Leeds Castle

We visited our first castle on Saturday, the self-proclaimed "Loveliest Castle in the World" - Leeds Castle, which is not in Leeds, but in Kent, 2 hours train, bus and coach ride from London.



The castle is very pretty (and even has a moat!) and you can go inside and see how things looked in the day when Lady whoever and King whatever's wife lived.


(Just like in Sid Meier's Civilization)



There's also an aviary, with loads of exotic birds (all in cages sadly, but then the falcons and owls would probably eat all the little ones). Took lots of photos of the birds, but too depressing to show cos of all the bars. We saw all types of birds, including owls, pheasants, swans, duck, peacocks, falcons, a toucan (!) and even a vulture (ugly)! They also have plenty of gardens and ponds and stuff. But the 'funnest' thing there was the maze. OK, there were two mazes, one was a turf maze, which was a waste of time, but the main maze was great. Like in Harry Potter. The aim is to get to the centre of the maze, which is sort of a small raised-up tower where you can look on top of the maze.



Naturally, I made it to the centre of the maze first and had to help guide Tam in. Luckily, she had a bright yellow (Wallabies - 'shameous', why can't they win!?) beanie on her head so I could spot her and yell out the directions (otherwise we'd be there for hours, and the last coach out leaves at 4). The next step after conquering the maze is to enter the Grotto, which is the unexpected underworld underneath the maze leading out of the maze.








'Swan Lake' at Leeds Castle

Venezio..

Ciao!

Back from a whirlwind weekend trip to Venice..I think we definitely rushed it and am only starting to appreciate what we saw in the short time we were there by going back through the photos we took..it really is a beautiful place and we might just have to go back...plus *shock horror* we didn't even do the mandatory Gondola ride while we were there (they were about $100 for half an hour!)..though we did do enough ferry rides to get land-lubber legs..

All in all a lovely little get away from the hustle, bustle and very chilly weather of London... (to the quiet chilly bustle of Italy)

Anyway time to catch up on some sleep as we have a pretty packed schedule this week...going to the Royal Albert Hall tomorrow to see Swan Lake..our first time attending the ballet and it's being performed by the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre with their star Irina Kolesnikova so we couldn't ask for a better introduction to it...catching a gig by Natalie Imbruglia on Thursday and hopefully fit in the next Harry Potter installment at the cinemas somewhere in between...

love to all xoxo


Venice from Lido, the island our hotel was at... Just a short vaporetto (ferry) ride away.


Vaporettos on the Grand Canal


Pretty buildings 'floating' in Venice


A gondola parking lot with the famous Rialto Bridge in the background


View back down the Grand Canal from atop the Rialto Bridge


Masks is one of the things Venice is famous for... Didn't see anyone wearing any though.


Typical Venetian street


Chillies from the famous Rialto market. They also have a huge seafood section with the most massive scallops ever!


For you fungiphiles!! You know who you are!


Pimp my Gondola! (do they have that show back home? the UK or US version? HOLLER!)


San Marco 1


San Marco 2


San Marco 3


San Marco 4


Pigeons everywhere! You can buy pigeon food from the streetvendors there in San Marco and the pigeons swarm over you and land in your hair. Fat fat pigeons. Seriously scary.


Pretty bridges everywhere so you don't have to catch a vaporetto or gondola everywhere


Gondolas!


If you look close enough you can make out the pretty paintings on the walls...

Jamie Cullum at Royal Albert Hall

Weeks ago, when Tam was still a lady of leisure, I woke her up on my way to a well-paying, unfulfilling temp job, tossed her the phone and reminded her to buy Jamie Cullum tickets that were on sale that day. The good girl managed to secure us second row seats right in the middle. Score! She then (probably) went back to a well-deserved slumber.
On Monday, we saw Jamie Cullum perform live at the Royal Albert Hall. And does he know how to put on a show. Playing songs from his three albums, jumping from instrument to instrument (and also jumping from the top of his piano), throwing his piano stool at the piano (a la Ben Folds), and coming down into the crowd to sing, it was a fantastic show, and he was on fire.
We even managed to score a Set List!


Waiting for a Guinness endorsement


"Twentysomething" duet with his brother Ben (who co-wrote the song)


Too cool to croon on "What A Difference A Day Makes"


Using the piano as a drum kit on "Fascinating Rhythm"


'Just' taller than a guitar


So much taller than a guitar now


Playing guitar on "London Skies" (a song he wrote for a Brazilian chick)


Going all 'Notting Hill Festival' on "London Skies"

At the Ends of the World

Sunday last we travelled by ferry with commentary to the ends of the world - Greenwich (pronounced "gren-itch"), of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) fame. That's right. Wow, indeed. It's a 45 minute ferry ride from Waterloo, London to Greenwich, but only 12 minutes or so by tram and train. That Thames is one curly, twisty, kooky river. The main drawcard at Greenwich is the Royal Observatory where they split the world into the Eastern and Western hemispheres (using the high-tech red line), and work out what time it is anywhere else. Fascinating huh?





It's on the top of the hill there and has a fantastic view of the city.


They also have a National Maritime Museum and the Cutty Sark there if you are that way inclined. But we weren't, so we went into the local top-notch pie and mash shop and checked out the famous antique markets.

Weekend in Brugge

Last weekend we celebrated our 7th Anniversary, so we went for a romantic weekend in Brugge (yes, Belgium again - We love Belgium).

It's also known as 'Little Venice' as it has canals running through and around it.


Being Belgian, it also has plenty of beer, moules et frites (mussels and chips - the national dish), waffles, lace and chocolates. Compared with Brussels though, there seemed to be a many more chocolates shops around than beer places. Or maybe we weren't looking hard enough as we'd gone out the previous night with our Kiwi housemates to the Kiwi Kitchen where we had (sort of) trad NZ meals and plenty of drinks. But enough of that, Brugge was excellent. It's sort of stuck in the past in that it used to be a big trading hub hundreds of years ago, and then the river silted up so the merchants could no longer make it through to there and so it was kind of deserted for another couple of hundred years until someone decided to fix up the water flow there or something and people decided to go back cos they liked the nice old-style buildings and everything. The travel guides also say that it's not as it seems though, and lots of new buildings have been done up to keep the old facade.
We were a bit worried before we got there as the weather forecast for the weekend was looking quite crap. We arrived at lunchtime on Saturday and made our way to our hotel (which was this amazing 4* place right next to the Burg and Markt).


We dropped off our backpacks and after laughing that we would have fitted in more at the Backpackers Hostel across the road than at our hotel we setted off for a bratwurst hot dog and frites in the Markt. The sky was still clear, so we grabbed the first chance and went for a canal ride, which isn't as tacky as some people may say. Brugge is a tiny tiny city, and small enough that you can walk, cycle, take a canal ride, or horse and carriage ride anywhere. It's so beautiful, with the Flemish architecture and greenery, and an idyllic romantic setting.

The place is, however, jam-packed with tourists. Apart from the shopworkers, we couldn't really spot any locals. The weather stayed good for us for our stay and Sunday was a brilliant beauty of a day allowing us to explore more of Brugge and visit the Minnewater (the Lake of Love).


We even took in a tour of the local Henri Maes' Half Moon Brouwery where they explained to us how they made beer and all other interesting facts about beer and took us up to the top of the brewery where they have an awesome view of the small city.

At the end of the tour, they even let us have some of their new brew, the "Brugse Zot", which was not bad at all.

We had a fantastic time there and bought lots of choccies, ate some of the best lamb chops ever, had some delicious ice cream, moules et frites, and flemish stew.

Some Belgian treats...


They also had some brilliant (yet scary) Halloween chocolate window displays, but the witches freaked me out too much. They also have scary toy and doll shops (where they come to life when the lights go out). This picture is cool as they've got little chocolate Mannekin Pis' (bottom-right) :)