So much to eat, so little time

Photos can be found at http://www.globalregulators.com/gallery/hamburg2005

Al, Chico and I arrived in Hamburg, Germany at 10:30am on Saturday morning. We were all tired after having to get up at 5am to get to the airport.

After checking in to our hotels and meeting up with Chico's friend Steph we hit the Christmas markets straight away.

Hamburg was something special. There were Christmas decorations everywhere you looked and the markets were like something out of Santa's village.

Most of the stalls were selling German cuisine and others were selling anything from Chrstmas decorations to wood carvings. The smells were wonderful and more often than not the food tasted even better.





Sunday morning we decided to give our stomachs a rest and walk off the copious amount of food we had consumed the previous day. First stop was St Nikolai (photo below), a cathedral built at the end of the 12th century in the centre of town, which had been the main target for the British when they bombed Hamburg in 1943.





Second stop was St. Michaelis, built 1751 - 1762, is northern Germany's most important Baroque church and Hamburg's landmark. The spire, popularly known as the Michel, is 132 m high; take in the breathtaking view of the city and harbour from the visitors' platform (where the above photo was taken).

We had such a great time in Hamburg this weekend. It was the most fun I have had doing something Christmasy since I was a little kid.

Journey South

Chico, Lisa and me decided to make the trip down to Hampton Court Palace. On the website it said it was only a 40 minute train ride from Waterloo station. No worries we thought....


2 and a half hours later, we finally arrived there. Guess the website forgot to mention what happens when there is track work and the trains don't go all the way.
We finally reach Hampton Court, and its a short 5 minute walk to the actual Palace. 12 pounds to get in (once again, we forgot to bring along the 2-for-1 coupons that appear everywhere when you're catching the tube).

Once inside, it was out to the gardens to check out as much as possible before the weather turned sour. Kind of similar to Sydney weather, it can go from blue skies to gray clouds in no time at all. Luckily for us, it remained a great blue skied day for the whole time we were there.

During our time, we had to take our obligatory "where are we" photo.

Chico won the maze race - apparently the maze here is the oldest in England. Did feel like we were in a scene from Labryinth or Harry Potter....

The day went quite quickly and there was definitely enough things here to see and do to take up the whole afternoon. Another funny moment included Lisa doing a Harry Potter impersonation with a broomstick.

The most famous owner Hampton Court Palace had was King Henry VIII. A lot of the Palaces interior has been restored to look like it was in his day, though the tapestries and paintings are originals. Lisa also gets the award formost likely to be a hidden camera journalist for a current affairs, with her vintage footage taken inside the Palace rooms. With security patrolling at every corner (there was no photography or video footage allowed), she made good use of the cameras 'discrete filming' capabilities.

stones, baths and 2 smoking barrels

Today's journey west consisted of:

• Stonehenge
• Salisbury Catherdral
• Bath

Stonehenge
The day started out leaving at 8.30am from Paddington Station and heading to Stonehenge. Although the day was quite clear, there was also a very high level of fog around. It is a 5000 year old stone circle, construction started around 3000BC. Each of the larger stones weighs 4 tones, and were hauled 250 miles.

We had 40 minutes to check out Stonehenge, and take as many (funny) photos as we could before moving on.

Salisbury Cathedral
A short trip away from Stonehenge, and we found ourselves at Salisbury, which was the home of our next pit stop and mandatory rest break. Lunch for the 3 of us consisted of old fashioned bangers and mash at a pub right near the cathedral.

This is supposed to be one of the oldest gothic type cathedrals in England (if not the oldest?). The cathedral was constructed during 1220-1258. The spire was erected some 15 years later, at 123 meters, it is the highest spire in Britain.

Half the regulators wouldn't be who they are without the thing we saw today - the Magna Carta. This is one of 4 copies that still exist (Chico was very happy to say the least). The Magna Carta agreement was made between King John and his Barons in 1215.

Bath
With only 1.5 hours to spend here, we really were a bit rushed, and definitely would love to come back here (maybe when its a wee bit warmer). All the streets and buildings were very beautiful and definitely had a nice vibe to the place. The main part of our short stay here was to check out the Roman Bath spas, which were interesting, however we certainly rushed through it, and probably didn't get to take it all in as best we could. At the end of the tour, we got to sample some of the bath water (see the photo below) which I didn't mind, but Lisa and Chico couldn't handle it.

We had a quick stop at the fudge factory, packed a few blocks into our bags, and then headed off to do a quick run around the town to check out as much as we could before the bus left.

we were able to sample the Bath spa water

From Bath, it was full steam ahead back to London - the days are getting incredibly short here, with it getting dark by around 4.30pm. And thats about all we've got, so until next time.

a visit to Harrods....

So Lisa and me decided to continue our sightseeing of London this week, and on Monday we decided to check out Harrods at Knightsbridge.

So were walking through and see a familar face (Mohammed Al Fayed - the owner) and he's hurrying off in the opposite direction. We then see a whole bunch of people in suits and sunglasses and this obviously gets our attention so we decide to follow them to see what the story is.

Low and behold, its Annie Lennox and the other guy doing a quick photo shoot. We guess its for their new album that has just come out.

Comic Tour in Brussels

Below in this blog is a sample of the photos taken in Brussels of some of the street art around:

- - -

I would normally provide commentary on where they were and who's piece of work they all are, but it was straight out of a tour written up in lonely planet...

Mussels in Brussels

So maybe not the most original title for a blog but it certainly covers their national dish (mussels and chips), which we managed to have at 3 times during our weekend there. So, anyway a quick run down of the weekends highlights:

Fri 04/11/2005 (7pm)
So we leave Waterloo London via the Eurostar. It was Lisa and my first time, and as far as getting you somewhere, I was pretty content. Unlike airports, train stations are pretty much in the central part of town, which was the case for Brussels with only a short 5 min taxi ride to our hotel.

The train ride was 2.5 hours which meant we got in at around 10pm - we were feeling peckish, so headed straight to the grand place to check it out. Certainly looked very impressive when all lit up, and then headed to one of the many numerous restaurants littered around the place.

Finally, the night finished off with a bit more walking around and getting our bearings, and sampling some of Brussels many beers on offer.


Sat 05/11/2005
With breakfast out of the way at the hotel, we headed back off to the Grand Place to get some more photos, this time with daylight to help us out. It was then off to the large shopping galleries, which is home of NeuHaus, one of the oldest chocolate shops (1857) in Belgium.

Next came the Cathedral Des St Michel and then the Belgian Centre for Comic Strip Art. There were some cool things here, but i'm sure we could have appreciated it a bit more if our french/flemish was a bit better.

It was then time for lunch, we tried to avoid the expensively priced 'tourist' restaurants near the grand place, but i don't think we made it far enough, or maybe arrived at a slow time of day, as the service was incredibly slow.



So next, we decided it was time to check out the Musee Bruxellois de la Gueze, which is a traditional working brewery. This was certainly one of my highlights for the weekend, getting a good feel and flavour for a beer brewery. There was a definitive smell as soon as you walked in, and the whole place had a bit of character to it. They actually do brew beer there, and it is done between November to April (the cooler months).


Sun 06/11/2005
Sunday, was filled with a visit to the markets, followed by Belgium waffles. A short tram (it was weird to see trams underground) and a train ride, and we arrived at the EU headquarters and the Parc Du Cinquantenaire.

After lunch (which was more Mussels for Lisa and me), we embarked on the street comic tour. It took just over an hour, and although we seemed to be going through fairly deserted streets, the actual art that we found splattered around the streets was definitely worth checking out (check the next posting which will have some of the sample photos).

Scotties in Town!

So this weekend, we had the lucky chance to spend the weekend with scottie....

Friday, Lisa and me headed to Chicos pad to hang out and wait for the boston-ite to arrive...

Friday night we went to an indian restaurant on Elgin Avenue. Considering we were the only ones in the restauratnt the entire time we were there, the food was surprisingly good. Followed this up with Chico taking us to a pub near by. Never thought i'd be going to Chico for advice on pubs to go out to.

Sat started out with baskie for me and Chico. Again, I was pretty buggered by the end of it - 2 hours inside a pretty hot gym. Feet were wrecked, but glad that I got to run around. Gave lisa a call and we met up with her at Nandos for lunch. The afternoon, we decided to go see Serenity - wanted to compare it to the 90% version we saw back home. It was just as good the 2nd time round, if not better! and i'm glad that Chico loved it too. Will try and copy the episodes I have on DIVX to DVD for him.

Sat night, we met up with Ev & Al - it was Al's farewell, which is a shame that he was heading back home... fitty expensive bar in SOHO. Round of drinks (for 3 people) cost 18 pounds!! guess we were paying for the atmosphere. got relatively drunk, and when the place was closing, the boys knew of a club called egg which was near kings cross station - so we all jumped into a fairly amusing mini cab.




Sunday, scottie headed back to Boston, and Lisa, Chico and me decided to do a bit of sight seeing, and check out the london eye.

Madam Tussauds

it wouldn't be a trip to the famous wax musuem without some funny photos taken.

Al & Jamie Alfred Hitchcock gives Lisa a fright

Who wouldn't resist an evening with big George...

Travel Diary for Scotland (Sept 19th-21st)

Tuesday Sept 20th
5am arrive in Heathrow Airport
7am Leave Heathrow for Glasgow Airport
8.30am arrive in Glasgow Airport
12pm head out to Hansel tea house for tea and scones with Edith & George then off to Ayr to view the sea town down south.

Karen & Phil come over at night, but Al is well and truely asleep by this stage

Wednesday Sept 21st
Off to Stirling via Falkirk Wheel
The falkirk wheel is based in Falkirk (no surprises there), and moves boats from one waterway to another.

We then visited the Wallace Monument in Stirling (statue to the right which appears at the bottom of the Wallace Monument), followed by a tour through Stirling Castle.

More of Lisa's family arrived on wednesday night to Edith & George's. We had David, Kim and their baby (they are based in Milton Keyne's), Paul & Monica (from South Africa), as well as Sandra (Edith and Mary's sister), along with Phil & Karen who we had met the previous night.

David & Kim Monica & Paul

Phil & Karen

Bangkok and Pattaya

We’re about to fly out of fitty humid Bangkok tonight and land in oh so cold Glasgow tomorrow morning. First night we stayed in Bangkok. Did what seems everyone does in Bangkok, we shopped. We some how bargained a taxi driver to take us around town for 20 baht (65c AUS) for a couple of hours. Al did the norm, had some business pants and two shirts made. We went to some markets and stumbled on what I can only describe as Al’s heaven. Three floors of electronics! There wasn’t enough time in the day to see it all.

Day two through to day five we spent in a town called Pattaya. We were just looking for a place to relax but we knew we were in for more when we saw a man wearing a t-shirt that said “Good Boys Go To Heaven, Bad Boys Go To Pattaya”. As we walked through the streets of Pattaya we noticed a lot of older white men either by them selves or with very young Thai women if you know what I mean.

the entrance to our hotel in Pattaya

It wasn’t all sleazy though. Our resort was amazing - lovely people, beautiful rooms, a welcome drink when we arrived, and happy hour between 5 and 7 every night in the open air lobby and a great restaurant. We have hade the best Thai food ever (rightly so I guess).

Lisa and me in our bathrobes relaxing

I think I have taken my tolerance of spice up a level but I am still an amateur compared to Al. Every morning he comes out of the bathroom saying he will not order anything spicy ever again but by lunch time he has forgotten about the morning’s events.

I had a Thai massage one of the days. As good as it was I kept thinking if only I actually had muscles because I bet I would have enjoyed this even more had I been my friend Dave or Chrisso. My masseuse said it would have been better if I’d been in my bikini instead of board shorts but the way she was separating and massaging I think I was wearing the right thing.

On our last day we went to “The Island”. We would walk along the beach and every ten metres there was guy with a laminated sheet showing us a picture of people parachuting, a tropical island, a boat and rifles. No one could tell us what the name of the island, they just kept saying the island, the island (in a newsletter we found in Bangkok today, it appears the islands name was Koh Larn). When I put it all like this it sounds like no sane man would get on a boat with any of these people but we did. It was just another beach but with nicer water (wouldn’t recommend swimming the water of Pattaya) and we managed to rip off the 16 year old boat driver because we spent our money on beer before we paid him. The best thing about the island, and the main beach is the banana chairs that you can relax in with an umbrella above you. People bring you beer (or food), and it all only costs a fraction of what it does in OZ. What a great day.

We’ve now been in Bangkok for 3 days and know why Bangkok is so good for shopping … because other than your hotel room, that is the only place you are going to be in air conditioning. It is bloody hot! Never seen so many shopping centers. After a few days, certainly is a fairly easy city to get around (esp if you have a map and your taxi driver can’t speak English, you just point and shoot).
Well, we did try and see some of the famous landmarks around Bangkok. Highlights were certainly a boat ride along the rivers/canals and getting to see quite a bit of the way the Thai’s live in that area. Unfortunately the one day we decided to see the Grand Palace, it was closed for a ‘one Sunday each month’ for Buddhist monks to pray.

Koi, who is the sister of one of our good friends lives in Bangkok and she was able to play tour guide for us on one day, which was awesome, as you feel all that more confident walking around and into shops with a local.

Koi (Gib's sister) with her two children

She also took us to a great restaurant by the water which again served cheap but awesome food… On to Galsgow. What a culture and temperature change that will be!