The Lake District and Costwalds

Have we said WOW yet?!! The Lake District is a place that exceeded our expectation! We're planning to spend longer there next time - and in fact walking tours from Lyn's house-sit somewhere in the heart of lakes country is in the planning stages so secure a place now! Meryl was spoilt rotten by her sisters on her birthday as we ambled alongside lakes and quaint villages - stopping at cafes and restaurants for eats and drinks (as if we haven't eaten enough!). The next tour is also in the early planning stages... a canal boat tour of the English countryside and we've twisted Brian's arm to drive the boat (at least we've been working on persuading him!) but the boat's filling fast so you'll have to be REALLY quick for this one!! A big THANK YOU to Joy and Brian for their generous hospitality - we've turned up on their door step more times than we originally planned and they haven't yet turned us away - phew!! You two rock! The Cotswalds area was pretty darn cute as well and I think Lyn may require counselling from having to leave after just a couple of hours of meandering through gorgeous villages in that area. Lyn and Delwyn may have achieved a new hourly record for photos taken while there!... Back in London now - spent the day yesterday doing the London Eye, Tate Modern, and wandering along the Thames in beautiful sunshine (not that Delwyn was surprised about the good weather as her forecasts are always spot on!) Not looking forward to the long flight but it'll be great to see you all!

touring the motherland

We are really enjoying our whiz trip around the UK. Not only does everyone (or most) speak english, but they have food available at any time of the day, the shops are open, and we don't have to pay for the public toilets!!! We drove up to York on friday and enjoyed wandering around its historic cobbled streets, including the shambles which is a bunch of higgledy piggeldy buildings down a narrow street. We then drove half an hour into the country and stayed the night at a pub called the Old Black Bull at a wee village. It was very comfortable and we loved our first (of many as it turned out) pub dinner and cooked english breakfast! Yum!!! Saturday we wandered thru a small part of the yorkshire moors and dales and eventually dragged ourselves onto the motorway to head to Scotland. Our accommodation there was just north of Glasgow at a very homely B&B at the base of Loch Lomond. Sunday we enjoyed meandering up the lochs and mountains with Meryl stopping at a moment's notice as we exclaimed over some sight that just HAD to be snapped. The colours on the mountains and reflected in the lochs was amazing! We stopped at a place called Inverary where there is a castle which we had a look thru and enjoyed a cream tea in its basement. After buying Lyn a pair of shoes after her other ones gave up the ghost, we continued our wandering until dark! Today we are in Edinburgh and are already behind schedule to head back to the motorway and down to the lake district for the next 2 nights before heading to London via the Cotswald. The week is fast disappearing and we are loathe for our holiday to end but looking forward to seeing everyone. Might have to do this again every year if anyone wants to join us .... ?!!** Till next week xxx

Paris

a very quick bonjur from us b4 we get on a train to London . we have had a great time travelling thru italy and france; sometimes feeling quite intrepid: yesterday was 10 hours doing hi spots of paris; incl eiffel tower: wore ourselves out big time: looking fwd to uk and soon getting back to see you all in nz: xxx

Tuscany

While we have broadband access at our Tuscan farm we thought we'd keep you up to date with our goings on... Oh wow (to quote Delwyn!) - Tuscany is even better than she expected and Lyn and Meryl are loving being back in this part of the world! We started the day at a hill-top medieval fortress village, sipping on lattes and just taking in the atmosphere of the local village without the clutter of tourists. We didn't want to leave! We eventually moved on to San Gimignano where we wandered around cobbled streets checking out the Italian handbags, then enjoyed a lunch of panini or bruchetta. We then drove thru more narrow winding roads in our large rental chariot! to Volterra (both medieval fortress villages), where we enjoyed our daily gelato (3 flavours). Tonight we have had pasta (& a little vino) in the local pizzeria - bellisimo!

Happy birthday wishes go out to Clint (moving into the naughty 40s) and Levi ... and may we say we didn't forget your birthdays - we toasted them (for Clint in amazing Santorini, and Levi's from historic & fascinating Ephesus). We hope you both had great days and that you got our text messages via mum. We didn't have any email access at the time....! yeh that's so true!!

And happy birthday to Jake for tomorrow (30th) - we will be celebrating it from the lovely Florence, and awesome Cinque Terre later in the day.

From our villa in Tuscany...

Before we gush about our current location... we thought we should recap on the cruise... We finished the cruise this morning. Its been a great experience for us, very luxurious, delicious food, and amazing destinations. In Athens we did a walking tour of incidental buildings and parks, then created our own personal tour to the Acropolis (good for our fitness levels climbing climbing climbing), amazing ruins overlooking the city... Ephesus was amazing from a historic and Christian perspective, walking over the cobbled streets that Paul frequented... Our final day was spent on the Amalfi coast in weather that set it off to perfection. We wandered around Sorrento, took a motor launch to Amalfi town along the coast, and sampled some tasty Italian cuisine... But our favourite location definitely goes to Santorini Island, and especially picture-postcard Oia. We enjoyed having lunch over-looking the striking white-washed buildings with blue shutters, with sweeping views over the azure blue seas of the Mediterranean. The bells have just chimed 9pm in our village nestled in Tuscan countryside. We're staying on a working farm complete with buildings many centuries old. There's ambience spilling out of every corner (or every orafice, in the words of Lyn!)... We arrived here late afternoon, having driven from Rome - Lyn was very impressive at handling the left-hand drive wagon that we were upgraded to! The biggest challenge was getting out of the car park building! Once we arrived here in Tuscany we wandered around the farm and into the village to sample the local gelato, as is our custom, then drove into the ancient hill-top town of Siena, and meandered around its cobbled streets. We're looking forward to exploring Florence and some of the Tuscan countryside tomorrow.

Cruising the Greek Islands

Today's post is coming to you from beautiful Santorini Island, and we are currently in the village of Oia. Internet access has been very expensive on the ship, hence the silence from us - and we have been a little distracted with the beauty of the Greek Islands, and a little bit of drama on the high seas.. Lyn came down with a stomach bug so we all had one day in isolation in our stateroom, and Lyn unfortunately had a second day confined as well! We made the best of it with room service and great views from our balcony which are stunning. Time is short today but suffice to say we are well (now) and living the dream in the Greek Islands! We crammed onto a bus that was packed to the gunnels to get to Oia today but the views are worth it!! We've been to Athens, Messina, Ephesus, Mykonos (seen from our balcony!) - all varied and interesting. Rhodes yesterday was Meryl's favourite day so far - our first swim in the sea - aahh, Lyn described it as swimmming in satin!!?! Lotsa love from us

ROME

when in Rome .... we did as the Romans did (well, some of it anyway)! Yesterday we left Venice in the pouring rain - getting the water bus with crowds of others with the rain driving in (see, travel is NO fun....)!?* The train ride took about 4 hours through Tuscan scenery and as we got closer to Rome, the sun began to shine and the weather got hotter. By the time we were navigating the metro and making our way to our B&B the weather was pretty darn warm, and today it has been up to 27 degrees. After we had dumped our bags, we set out for the Coloseum which looked pretty amazing and wandered around a bit before looking for authentic pizza pasta restaurant (they are getting a bit touristy over this way these days and going for the cheap packet pasta so you have to beware - gutting!!!) We got a good one tho and enjoyed some marghuerita pizza, parma ham & gnocchi ... with a little wine for our stomachs sake looking out over the coloseum! While there the sky opened and poured with rain, even with a little thunder & lightening. Had a great day going to all the local attractions including Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, St Peter's Basilica, 3 flavours of ice cream! ... Piazza Navone, the Pantheon and its cute piazza (where we did the unforgiveable and had some mcdonalds! - gave us good fuel to keep going a little longer!), and then back to the Colosseum and The Forum. However when we got there it was almost closing time so will go back in the morning. Tomorrow afternoon we make our way to the ship - apparently an hour's train ride - so very exciting! Next report will be from the luxury of our ship 'Solstice'. We're glad to be back at our BandB resting our feet and eating a bit of take-out pizza!! Hope you are all doing well! xxx