Easter in Caerdydd (Cardiff)

It was a bit nippy but the nonetheless a lovely four-day sojourn at the Welsh capital over Easter. Staying at the Hilton directly opposite Cardiff Castle was a definite highlight as well as damn convenient.

On a random walk through the city on Saturday (March 23) it was hard not to notice hordes of rugby fans sporting four different rugby jerseys. Not one to remain ignorant for long, I asked someone what was going on. It turned out to be EDF Energy Cup Finals weekend - two games at the famous Millenium Stadium. I quickly snapped up a ticket for game 2 - Ospreys v Saracens - and sat atop the the stadium while the former dealt to the latter. Justin Marshall and Chris Jack were both on show so some it had some form of personal meaning.

Snow filering through the open roof of Millennium

Stadium - 17:30, March 22.

Anyway... On Sunday we visited two splendid castles in the countryside about 30 minutes north of Cardiff - Castell Coch and Castell Caerphilly. As it turned out, both were owned by the Third Marquis of Bute in the 19th century and both were ruins. Castle Coch was completely restored and is somewhat fairy-tale like in stature. It overlooks a very small town called Tondwynlais and the whole setting is breathtaking.

Castell Caerphilly is amazingly still standing though in a state of ill repair compared to the functional and beautiful Castell Coch. Lunch overlooking the castle was quite something, and the waiter was attentive although a little odd.

On Monday we set our sights across the road from the hotel to the imposing structure of Cardiff Castell. It is an amazing place, that unbelievably was the summer 'bach' for the Bute family.

All in all, it was a great trip and a place I would consider a UK highlight. There is only one time of the year Cardiff would not be a highlight and last year it was October 7 (hint: a major international rugby team was knocked out of the World Cup there by France).


Ciao for now

Fred and Bron

Viva l'Italia

Italy... we all know how to speak the local lingo... espresso, ferrari, pannini, piano, pizza, pasta... and that's pretty much our trip there (aside from the ferrari).

Venice is supremely beautiful place, and with not many tourists around (filthy tourists) it was a real pleasure to stroll around the various alleyways, getting lost and buying the odd thing or too.

Being January - the height of the northern winter - it was pretty cold in both Venice and Florence, which gave us plenty of opportunity to experience the cafe culture. Unlike most places in Europe, you pretty much can hazard a decent guess at what cafes and restaurants offer, although the selection is much richer than your stock standard pizza, pasta and capuccino. And of course you get the food and coffee here the way it oughta be done.

Special thanks has to go to EasyJet for leaving Fred's bag in England. EasyJet rectified the situation, alas it was too late... Fred had already hurled a few quiet superlatives before EasyJet came good. Welcome to Venice...

Florence was especially brilliant. A city of colour an culture, we spent many an hour in the Uffizi Gallery which houses some of the most spectacular Botticcelli's - The Birth of Venus and La Prima Vera (The first Spring). A shorter visit to the Galleria l'Accademia revealed the original marble statue of David, perhaps the most astonihing piece of renaissance art there is (good old Michaelangelo at work again).

Duomo, the large dome in the middle of town is a massive structure on top of an even bigger structure - the Chiesa di Santa Maria del Fiore. What a stunning piece of architecture and made from marble (did the church have money or what).

We visited the Boboli Gardens and the Pallazzo Pitti (Pitti Palace) on our last full day in Florence. We shall remember that for a while... we got engaged in the gardens overlooking the city. Oh yeah, for those who don't know, we're engaged. I know, what a bombshell to drop at the end of this diatribe.

If you've reading this, then chances are we sent you the link, so hope you enjoyed reading of our adventures and we wish you a fantastic 2008.

-Fred and Bron

Given a Nice Day, England is Quite Charming

Left: Lady Nelmes is enjoying herself while Lady Macbeth is clearly in strife.

Below Left: Duke Frederick jokes around with Touchstone, the fool from As You Like It.

After heading out of England to get a taste of travelling we thought we'd take a few excursions in the local area.

Of course, England wasn't founded last week, on the contrary, it's rich with history and most of you back home had ancestors from these parts. It turns out that Birmingham is superbly placed to experience this historic charm. Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick are two such places. There are many more escapes to get around to on our vacation to Mother England but the two mentioned will have to do for now.

I don't need to remind anyone that Stratford is famous for a certain playwright of the 15th and 16th centuries calling himself Shakespeare. You may have nightmares about learning his stuff in English classes, but he certainly put Stratford on the map and do they let you know it. Aside from the house where Shakespeare was born (in 1564) there are many statues with reference to his works throughout the town and almost every shop has some form of Shakespeare gimmick to it. Many sell his works and arty gifts for perfect consumer type tourists.

Not far down the road is Warwick and its awe-inspiring castle on the banks of the river Avon. We turned up on a stunner of a day and proceeded to check out the town until... we got to the myriad of antique shops. We camped in a few of them for a while. I bought some old coins and a few cool stamp first issues (I'm not sure cool is the right word for stamp collecting, how about good looking?)

We went to the castle for a look and didn't pay the 19 pounds to get in. It would have been nice, given the scale of it and the vast gardens but we thought seeing it was cool enough. Besides, the nearby Thomas Oken tearooms were calling.

Legend has it that the first fortification of the Warwick Castle site was built as early as 914 AD. It is traditionally associated with the earldom of Warwick, one of the oldest in England. After the Norman Conquest of England in the 11th century, William the Conqueror appointed Henry de Newburgh as Earl of Warwick. The Castle was the changed to meet design characteristics of the time.

Thomas Oken Tearooms is actually the house of a one Thomas Oken (unsurprisingly) - a man who did a lot for the town and left a lot after his death in 1573 (what else do you do with wealth when you've got no kids?)

We spent the rest of the day cruising around the town, which isn't hard given it is a quaint town like Stratford (although much less commercial).

Next on the list of English countryside sightseeing... Cheltenham, Leamington Spa and maybe even Wales?

Later
Bron and Fred xxx

Our Whirlwind Tour of Scandinavia

In England it was wet while we goit 18 hours of sunshine in Stockholm!>>

Hej hej!
That's the the traditional, enthusiastic warm welcome in Sweden. That's about as easy as it gets... Swedish has a handful of nouns that are truly mesmerising to someone who only spends ten days there. We really enjoyed the Swedish language, Danish was just about as incomprehensible as a language could get to an English speaker.

Anyway, it has been a while since our last blog entry, no excuses really but we have been up to stuff... Scandinavia and the jewel that is Sweden.

In all we spent 8 nights in Sweden, including 5 with good friends Lisa and Nick Piper and there two little fellas in a 'quaint' little village (sorry about the use of that adjectives Lisa but it really is quaint) named Vellinge in Sweden's southern most tip. The town is conveniently located 15 minutes from Malmö - the main metropolis in the area.

Malmö is great city, not bulging at the seams like a lot of cities around Europe and directly across the water from Copenhagen. Both cities are linked by the Öresund bridge (Öresundsbron) - 8km of bridge, 4km of man-made island and 4km of underground. An awesome sight, it's bloody hard to photograph so go 'Google' it yourself if you're interested.

We spent three nights in Stockholm, Sweden's capital city, and had a thoroughly splendid time there. I really do urge anyone reading this with an inkling towards European travel to go to Stockholm. In summer you get real value from the sun - 18 hours of sunlight time - sun streaming through the windows at 4am is utterly perplexing.

Stockholm has all the uniquely Swedish style of design on show, a truly magnificent harbour and a quaint old town (there's that word again) called Gamla Stan. There you'll find all kinds of stores, old buildings and the Royal Palace. Gamla Stan is also home of the Nobel Museum. It's a happening place built to a large extent on water; the Baltic Sea and a handful of lakes (something of which Sweden has 96,000 of).

Copenhagen rocks... in all we spent three days there and were inundated with things to see and do the whole time. There's plenty to see in the history and architecture department as well as the world famous Tivoli amusement park and a handful of popular museums. This includes Ripley's Believe it or Not museum, National Museum and the Erotica Museum, which, by the way, Fred did not happen to visit (maybe next time). The rollercoaster ride at Tivoli was truly exhilirating and photo evidence shows Lisa really loved it while Fred appeared to be preparing to soil himself. Visiting the Royal residences of Copenhagen is worthwhile - Rosenbourg palace is an awesome sight complete with Crown Jewels and moat.

Copenhagen is a little more 'free and easy' (laissez faire) which is exemplified by the longest pedestrian shopping strip (Strøget) and the Nyhavn canal harbour, which was home to Hans Christian Andersen for ages. If you go to to Copenhagen, do a canal tour and see the sights, it is an impressive city from the water.

Well that's our waffle... thanks again to Lisa and Nick for having us at their house and for jacking us up some great accommodation in Stockholm and Copenhagen.

Hej då and see ya
Fred & Bron

Okay... I get It... Prague Rocks!

For starters, all the stories I had heard was that the Czech Republic was cold. I had no idea that those stories meant winter.

Yup, the weather was great and the temperature was 25-33 degC everyday. The only time we encountered rain we also got incredibly loud smacks of thunder while in the Old Town Square. The combined effect of medieval clocks, towers and monuments with the thunder was as close to a religious experience as I have ever had.

We happened to get into Prague the day George Bush came to town. Brad and Angelina were in town and lucky for them; so were we.

So eight days to see Prague - easy we thought, we'd see everything twice. As it turned out we saw quite a few things you are "have to see" when in town, but you could easily spend a month there and still have stuff to do.

Below is a snapshot of what we did see and do. It's not in any particular order and there is no reason I've listed beer first other than that's what most of you want to know about... "Oh yeah I know about Prague - Castles, clocks and the world's best beer". As it turned out, that description is fairly accurate. Here are few more observations:

Pivo - Beer
I actually got tired of drinking New Zealand beers sometime ago and the Prague confirmed why... they're bloody beautiful here. The Czech republic has the highest beer drinking per capita here and probably the highest production per town.

Recommendations: Staropramen, Pilsner Urquell, The Master (Tmave)... they're all good and there are so many of them for pennies. Loved it.

Also try Becherovka, a spiced liquer that is divine. Slivovice (plum brandy) is twice as potent as BEcherovka and a great way to finish yourself off!

Národní muzeum - The National Museum
Big and imposing, the Museum stands at the top of Wenceslas Square. It was our next door neighbour for 8 days. Lots of cool archaeoligical and geological stuff inside and even a skeleton of a Moa and a Moa egg! An awesome structure, the Museum was my first and last impression of Prague (after the airport) and it still gave me goosebumps.

Václavské náměstí - Wenceslas Square
An awesome center of culture and commerce, we spent a few good hours traversing this place (it's a great starting point for the days travels) and there are tons of very cool restaurants and beer drinking establishments. This was a mere 5 minutes walk from our hotel and is a great place to get a hotel if you decide to go to Prague.

Staroměstké náměstí - Old Town Square
Slightly more impressive than Wenceslas Square from a historical point of view. Home of the Old Town Hall, statue of Jan Hus, The Týn Church and the Astronomical Clock, the Old Town Square is very surreal. I still couldn't quite believe I was actually there. There are some very old Gothic style churches and stuff, but then they're all over Prague (and all about 5 times as old as New Zealand).

Karlův Most - The Charles Bridge
Every tourist has clearly heard of the place because they all go there. Hell we went there two or three times. As with just about everything in Prague, the Charles Bridge is old and carries a lot of religious iconography and statues etc... Awesome views, probably the most awe inspiring feeling is walking from the 900 year old Old Town Square, across the Charles Bridge and up to the 1100 year old Prague Castle.

Hradčany - Prague Castle
Wow. A massive structure the resides on the hill over the other side of the river from the main part of the city. Awesome sight, particularly with the huge steeples of the St Vitus Cathedral reaching into the heavens from the center of the castle. Go there and see the Castle guards. They're cool!

Malá Strana - The Small Quarter
The prettiest part of Prague. After crossing the Charles Bridge the charm of Malá Strana is that the quaint avenues, and the fact that there is scarecely a building there built in the las 100 odd years. Awesome place to walk around and very quiet when you get away from the tourist hordes of trhe Charles Bridge.

High Culture - Art, Music, Theater
Prague has it all. Almost every corner of the city has either a theater or an African guy handing out flyers for upcoming shows and classical performances. You can go to the usual places - The National Theater, State Opera Building etc... However, we had a nice little intimate classical experience sitting on the steps inside the National Museum. A pianist, cellist and violinist gave us a stirring hour long trip through some of classicals finest pieces including works from Czech composer extraordinaire Antonin Dvorak (whose grave we saw later in the trip).

We also visited a Salvador Dali exhibition on in a building off the Old Town Square. We also saw a Alfons Mucha exhibition there and at the Mucha Museum. Mucha is still the greatest artist to come from the Czech lands and is probably why they devota an entire museum to him!

That's the bulk of the major attractions. We found cool places everywhere went, many of them of historical importance to the development of Prague and the Bohemian Empire.

This Blog and What We're Up To

Here are my impressions of the fantastic journey Bronwen and myself have embarked on to (a) See Bronwen's Mum in Birmingham and do a spot of work Anglo-stylez; (b) Celebrate my 30s birthday in Prague; (c) Just to get the hell out of New Zealand for the first time in my life (Melbourne's great but you'd hardly call going to Australia as "travelling internationally").

Enjoy my musings and hopefully I can inspire you to experience the grandeur of Prague. There probably are other great places to visit but I haven't been there yet have I?!