep your hands over your pockets!On Thursday we visited the Galleria Borghese with some absolutely brilliant sculptures by Bernini (the same man who designed St Peter’s). It was fascinating to see all the different textures he could create from marble. No photos were allowed inside, sorry. You’ll have to go yourselves. That evening we walked to the Trevi Fountain. Before this trip we had no interest in sculpture but with so much talent on show here it’s hard to walk away unimpressed. We stayed to admire the fountain for at least 30 minutes.The following day we took the train to the Amalfi but you’ll have to wait for the next instalment. No doubt we’ve left you enough to read here!

Back on the Ayr!!!

You may be wondering if we fell off the edge of the planet but the truth is we've been computer-less for a long while. Finally we have a new laptop just so we can compose some more blogs for you. Well, ok there are other reasons we bought a computer. Anyway, now we have 2 months of our "holiday of a life time" to show. In order that we don't become complete computer geck recluses, writing blogs in all our spare time, we're going to stagger the blogs so don't worry, you won't get 10 pages to read all at once.

To fill you in with our current status, we are happily living and working in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland (30 mins South West of Glasgow). Greg has got a little more hairy (see picture for progress). We're welcoming comments since he wants to decide how long to keep the beard.
We've been extremely lucky with accommodation. One of our work collegues has an apartment built above her house. We're thoroughly spoilt with broadband internet, Sky TV with surround sound and a lovely family living quietly below us (we hope we return the favour!).

We have a spare bedroom if anyone wants to come and visit!! Hopefully the jobs will last and we can stay here for a few months. We'll be here at least until the end of January.We also decided to swap for car No 3.... its absolute heaven in comparison to any car we've owned and we love zippy little "Wizz Fizz" (see number plate for how we named her). The previous car (the Beast) was on its last legs with numerous issues all coming on us at once and also consumed vast amounts of petrol (double Wizz Fizz - greedy Beast!). Wizz Fizz is a Volkswagon Polo, 2 Door.

Would you believe we fitted all our belongings into the back?!! Thanks to good friends, Bron and Jerome, who put us up for a week while we bought the car and enjoyed cooking our own meals again (no more hotel breakfasts!).

BACK TO 17/08/07 Sail Croatia in the sun

Our week on the high seas began in Split, Croatia on August 17th. We boarded the Mihovil (our ship) to meet 16 other Aussies, a New Zealander, A South African and 2 Americans. We´d been planning the cruise with our great buddies, Fi and Davo (Jane´s friends from St Hildas), for months and we couldn´t wait to jump off the ship into the ocean just like in Katalina Line´s promotional photos! As part of our initiation the captain gave us all a drink of his home-made liquor, contained in a bottle to marinate with carob and rosemary. That was to filter off all the unseaworthy characters. Here´s Mihovil...or as Jane likes to call it: My hovel.A typical day on Mihovil began by being woken up at 7am by the alarm clock, included free with the room - the engine of the ship!! We´d stumble up to breaky and then make our way to the top deck for a morning of lying in the sun, reading and chatting.The captain would cast anchor and we´d all jump of the boat from various heights into the beautiful blue. Then we´d eat lunch, consisting of soup and yummy bread, meat and a little veg (the Croatians love their meat in all forms) and for some, depending on the previous nights activities, beer. Afterwards we´d retire to the top deck once more for more sun and perhaps another dip. In the afternoon or evening we´d arrive at our port for the night, look around, invade a restaurant with 22 people for dinner, drink a nightcap or two at a local bar and then wander back to be rocked to sleep in our small but comfortable bunks. Night stops included:

1. Makarska: a fishing village south of Split.


2. Mljet - an island that includes a large national park with two fresh water lakes. The water was an amazing colour! We were inticed for another swim which unfortunaley eventuated in being able to see the local monestry situated on an isolated island because we were too wet for the boat. The captain cooked up a storm on the ship´s BBQ that night. We especially enjoyed the cevapci - extra tasty, spicy Croatian skinless sausages.


3. Dubrovnik - possibly the highlight of the trip. Dubrovnik is a stunning city enclosed by a huge stone wall. The walk around the top is 2 km long and we almost filled the camera´s memory card just from this walk.


4. Korcula - a smaller walled city on a island. We arrived late so the light made photos difficult. Jane and Davo ate black cuttlefish risotto (much better to taste than to look at).


5. Hvar was the original destination but due to bad weather and rough seas we moved to the more protected side of the island and the town of Stari Grad. Hvar is supposed to be where all the rich and famous go so we mightn´t have fitted in. It was a exciting day on the sea with several people getting seasick and sightings of several tornados over the water (fortunately not too close to the boat).


6. Bol - a UNIQUE BEACH that changes shape with the tide. We´re glad that bathing suits are still the 'in thing' in Australia (hence the lack of photos from this day). We had another fabulous BBQ on board, this time in honour of Naomi´s birthday. The requirement for the celebration was a costume made from items of clothing from your pack. There were pirates and funning cross dressers, cowboys and Mexicans. Greg borrowed the hat from Mihovil. Jane was renamed "Olivia Newton Janie".

7. Split - We returned to the city of Split for our final night. Greg used his newly acquired talent of card shark, beating Jane and Davo at 500 several times.
   
   We sadly said goodbye to our new friends and swore to keep in touch.