Back to the Amalfi coast

So, given that the weather over here has been so lousy Lou and I decided to head over to Italy for a week. Gorgeous weather(high 30's), great food, great scenery and lots of relaxation. We stayed in a town called Vico Equense which is about 10minutes by boat from Sorrento on the Amalfi coast/Neopolitan Riviera. I was in this same area a couple of years back in a similar sized village about 45 minutes from this one. Our days were mostly filled with sitting on the beach, which was right out the front of the hotel. A couple of days we did some sight seeing, one day in Sorrento and one day in Capri. And as was the case last time the American tourists provided the entertainment with their amusing commentaries. The area we stayed in seemed to have mostly Italians with a few German families.

Here are the highlights:

Avranches in April

Here's the trip to France finally. For those that don't know, Mum gave Cam and I a week in a house in France for Christmas. She then decided to surprise us(well me, Cam knew) by turning up and coming on the trip with us.

The house we stayed in was in Avranches which is on the north coast of Normandy, France. The area was near Mont Saint Michel which you could see in the distance.




Avranches

This was the square in the centre of town in Avranches

Main street by night:


Mont Saint Michel






The Mont by night


Cam looking sofistikaytid


The market. This is where we picked up a live crab for dinner along with some gorgeous apple cider.

And this is the cooking and eating of the crab:


Christian Dior's house... smelt nice. He wasn't home though


Some little town we saw with a church


We went out for dinner in the town one night to a pretty little pizza place:


Omaha Beach memorial, and down on the beach:




Thankfully I took my golf clubs over and got to play golf on Omaha beach. Well not actually on the beach but on a golf course near the beach. They filmed part of Saving Private Ryan here, I think it was the big golf tournament part, or perhaps that was Caddy Shack? There were some stunning views from the green on the 6th. Didn't see any Germans though, luckily. Although I am getting more accurate with my driver.


We headed back via a little town where Erik Satie lived his house was a bit of a museum complete with white grand piano and barbed wire harps.

Venice

As some of you would know I've been itching to get back overseas somewhere since my passport was taken away from me last year. So Louise and I decided to go over to Venice to experience Carnival!

We managed to get the whole thing planned quite cheaply which was a major bonus. Unfortunately we got up early in the morning and saw this:


Not a good start. Undeterred we made our way out to Stansted and after a 4hr wait discovered our flight had been cancelled due to the snow! Major pain in the bum. After some effort and ages on hold we managed to book another flight the following day into a different airport in Italy that would at least get us near Venice. Working out that the cost of getting back home and then out again to Standsted was going to be a fair bit we discovered a car was going to be a cheaper and easier option. So we hired a car and made the most of it by driving up to Cambridge for the day.

The next morning we made the treck out to Stansted again, this time in a car. We made our flight then after a long bus ride from Forli to Bologna then a train from there to Venice!



We finally realised we were near when out the window we saw the first Gondola.


Eventually we arrived in Venice itself a day and a half late. Once we got there we made our way to the hotel dumped our bags and headed into the square to see the opening parade:












After the opening we just wandered around accompanied by a huge lump of delicious Nougat!


We saw the Bridge of Sighs, and loads of other bridges canals and squares:




That evening we had a gorgeous meal at one of the locals' seafood restaurants. It was hidden away near our hotel which was in the more venetian part of venice. Amazing food and reasonably priced too.

The next day we did a whole lot of wandering and looking:






We also went into an amazing church which had some really old stuff in it like this:




Then wandered back through the square which was by now packed with people:


Then we walked back to the hotel(Hotel Vecellio if anyone is looking for a really nice hotel in Venice), picked up our bags and headed back to the airport.


And that was our Venice trip!

Christmas in the UK

Christmas this year involved a bit less travelling than last year. In fact it couldn't have been much less travelling for me. Cam and Matt came over to mine and for Christmas Eve they cooked Sveedish Meatballs. Inspired by their recent trip to Sweden I guess. Then there was lots of Xbox playing(a Christmas present!) and some present giving. Then we gave the folks a call on Skype with the webcam hooked up.



Christmas Day was also pretty relaxed, late start then a dish of Pork wrapped in Bacon with potatoes, mustard, and an Australian Merlot.

Lou on ice

For a bit of Christmas fun Louise and I decided to go ice skating. It seems that most of London also wanted to do the same thing so available outdoor rinks were hard to find. We also kinda left it to the last minute. After some hunting we booked some tickets at the outdoor rink at the Tower of London.

So to make the most of the day we decided to head there early and wander along the Thames where we went to the Tate Modern and saw some mirrors. Trippy.


We eventually ended up at the Tower of London for our 9pm skate session. It was a great venue with a gorgeous backdrop.


Unfortunately they didn't like people taking photos while on the ice so we didn't get any action shots.

Oxford Street at Christmas

Went for a bit of a stroll on a Sunday afternoon, through Queens Park, Regent's Park, other parks and ended up on Oxford Street. This is what it looks like at Christmas:

Warming of the house

Finally we got around to having our housewarming party which was also a blend with a Christmas party. This is what it looked like. Keeping with Christmas tradition I also made a Gingerbread House. Which then got smashed.

The English Seaside

Went down to Eastbourne. This is what I saw: