Innsbruck, Austria - Easter 2008

Jared and I went to Innsbruck, in the Tirol mountains in Austria, for Easter this year. Jared got a good flight deal through working for Expedia and we even got breakfast on the plane!! What a luxury...


The view from our hotel window













We arrived on the Friday and I had organised for us to go up a gondola and have dinner at the restaurant at the top. This restaurant is only open on Friday nights because they have to keep the gondola open specially. Normally it is just for transporting skiers up the mountain!

Because it was Easter they had a special Easter set menu. I can't remember exactly what we ate now, but we both agree that it was one of the best meals we've ever had. There was asparagus (white) in a few dishes because it was in season, and the meal was four courses, plus a wee welcome plate of food from the chef as well. But it was the perfect amount of food - so good!! I would definitely recommend it. And I'm sure their food is just as good at other times of the year as well. It was snowing when we were there, so the view was a bit obscured and we didn't take any photos, but here is one from their website.
Restaurant Seegrube

The view from where we had dinner (pic from www.innsbruck.info)

The next day we went to see the Bergisel ski jump tower, which was used in the winter Olympics in 1964 and 1976.

This picture is from the top viewing area on the ski jump tower, pointing out where the Seegrube restaurant on the other side of the valley is. Yes, we had dinner up in the snow!! And you can actually see the buildings in the zoomed in version of the pic :-)

The location of the restaurant



















The Bergisel ski jump tower



















Jared contemplating what it would be like...

















The inrun features a plastic track. During summer it is lubricated with water and in the winter it is covered with 30cm of packed snow. The inrun is 98m long and has a slope of up to 35O. Within 4 seconds after start the jumper reaches above 90km/h. The jumping skis measure up to 3m in length and 11.5cm in width depending on the height of the athlete. A special suit, jumping boots, safety binding, helmet, goggle and gloves complete the equipment.

So, the ski tower was pretty impressive. We had lunch in the cafe up there too.

One interesting thing is, when you are at the top of the ski jump, the next thing that you can see after the stadium at the bottom is a cemetery... Hmmmm - very reassuring.

We spent quite a bit of the weekend just wandering around, checking out the markets and some old churches along the way.

The next day lunch was at the Easter markets - and very traditional...

Beer, sausage...














And again :-)



















After lunch we went to Ambras Castle (Schloss Ambras) and walked around the museum, buildings and gardens there.

Next stop was a highlight of the weekend - Alpenzoo. It is the highest altitude zoo in the world and specialises in alpine animals. Since it was winter there were a few of the animals, like the ermine and the ptarmigan, that had there white winter coats. In the summer they both turn to brown in order to be camouflaged against the summer foliage. It seemed ok for a zoo, in terms of the animals having a fairly decent amount of space.

Photos...

Feeding time at the Alpine Zoo. Yep that's a goat of some description...





























The funniest, cutest little piglets.













I have video of these little dudes playing, fighting, running around... We couldn't drag ourselves away and it was snowing!

And then to warm up...

Aaaah, glühwein

Glenfalloch

High flow gauging on the Falloch River, which flows into Loch Lomond. The highest river level this had been gauged at since the 1970s!!






























Ask me for more details if you are interested...

Stirling Castle

One weekend in the winter I went to Stirling with my flatmate Linea to check out the castle. It was supposed to be a beautiful sunny day (so the forecast said), and apparently it was first thing in the morning, but the clouds rolled in and it ended up being amazingly cold and frosty. Very beautiful in it's own way, but SO cold, and we couldn't really see anything from the top of the castle. Anyway...

We walked up to the castle fropm the train station and I was tempted to take photos of this spooky looking graveyard - I think they came out quite well!

The castle itself was great. We went on one of the free tours and our guide was very informative, entertaining and patient with our lack of knowledge of British history! We asked lots of questions... Stirling Castle has definitely had a very eventful history.

Unfortunately, due to the bad weather, I don't have any good photos of the castle from below but you can check out the link above or the Historic Scotland website.

Linea on the castle walls







The view over Stirling













After our castle visit we went to Argyll's Lodging, a 17th century townhouse just down the road from the castle.
Me outside Argyll's Lodging













So, that was our day. I would definitely recommend a visit to Stirling Castle :-)

Sauze d'Oulx

The plan was to meet up at Sauze d'Oulx in Italy for a long weekend of skiing. I flew from Glasgow to Milan on Thursday 28th February and then had to get the train to Turin and onwards to the airport to meet up with the free shuttle that our accommodation (Flexible Breaks) provided from the airport. Jared, Bec and Jeff were going to spend the day in Turin and meet me then as well but when they arrived in Turin from London earlier that day the weather was terrible so they decided to go straight to Sauze with Emma, Celia and Marcus.

My day was long, and probably not worth what I saved in transport costs. Oh well, it was an experience, and to be honest, everything went just as I had planned and was not too difficult at all. I ended up getting a taxi from the train station at Turin to the airport, and although he didn't speak much English, and I no Italian, my taxi driver was very friendly and we had a short stilted conversation about New Zealand. I think he realised that I was a bit worried about the time, so he drove REALLY fast to the airport. A little scary!

As it turned out, I was earlier than the flight so had to sit in the airport for a while with the Flexible Breaks people waiting for the people who were arriving from London.

So, it was quite late when I finally arrived at the apartment that I had organised for us. As an aside, Flexible Breaks were really good and I would definitely recommend them for short ski trips in this area.

Friday was good. Nice weather but a bit windy. We decided to mainly stay in the Sauze area and explore further on the Saturday and Sunday. Sometimes we all skied together... sometimes we split up into smaller groups. It was fun!

Saturday unfortunately was REALLY windy. The only lift open was the little one at the bottom, so we decided to give it a miss and have a lazy day. And so it was! We wandered around town in the morning, had a big long lunch, then everyone went back for naps in the afternoon. We cooked in the apartment for dinner and sat around chatting.

Luckily Sunday was fine again, mostly... Still windy so the higher runs were closed and halfway through the day one of the main lifts linking the village and the top of the Sauze ski area closed. We happened to be at the top when this happened so we stayed up there and just used the wee two-seater chairs to get up. It was really cool because the mountain emptied out and we could go a bit wild! Very fun :-)

The restaurants/bars and the staff in them in Sauze were really good. We went back to one place a few times. We were all trying to talk in Italian (with Celia's patient tuition) and they kept talking back to us in English - quite bizarre. So we asked them to talk to us in Italian and they did! and they were very understanding. Apparently a lot of English people do go there so they must be used to it. We made sure they knew that we weren't English though! And because we went over the weekend (not from Sunday to Sunday like most groups), we didn't notice a huge English presence. It was very nice.

Lazy morning on Monday (with crepes and pizza, mmmmm) and then back to Turin about lunchtime to catch our flight back to London. Unfortunately, my flight back to Glasgow was delayed so it was a bit later than I'd hoped. The other funny thing was, there was snow on the ground when I got back to Glasgow! Could've just stayed in Scotland... ;-)

Sauze d'Oulx

I organised a long weekend skiing trip to Sauze d'Oulx in Italy at the end of February. Six friends from London joined me and we had a fantastic time! I'll add more detail later but here's some pics...

Bec, Jeff and Emma on the chairlift. Look at those blue skies!!










Emma, Jeff and Bec at a restaurant in Sportinia, Sauze d'Oulx ski area.









Me in my new yellow ski jacket!












The group - Jeff, Bec, Jared, Emma, Celia and Marcus










Bec and Jeff














Me, Marcus, Celia, Emma and Jared

Paris

Emma and I started our day very early catching the bus in London from outside a McDonald's near Baker St station. The trip down was fairly uneventful - I saw the famous cliffs of Dover and ferried across the English Channel for the first time. We were later arriving at our hotel than expected but it didn't really matter.

We stayed at the Ibis Hotel in La Defense, which is about 30 minutes walk from the Arc de Triomphe and the beginning of the Champs Elysees, less than 10 minutes on the metro, and on one of the newer and more frequent metro lines. It was really good and probably cheaper than staying more centrally. Still not far away at all though! It was all organised as part of the tour anyway so we didn't have a choice.

The first night we wandered towards the central city and found a nice wee (ha ha, that's the Scots in me coming out) place to eat that didn't seem very touristy and was on kindof a back street. One of the first things I noticed was that the staff were smoking! I've obviously become accustomed to not having to deal with this any more! Anyway, the meal was great, and pretty cheap.

Next was meeting up with others from our tour for a Cabaret show in town. Unfortunately, we were late for meeting the tour leader at the metro station but a kind man near the metro station asked us if we were lost, and although we probably could have figured out where the theatre was he was able to point us in the right direction straight away. So nice! And the tour leader was on his way back for us anyway.

The show we went to see was Paradis Latin, and you will be able to see from the link what it was like. All that you would expect of a cabaret show!! Lots of sparkles, skin, singing, and an amazing trapeze artist too! He was especially impressive. There was, as you would expect (and can see in the pictures on the website!!), lots of topless dancing from both the men and women - all part of the show!

As part of the entry fee you got a free drink - Emma got a glass of champagne and I asked for a half bottle of white wine. I got a full bottle of wine all to myself because they said they had no half bottles left, and the waiter kept coming to top up Emma's glass. And they didn't ask for any more money!! I didn't manage to finish my wine. It was quite funny too because the waiter kept flirting with Emma every time he went past. I think it is sort of expected of them but it was still funny.

The next day started with a bus tour around the city. We saw the Eiffel Tower, the Hôtel des Invalides, the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay and lots of other sights. The next organised thing for the tour was a boat trip but we decided to flag that and headed on the metro up to Montmartre and the Sacré-Cœur.

When I go back to Paris I would definitely like to spend more time in Montmartre. The streets are smaller and it seems as though there would be a lot of interesting bits to explore.

We leisurely made our way up the stairs to the Sacré-Cœur, stopping to look at the view and at the street performers on the steps half way up. The view over Paris from outside the basilica is fantastic. It was a bit hazy when we were up there but the best thing about it is that it's free! Inside was very impressive. Don't know how else to describe it. Definitely worth a visit.

We headed back to the bottom of the hill and got some crepes (mmmmm), then decided to walk back to town so we could exlore a bit and see what we found. It was really cool. We got some fresh lychees from a greengrocer and saw an amazing sweet shop, a pâtisserie, and a fishmonger's with all the goods laid out beautifully. We also came across some old churches, a huge shopping centre with Christmas lights all around it, the Opera House, and the Place Vendôme, the home of the Ritz hotel which Mohamed Al-Fayed owns, with a few onlookers trying to catch a glimpse of someone famous.

New Year's Eve Day was the day for our exploration of the Louvre, or at least part of it. It took us from about 9am until 1pm to see The Winged Victory of Samothrace, Greek sculptures, the Venus de Milo, the Italian paintings, including the Mona Lisa and other famous da Vinci paintings (this was one of my favourites), German, Flemish and Dutch paintings (including The Lacemaker by Jan Vermeer), and French sculptures. And then we were exhausted so went to get crepes for lunch. I had my own personal tour guide for the Italian paintings in Emma, whose art history lessons from school came flooding back to her. It definitely gave me more of an appreciation for why these paintings are considered to be master works of art and also an understanding of the progression of techniques and the like. I still don't really understand why the Mona Lisa is so amazing. I liked other paintings much more.

Em and I both found it a bit annoying that so many people were taking photos and none of the staff were stopping them. This was even though it said in the guide that photography was forbidden in the Italian wing. Some people were taking photos of EVERYTHING! Grrrrr.

To be continued...

Paris photos - New Year's Eve

I went on a coach tour to Paris with Emma for New Year's Eve (and two nights before). It was really good!

I'm guessing most of these won't really need captions... I'll write about the trip sometime soon.






















The dome of the Hotel des Invalides reflected in a bus window

















Emma and the Sacré-Cœur

















Contemplating a sculpture in the Tuilleries Gardens near the Louvre

















The main entrance to the Louvre


















New Year's Eve!

Christmas photos

Trafalgar Square, December 23rd



















London icons :-)

Frost in East Kilbride (where I work)

My trip home

I went home to New Zealand for three weeks in November and December. The reason for travelling at this time was for Nick and Tash's wedding on November 24th. It was a good coincidence that it was also about 18 months since I'd left New Zealand and I had always thought I would go home for a visit after about 18 months.

I'm not really sure how to comment on a wedding - words don't seem enough. The ceremony was lovely and very moving, and the rest of the afternoon/evening was heaps of fun - good food, dancing, chatting, excellent company... :-) It was nice to hang out with some of my Kiwi London friends in New Zealand, and also good to catch up with some of the crowd from Invercargill, and to have all these people meet each other! The brunch at Tash's mum's house the next day was great too - very relaxed, and hot! I thought I wasn't sitting in the sun but got sunburnt all the same!

Beck and Steve



















Sarah and I














Mr and Mrs Nick and Tash receiving their marriage certificate from the celebrant

















Nick and Tash and the amazing Bay of Plenty sunset

















The day before the wedding was my birthday so I wasn't expecting much because a wedding is much more exciting than a birthday! But I was very pleasantly surprised by some fantastic presents and wishes from lots of people. Thank you all! The first minutes of my birthday (using the NZ time zone) were spent in the rooftop pool at Singapore Airport. Very nice :-)

A bit of an aside - before our swim Beck and I did a free 2 hour tour of Singapore that is offered to anyone who is there in transit for five hours or more. I would definitely recommend! And if you have more time after the tour, you're allowed to go back into town and have a look around before coming back for your flight.

Back to NZ...

The next step of my trip was a night Ohope with my sister Kim, then she drove me to Rotorua to stay with my sister, brother-in-law, and niece for a few days. Last time I saw my niece Phaedra she was only a few months old and now she is two! She is talking more every day and managed to turn my name into "Lilise" or something like that. Although apparently now she can actually say Lisa!


Phaedra and I on the swing at play-group


















After an all-too-short few days in Rotorua I bussed to Wellington and spent two nights there with my friend Charlotte and then flew down to Invercargill, where I was just in time for the Envronment Southland Christmas party. The theme was Bad Taste and I managed to come up with something by layering a lot of my clothes and over-doing the make-up. See for yourself...




















It was a really good night and a great way to catch up with all my ex-workmates. It took some of them a while to realise that I have actually been away since last April!

Needless to say, the next few days were spent catching up with lots of people, including a walk on the beach with wigs on :-) (as you do!)















From Invercargill I made my way back up the South Island, with stops in Lauder (Central Otago) and Christchurch to see more friends. By the time I got back to Blenheim I was quite tired. Bus travel and catch-up drinks every night really takes it's toll! ;-)

So, one night in Blenheim and then off to Punga Cove with the family for the weekend. The weather wasn't fantastic but that didn't stop us from going water-skiing and swimming. Especially when there is a spa pool to warm up in afterwards!

We visited Ship Cove, which we hadn't been to for ages. There has been some work there recently and there were really interesting information boards about Captain Cook and his interactions with the Maori and all the history about the area. It was probably also the calmest water and the warmest weather we saw all weekend and we didn't have our togs!

Mum, Dad, Briar and Kim













We got back on Monday and the rest of the week until I left on Friday was good and relaxing, with a walk, a bike ride, yummy dinners, and a winery lunch. Excellent.

On the way back I had a really long stopover in Singapore which wasn't actually too bad. I got a room for 6 hours (you can't beat horizontal sleep), had a massage and a swim in the pool, and wandered around the shops quite a lot.

Then back to London for a night before coming home to Glasgow on the train.