Matty's Xmas and New Year visit

Dec-Jan 09

Matty enters Year 11 in 2009, so thought it would be great to have him over for Xmas and NY. Also, being a spring chicken he should be able to handle the cold!
We organised a brief trip to give him a taste of Europe, starting off with Milan in Italy. Matty was blown away at the Duomo, just in the sheer size and the history behind it. He also got to try our favorite Osteria in Milan with authentic Italian pastas and pizzas. We spent 3 days in Milan and then flew to Germany to spend Xmas with Joe's family. For us, Xmas is always about family. Whilst we were there, we visited Cologne Catheral, it wasn't as impressive as the last time we saw it, maybe because we've seen so many larger and more grand catherals. Xmas was a great time to catch up with Joe's aunts/uncles and cousins.
After Xmas we headed off to Brussels in Belgium. Matty was impressed with how the architecture, culture and language changes as we move through each country. After visiting all the touristy sites, we ate ourselves silly, trying their waffles, mussels, yummy frites, hot chocolate…

We then caught the Eurostar back to London to spend a few days to do the washing and prepare for our next trip. On New Years day, we hopped onto the Eurostar again and headed for Paris. You cannot visit Europe without stopping via Paris. We did the tour guide thing and showed Matty the Eiffel tower, Arc De Triomph, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Lourve and the list goes on. We introduced Matty to French cuisine which he liked…
The temperature dropped down to -7 degrees one night when we went out to view the Eiffel tower … it was COLD! Bbbrrrr…. To Matty's delight it snowed in the morning, first time Matty saw snow!

It was such a delight to spend quality time with my little baby brother… he's grown up into a thoughtful, intelligent young man… what a proud sister I am!

Aix-En-Provence - France

After seeing so many big European cities, the charm of small towns, cobbled streets, a more local feel was what we were after. My search leads me to Aix-en-Provence, a town filled with water fountains, the gateway to the Provence region, with lavender fields and known for its Muscat wine.We flew into Marseille which we were familiar with and then caught a bus to Aix-en-Provence. We love the old town, the aroma of fresh breads and pastries, the vintage looking biscuits and sweet store, the cafes and boutique shops. The town is filled with water fountains, I think over 40! They are great landmarks to meet friends. The streets were lined with chestnut trees (not edible ones though). The weekend was a lazy one, strolling through the old markets, eating local delicacies, and enjoying an opera singer practise in the old cathedral. A perfect weekend away.

Pisa, Berlin & Paris

After Joe went back to London to work, my parents and I continued our mini Europe tour. We caught the train from Florence to Pisa. Seeing as Joe and I recently went to Pisa (May08) I still remembered my way around. Our friends recommended a great restaurant, excellent Italian food at local prices! The pizza came out piping hot, and pasta was so tasty! My parents were very pleased! We had gelato on our way back to the hotel, and it was a wonderful time, spending quality time with my parents in the middle of Italy!

The following morning, we went to see the leaning tower and the surroundings, then jumped on a plane to Berlin. My parents were amazed how quickly we can hop from one country to the next! Berlin is so different from the towns in Italy, a lot more modern, most buildings were ruined from WW2. My dad enjoyed reading about the war at the Reichstag, and what’s left of the Berlin wall. Checkpoint Charlie was another spot, it made you realise this all happened not so long ago. A visit to the German city is not complete without trying out all the wurst aka as sausages! Our favourite is the curry wurst (it’s just a sausage sprinkled with curry powder and a delicious tomato based sauce).After a gruelling week of walking and sightseeing we headed back to London for a rest, and also see the sights of London. It happened to be a lovely day! (very odd) we visited tower of London, Borough Markets and walked along the South bank. My parents enjoyed the entertainment along the south bank and the relaxed atmosphere.Sunday morning, we jumped onto the Eurostar, and in 2 hours and 20mins found ourselves in the middle of Paris. One of my dad’s friend who he hasn’t seen for 34 years met us and took us to Versaille, residence of King Louis 15^th (I think).. We also did all the touristy stuff, highlight was the night tour. It really is the most romantic city in the world! After 4 days in Paris, we headed back to London, and completed last minute shopping and prepared for my parents departure. Although a short Europe trip, we packed in a lot!

Skiing in the French Alps - Chamonix Mont Blanc

Lisa and I recently got our first taste of skiing in Europe, and our destination? Chamonix Mont- Blanc in France. On this trip we went with our friends Ed and Lyn (fellow Australians living in London), who like us, have not skied since our last ski trip back in Australia some...... 8 years ago! so as you can imagine, we're quite rusty on our beginners level skills, and also being 8 years older, we're not as brave and as fit as we used to be.

The first day, we went up to Les Houches (Elevation 4280m) where we warmed up with some 'Green' runs. This was so easy and everyone picked up their skills easily... it was a nice and gental slope. After a few hours, we headed for our first 'Blue' run, and boy, the 'Blue' run in Europe is more difficult than the Australian Blue run. For the rest of the afternoon, we spent on our arse or face planted in the snow!

Day 2, we went to try and conquer Chamonix!... We headed for Les Praz ski field (in Chamonix) which started with a 15 minute cable car ride up the mountain. We all headed for the first of 2 green runs available on the whole slope. The first beginning part was a steep downhill slope that was narrow, and freaked everyone out a little. "You call this a Green run? oh hell!" and down we went. Lets say Lisa tried it once, and that was then end of her skiing (still tired from the previous day ;) Lyn went a few more times, and retired. Ed and I flew down the Green runs and enjoyed it heaps. We chickened out on the Blue runs though, as old age and tiredness caught up with us :P
We headed back to Chamonix town center, where we then made our way up to explore Mont Blanc, with the use of a cable car of course which took over 30-40 minutes to get to the top. Mont Blanc (Elevation 4810m) is the highest mountain in Western Europe, and is the highest mountain I have ever been up. It was so high, that Ed and I started to suffer from altitude sickness (I know I definitely was) but the girls were unaffected, which I was thought was quite strange... it possibly came down to the fact that they didn't expend as much energy as we did skiing. When we finally got to the top, the view was absolutely breathtaking (literally!), absolutely worth the trek, but being so cold, and so high up, we only spent a short time up there and made our way back down the mountain, back to a level where I can breath normally again.

On day 3, we left Chamonix and headed to Annecy, small lake town in France. A little piece of paradise that was picturesque, not over run by tourists, and had a great little French fresh produce market dotted along small back alley's. To me, it was the perfect town to live in. We all got some French tarts/pastries from a French bakery, barely stepped away from the store before we devoured the food we bought, right in from of the store owner, who just smiled with the satisfaction know we enjoyed his pastry & tart.
Day 4, we spent the day discovering Lake Geneva, and walking through the old city. The most distinctive thing you can see, in Geneva, is the fountain in the middle of the Lake, the signage of expensive watch brands, such as Rolex, Patek Phillipe, Frank Muller, ....swatch! :P The city was a little sleazy (due to the presence of prostitutes, thanks to the presence of rich businessmen), food was expensive, and not really that nice. Geneva, the home of the European Parliament, the home of expensive watches, designer clothing stores, a center for business, but in my opinion, not really a place to go on holiday.

Paris in the Winter

Paris 19/20^th Jan. Post by LP

We booked this trip some time ago…. Me being the planner, wanted to see the Louvre during winter, as I thought less people and shop the sales in Paris and not so dependant on weather as we’d be indoors.

We left first thing on Saturday morning, the station has now moved to Kings Cross, as new tracks were laid for Eurostar, which shaved 30mins of the trip. Previously the Eurostar would go at normal speed till it reached France and then full steam ahead as their tracks are newer. Now we are blitzing through UK and France and in 2 hours and 15mins, we are in the middle of Paris. We made our way to our hotel and off course the fist thing we did was visited our favourite pho restaurant in district 13. The pho was a bit salty for my liking, but still very tasty.

The rest of the afternoon was shopping at La Fayette… again I was in heaven , the frenzy made me dizzy, people everywhere which for me is a turnoff, I enjoy to shop in a calm and less frantic environment, but that’s abit too much to ask when you want to find bargains! I found shoes I liked, but the thought of trying to get a sales assistant to find the other pair, lining up to pay was too much for me, so I exited empty handed. We then made our way to the Sacre Coeur, Joe has been fascinated by this church since our first visit to Paris, so we came back to do more exploring. It’s situated high on a hill, which looks down to Paris which provides a great view…

It’s getting dark by 5pm, so to take advantage of lighting we made our way back to Notre Dame to take some night shoots. I am taking more of an interest in photography and was quite proud of my creation with my little camera… I tell Joe, he’ll be faced with some competition soon!

Sunday, we finally made it to the Louvre. What an amazing museum!! It’s so big, so we noted all our must sees and worked out the most efficient way of seeing it. Our must do list included the painting of Mona Lisa and Marie Madeleine, statue of Aphrodite and Psyche & cupid, and Winged Victory of Samothrace. The highlight for us was Napolean’s apartment; the photos we took did not do it justice. The extravagance was out of this world, the luscious furniture, the luxurious fabric of the curtains, the details of ornaments, and the gigantic sparking chandelier! We were told that if we looked at each item in the museum for 30 seconds, it will take us 9 whole months to finish it!

After the Louvre we went on last minute search for French wine and pate to bring back with us… So hard trying to find any shops opened on Sunday, but we finally found one!! Nearly missed our train ride home, we virtually got onto the train and a few minutes later, it started moving… Close call!

Marseille - France

Lisa and I recently went to Marseille, France's second largest city. Our pass through Marseille airport was in record time as it wasn't big at all, felt more like a regional airport.

Marseille was famous for a few things, being Seafood, Bouillabaisse - a traditional Provençal fish stew, and Soap (Savon de Marseille) and it's the gateway to the provence region.

After checking into our hotel, we took to the streets and headed for the Port (Vieux Port) passing through the many shops, restaurants, bars, cafes and Pizza joints. Rumour has it, Marseille has some of the best Pizza's in the world, and a restaurant serving the best Pizza in in the world. Lisa and I didn't get to try this restaurant, but we did get to try some pizza nearby a local market, and we can definitely say, it was damn good! and for 1 € a piece, it was great value. I think it was one of the best pizza's we've ever tasted. We would've been happy to live the whole weekend on Pizza.

As we walked through the city, we explored a traditional French Christmas Market, which was essentially and outdoor market with little stores, all decked out in Christmas decorations (a European Christmas tradition), selling normal goods, and also Christmas orientated goods. The smell of roasted chestnut tempted many by passers... yummm!!


Vieux port (the main area of Marseille) streets were lined with heaps of Seafood restaurants . We had dinner in a restaurant by the port, and Lisa order the Bouillabaisse which she throughly enjoyed, and I had the Mussels, which was nice, but nothing out of the ordinary. The only thing we didn't enjoy was the fact it too over an hour to get our meals, and the restaurant wasn't even that busy, maybe it was the French way.

Marseille was a medium sized town, with the traditional French architecture, small alley ways, lined with cafe's and restaurants, dominated by churches, and none bigger and more grand than the Notre Dame de la Garde perched up on the hills, which can be seen almost anywhere in Marseille. We didn't reach this Cathedral as it meant a steep hill climb, and we were in no mood for it. A perfect French get away.

Ah Paris, the city of LOVE

Magical Paris, 10-12^th August

Our 5 year anniversary was spent in romantic city of Paris!! We arrived early in the morning, and the first thing Joe and I could think of, was how to track down Pho!! Joe did his research and navigated through Paris metro system to the Viet town of Paris. The 2 restaurants on our to try list was right next to each other. We ordered and waited for our steaming bowls of pho to arrive. To our delight, it was delicious, fragrant and tasty broth, with slippery noodles and nice tasting meat with all the extra mints and sprouts.. ahhh there was silence for a while whilst we enjoyed eating and not didn’t want to waste precious eating time with talking!! After fuelling up, we were on the hunt for pork rolls (which they don’t have in London) we tracked a shop we’ve been to before down, and the best thing, it was in a proper baguette!! I was very very happy!!

Now for the site seeing, we headed up to Galeries LaFayette the beautiful department store, the interior was breath taking, Harrods is so over rated…. This is one beautiful shop!! Of course I was in heaven now, as I strolled through the huge designer shoe collections.. pity it’s so expensive, but a girl can dream! We then headed to the hotel to have a mini nap, as we’ve done it before where we just went and by 5/6pm we are dead.

In the afternoon we decided to take it easy and walk along the river and admire the gorgeous sceneries and atmosphere, I love the apartments in Paris, especially with the Juliette balconies… we decided to take a cruise down the river during twilight period, enjoying the slights from the boat cruise, great way to see the city, as we approached the Eiffel tower, it light up with lights.. it’s almost 10pm, and being the photographer Joe is, we navigated our way back to the Eiffel tower for night photos, which turned our spectacular!!

Sunday morning, we made our way to Arc De Triomphe, it’s nice just to sit there and admire the details of the monument. We strolled down the Champs-Élysées, I love it, but to Joe it’s just another shopping strip. We’ve walked the strip previously before, but I still find it magical. We made our way down to the Louvre, which we still have done yet, but I am waiting to go during winter so that there are less tourists. The stroll took a good couple of hours, and I was sad when we went to pick up our bags to make our way back to life in London. Oh well, at least I know that we will be back soon…