On the travel blog?
Do not get your hopes up too high, but there's so many pics I want to share with you that really should not be on my crafting/ranting blog.
Stay tuned.
Tuesday, 24 June 2014
Goodness, what an idea
A post?
On the travel blog?
Do not get your hopes up too high, but there's so many pics I want to share with you that really should not be on my crafting/ranting blog.
Stay tuned.
On the travel blog?
Do not get your hopes up too high, but there's so many pics I want to share with you that really should not be on my crafting/ranting blog.
Stay tuned.
Saturday, 2 July 2011
On this day...
I was looking back through some old pics and thought it might be fun to do some On This Day posts.
In 2006, I was about to leave the job that had worn me down over 8.5 years. My seventh boss in that time was my undoing. Couldn't hack breaking in yet another boss.
For me, these pics are fairly prosaic but for others? Probably exotic.
--
In 2007, we had been in Colorado for hmm 10 days. We went for a drive up the Poudre Canyon. I was still struggling to drive on the correct side of the road... LOL
It totally blew us away.
I so want to grow one of these - Colorado's state flower, a white and blue-mauve columbine.
More pics here.
--
2008? We stayed home. But we still saw some nifty stuff around this day, like Ainsley House:
(OK, I cheated, that was taken on 3rd July 2008, but then I used 4th of July photos in the 2006.)
--
2009... The trip to Yellowstone.
Ol' Faithful (the second one we saw in the US ;-)
But my faves are still the pics we took at the Grand Tetons on the 30th of June and the 1st of July.
(That is my desktop pic :-)
A few more pics here. I should edit the rest of the good ones cos believe it or not, there are many more where these came from. Only problem is I am not terribly discriminating.
Enjoy!
In 2006, I was about to leave the job that had worn me down over 8.5 years. My seventh boss in that time was my undoing. Couldn't hack breaking in yet another boss.
For me, these pics are fairly prosaic but for others? Probably exotic.
--
In 2007, we had been in Colorado for hmm 10 days. We went for a drive up the Poudre Canyon. I was still struggling to drive on the correct side of the road... LOL
It totally blew us away.
I so want to grow one of these - Colorado's state flower, a white and blue-mauve columbine.
More pics here.
--
2008? We stayed home. But we still saw some nifty stuff around this day, like Ainsley House:
(OK, I cheated, that was taken on 3rd July 2008, but then I used 4th of July photos in the 2006.)
--
2009... The trip to Yellowstone.
Ol' Faithful (the second one we saw in the US ;-)
But my faves are still the pics we took at the Grand Tetons on the 30th of June and the 1st of July.
(That is my desktop pic :-)
A few more pics here. I should edit the rest of the good ones cos believe it or not, there are many more where these came from. Only problem is I am not terribly discriminating.
Enjoy!
Sunday, 24 April 2011
Monday, 11 April 2011
Sunday, 4 April 2010
A drive down the peninsula
Ah what a long time between posts! Not for want of photos, mind you, more because there are so many photos to put online and yap about. And excuse the overly wide shots for this blog layout...
So a little while ago, we went for a drive
down to Heronswood, a house built in the 1860s about 80km out of Melbourne. Actually, I lie, we drove down to visit the Digger's Club nursery and have lunch at the café there. (Not many cafés have set menus of locally grown food for $50 for two courses though!)
Along the way we saw a drive in with two screens! Drive ins are a rarity these days and one iwth two screens Of course it is near the beach in a touristy sort of area...
Heronswood has a lovely view of Port Phillip, aka "the Bay." The Bay was quite calms that day and the views were amazing - much better than the camera can depict. We could see the City quite clearly (what 60km away?) and even Mt Macedon, which is well beyond the City.
Very pretty!
(Excuse the power pole in the pic :-)
We were hungry and in a hurry to get to the café... but things like this were in the way.
There's lots of gardens at Heronswood but we didn't have time to go and look at them. We just saw the gardens around the café. We were hungry, remember? DH was galloping to the café and MiL was not far behind.
The café prides itself on using locally grown produce, including herbs and bits and bobs from borders like these:
(The bees were going nuts over the allium flowers. Totally nuts!)
My entrée (note that entrées are well entrées in Australia, not main meals). Swanky! My first ever terrine :-)
Mmm, lunch!
After lunch, I admired the kapok trees
and we visited the nursery and bought waaay too many fruit trees. DH has ideas of being self sufficient. I have images of every rainbow lorikeet and flying fox on the eastern seaboard eating our fruit before we get to!
On the way home, we popped into a winery - FiL had very much enjoyed their wine with his lunch!
And finally started the drive home, around the end of the Dandenongs. (The car we were in looked very similar to the silver one in the pic, only not the same cos that would be very odd indeed!)
So a little while ago, we went for a drive
down to Heronswood, a house built in the 1860s about 80km out of Melbourne. Actually, I lie, we drove down to visit the Digger's Club nursery and have lunch at the café there. (Not many cafés have set menus of locally grown food for $50 for two courses though!)
Along the way we saw a drive in with two screens! Drive ins are a rarity these days and one iwth two screens Of course it is near the beach in a touristy sort of area...
Heronswood has a lovely view of Port Phillip, aka "the Bay." The Bay was quite calms that day and the views were amazing - much better than the camera can depict. We could see the City quite clearly (what 60km away?) and even Mt Macedon, which is well beyond the City.
Very pretty!
(Excuse the power pole in the pic :-)
We were hungry and in a hurry to get to the café... but things like this were in the way.
There's lots of gardens at Heronswood but we didn't have time to go and look at them. We just saw the gardens around the café. We were hungry, remember? DH was galloping to the café and MiL was not far behind.
The café prides itself on using locally grown produce, including herbs and bits and bobs from borders like these:
(The bees were going nuts over the allium flowers. Totally nuts!)
My entrée (note that entrées are well entrées in Australia, not main meals). Swanky! My first ever terrine :-)
Mmm, lunch!
After lunch, I admired the kapok trees
and we visited the nursery and bought waaay too many fruit trees. DH has ideas of being self sufficient. I have images of every rainbow lorikeet and flying fox on the eastern seaboard eating our fruit before we get to!
On the way home, we popped into a winery - FiL had very much enjoyed their wine with his lunch!
And finally started the drive home, around the end of the Dandenongs. (The car we were in looked very similar to the silver one in the pic, only not the same cos that would be very odd indeed!)
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
So good to be Home
I'm sitting in the dining area of my parents'-in law place. There are young magpies begging for food in a gum tree about 10m away.
(ours have white backs unlike the northern or western version. Pic taken in the Exhibition Gardens in Melbourne.)
Magpie Dad carols a little, making up for the ugliness of his kids' whining.
There's rainbow lorikeets winging past, screaming their apparent joy to the world. They stop and sit in a tree and start squabbling. (Pic taken at Tooronga station.)
A couple of wattlebirds are disputing territory. Some little whitter birds are whittering. There's gum trees (Eucalypts), sheoaks (Casuarina), wattle trees, hibiscuits (hibiscus) and melaleucas outside the window. I ignore the houses and the sound of traffic from the local major roads. They are peripheral.
My goodness, the sounds make me homesick for the place where I am!
(ours have white backs unlike the northern or western version. Pic taken in the Exhibition Gardens in Melbourne.)
Magpie Dad carols a little, making up for the ugliness of his kids' whining.
There's rainbow lorikeets winging past, screaming their apparent joy to the world. They stop and sit in a tree and start squabbling. (Pic taken at Tooronga station.)
A couple of wattlebirds are disputing territory. Some little whitter birds are whittering. There's gum trees (Eucalypts), sheoaks (Casuarina), wattle trees, hibiscuits (hibiscus) and melaleucas outside the window. I ignore the houses and the sound of traffic from the local major roads. They are peripheral.
My goodness, the sounds make me homesick for the place where I am!
Thursday, 24 September 2009
Brienzersee
Two pics, nearly the same, taken from the train near Brienz, of the Brienzersee. Love the difference in colour!
Luzern 22 Sept 2009
A few pics from Luzern (Lucerne), Switzerland. Too far behind to do a travelogue!
Our feetses were very sore after this walk...
and we climbed lots of stairs too...
Not more stairs!
Our feetses were very sore after this walk...
and we climbed lots of stairs too...
Not more stairs!
Friday, 18 September 2009
Austria - Salzburg
Last post for the nonce! Lots of photos to go but I've had enough for the moment.
I hopped on a train for a couple of hours yesterday and emerged in Salzburg. It was very interesting. I didn't go to Neuschwanstein as it was raining and what is the point of going to a fairy tale castle if you can't see the flaming thing? (actually if it was flaming, it would probably be visible even in the rain.)
(Excuse the wonkiness - I had walked about 25km in the three days before, this including 12km on Wednesday, and I've had enough of walking.)
I didn't do much running around singing about Maria or the hills being alive or even a little night music. I didn't even see the statue of Mozart. But I did see a fair whack of old Salzburg before it started raining.
Since it was being unpleasant and drizzling on and off, I took off back on the train to Munich. I managed to get lost by using the gopher holes that they use to go under streets and get into the underground railway lines. I popped up one road too late and ended up walking back to where I had tea by mistake!
I hopped on a train for a couple of hours yesterday and emerged in Salzburg. It was very interesting. I didn't go to Neuschwanstein as it was raining and what is the point of going to a fairy tale castle if you can't see the flaming thing? (actually if it was flaming, it would probably be visible even in the rain.)
(Excuse the wonkiness - I had walked about 25km in the three days before, this including 12km on Wednesday, and I've had enough of walking.)
I didn't do much running around singing about Maria or the hills being alive or even a little night music. I didn't even see the statue of Mozart. But I did see a fair whack of old Salzburg before it started raining.
Since it was being unpleasant and drizzling on and off, I took off back on the train to Munich. I managed to get lost by using the gopher holes that they use to go under streets and get into the underground railway lines. I popped up one road too late and ended up walking back to where I had tea by mistake!
Germany - Munich
Now that I have found a friendly net cafe that runs linux/Ubuntu boxes, I'm uploading some stuff and writing more blog posts up. I feel much safer using a linux box than a windoze box. I know the net can still have sniffers and things just waiting to steal my password but at least the box itself is unlikely to be infected with anything nasty. And I now have it working with an English keyboard, not a German one. And there's a couple of people with NO accent sitting next to me. We do get around.
So, Munich. Gosh I didn't have a good day the first day we were here. Want to hear the litany of disasters?
I couldn't connect to the internet in our 300 euro a night hotel. They charge a euro per 15 minutes after the first free 15 minutes in their business centre. 300 euros a night and no free wifi! Can't believe it. 60 euro a night places have free wifi. Crikey! This meant no looking up German words for please, thank-you, excuse me, etc etc.
No tea and coffee making facilities in the room either - you have to call room service for that. Now Nathan's work is paying for the room but y'know a 10 euro cup of coffee seems a bit overpriced. I went and bought an electric kettle for 30 euros instead.
A bird pooped on my pants, the lovely new pants that I had put on for the first time that morning.
I only had five hours sleep.
DH forgot to give me any cash. 5 euros does not get you very far when you have to buy some lunch with it.
I had been told that most people speak English, but most of the people I found didn't! Lots of pointing and hand flapping followed.
Oh there were other things but that will do!
I did find yarn in department stores. Nice sock yarn and some souvenirs for people in SJ. I also saw a lot of interesting buildings, which you can see scattered through this post.
I went for a lovely walk in the Englische garden. It was soooo green.
And I found out why some boys were carrying surfboards in the middle of Munich.
(That's surfing on a standing wave at the start of one of the garden's rivers.)
So, Munich. Gosh I didn't have a good day the first day we were here. Want to hear the litany of disasters?
I couldn't connect to the internet in our 300 euro a night hotel. They charge a euro per 15 minutes after the first free 15 minutes in their business centre. 300 euros a night and no free wifi! Can't believe it. 60 euro a night places have free wifi. Crikey! This meant no looking up German words for please, thank-you, excuse me, etc etc.
No tea and coffee making facilities in the room either - you have to call room service for that. Now Nathan's work is paying for the room but y'know a 10 euro cup of coffee seems a bit overpriced. I went and bought an electric kettle for 30 euros instead.
A bird pooped on my pants, the lovely new pants that I had put on for the first time that morning.
I only had five hours sleep.
DH forgot to give me any cash. 5 euros does not get you very far when you have to buy some lunch with it.
I had been told that most people speak English, but most of the people I found didn't! Lots of pointing and hand flapping followed.
Oh there were other things but that will do!
I did find yarn in department stores. Nice sock yarn and some souvenirs for people in SJ. I also saw a lot of interesting buildings, which you can see scattered through this post.
I went for a lovely walk in the Englische garden. It was soooo green.
And I found out why some boys were carrying surfboards in the middle of Munich.
(That's surfing on a standing wave at the start of one of the garden's rivers.)
France - Dijon
Dijon was a very different place to Toulouse. OK it is smaller but its centre ville is quite different in feel. I am sure that Toulouse's buildings are not as old as they appear but Dijon has a lot of classical French stuff. It was also about 10C cooler.
There was still columbage (I am probably spelling that wrong), which is what I'd call Tudor
The main street had the flags of local duchies, etc, flying. Sorta odd given that I thought France got rid of all that a couple of hundred years ago. But the effect was great.
We had 24 hours in Dijon. It was very pleasant, though cooler than we had expected (but Toulouse was warmer than expected too). I think I preferred Toulouse, though I didn't have to deal with anything like getting us from A to B in the living sense, getting food, etc, etc. We just walked or rode or took PT to town. In Dijon we were on our own. It was still verra nice!
There was still columbage (I am probably spelling that wrong), which is what I'd call Tudor
The main street had the flags of local duchies, etc, flying. Sorta odd given that I thought France got rid of all that a couple of hundred years ago. But the effect was great.
We had 24 hours in Dijon. It was very pleasant, though cooler than we had expected (but Toulouse was warmer than expected too). I think I preferred Toulouse, though I didn't have to deal with anything like getting us from A to B in the living sense, getting food, etc, etc. We just walked or rode or took PT to town. In Dijon we were on our own. It was still verra nice!
France - leaving Toulouse
(This post has pics this time around!)
After a very busy but happy few days in Toulouse, we headed off to Dijon. We had to get up before dawn (as did our host) and the train was well on its way by the time the sun got out of bed.
The train was very pleasant and we had the carriage almost to ourselves for the first hour or two of the journey. This is first class.
The train also went super fast between Montpellier and Lyon. Gosh that was fab! 300km/h. Just a bit faster than I've ever been except in a plane of course.
Finally, six hours later, we arrived in Dijon. Cheers!
After a very busy but happy few days in Toulouse, we headed off to Dijon. We had to get up before dawn (as did our host) and the train was well on its way by the time the sun got out of bed.
The train was very pleasant and we had the carriage almost to ourselves for the first hour or two of the journey. This is first class.
The train also went super fast between Montpellier and Lyon. Gosh that was fab! 300km/h. Just a bit faster than I've ever been except in a plane of course.
Finally, six hours later, we arrived in Dijon. Cheers!
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Munching in München
Well we made it safe and sound to München and gosh I cannot type on a German keyboard.
Our 300 euro a night hotel won't let us connect to the net. We don't even get coffee cups or anything. No pics cos this is not my machine.
Now I am off to find yarn shops. Tomorrow I am off to either that castle, Neuschwanstein?, or to Salzburg. Depends on when I wake up - the tour leaves at 9 whilst I can catch a train to Salzburg anytime.
It has taken me nearly 10 minutes to write this much.
Have fun!
Our 300 euro a night hotel won't let us connect to the net. We don't even get coffee cups or anything. No pics cos this is not my machine.
Now I am off to find yarn shops. Tomorrow I am off to either that castle, Neuschwanstein?, or to Salzburg. Depends on when I wake up - the tour leaves at 9 whilst I can catch a train to Salzburg anytime.
It has taken me nearly 10 minutes to write this much.
Have fun!
Sunday, 13 September 2009
France - cheers from Dijon
This morning we packed our bags and left Toulouse and our new good friends behind. I was sad to leave Toulouse but excited about seeing a new place!
We chose Dijon on advice of our Toulouse friends. Also we could get a train directly here but it did mean getting up at 6:30am on a Sunday morning after getting to bed after midnight.
My goodness, what a great choice!
I leave you with a few pics. On second thoughts, I won't cos we have low speed free wifi and it is baulking at the large pics. I can't upload them.
Cheers from Dijon!
We chose Dijon on advice of our Toulouse friends. Also we could get a train directly here but it did mean getting up at 6:30am on a Sunday morning after getting to bed after midnight.
My goodness, what a great choice!
I leave you with a few pics. On second thoughts, I won't cos we have low speed free wifi and it is baulking at the large pics. I can't upload them.
Cheers from Dijon!
Friday, 11 September 2009
Oooh la la! Toulouse!
On the 10th of September, we walked into town. Our plan was to hire Vélos but there were none left in the stands. So we walked.
Walking was good. Just as well. It is only a bit over 2km into the centre of town but we managed to walk more than 10km just wandering around looking at stuff (and today my feet are sore and Nathan's calves are complaining). We planned on getting velos back to here but umm, well it turns out that they don't like overseas credit cards (I can remember this being an issue in Paris not long after velibs were introduced there). But we survived, and at least it was not far to walk home!
We are fascinated by the narrow streets - they are not very wide at all. Cars park on one or the other or both or neither side (depending on the width), the narrow footpaths have green wrought iron barriers on them (presumably more to stop cars parking on the kerb and forcing peds to walk in the middle of the street even more than they do now), motorbikes, cars, bicycles and pedestrians are just all over the place. And the buildings are fascinating.
(I think that is the Canal du Brienne but I am not sure of the spelling or the French grammar but I know where to find it again.)
C'est fab! LOL
Today I hope to go back into town to find two yarn shops - we were only one road off them but one road is plenty far enough away! DH is not very willing to walk, and we need to do things like get stamps for postcards and fix up our I-94s, which the silly people in DFW airport did not take from us - they were running late getting us on the plane (that was fine, we were late too!) but did not do any passport stuff, unlike say LAX which wants your passport and takes the immigration card. We have to send off proof that we have left the US along with the card before we can get back into the States. Sigh. Oh and we need to book the next part of our train trip, which means deciding where we are going. 8-D
Walking was good. Just as well. It is only a bit over 2km into the centre of town but we managed to walk more than 10km just wandering around looking at stuff (and today my feet are sore and Nathan's calves are complaining). We planned on getting velos back to here but umm, well it turns out that they don't like overseas credit cards (I can remember this being an issue in Paris not long after velibs were introduced there). But we survived, and at least it was not far to walk home!
We are fascinated by the narrow streets - they are not very wide at all. Cars park on one or the other or both or neither side (depending on the width), the narrow footpaths have green wrought iron barriers on them (presumably more to stop cars parking on the kerb and forcing peds to walk in the middle of the street even more than they do now), motorbikes, cars, bicycles and pedestrians are just all over the place. And the buildings are fascinating.
(I think that is the Canal du Brienne but I am not sure of the spelling or the French grammar but I know where to find it again.)
C'est fab! LOL
Today I hope to go back into town to find two yarn shops - we were only one road off them but one road is plenty far enough away! DH is not very willing to walk, and we need to do things like get stamps for postcards and fix up our I-94s, which the silly people in DFW airport did not take from us - they were running late getting us on the plane (that was fine, we were late too!) but did not do any passport stuff, unlike say LAX which wants your passport and takes the immigration card. We have to send off proof that we have left the US along with the card before we can get back into the States. Sigh. Oh and we need to book the next part of our train trip, which means deciding where we are going. 8-D
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