Wednesday 28 September 2005

Our visit to Stonehenge and Bath a few weekends ago was great. It was nice to see a bit more of the English countryside as we have been so busy in Europe that we have neglected the sights around England a little. We've seen a lot of the sights around London though but now need to try and get away in the weekends so we can fit it all in. We have another weeks break at the end of October which will be our last chance to see one last country. I think we might go to Spain and have a look around Barcelona, Valencia and then a little around the South of Spain (Seville, Granada and Malaga). Still not 100% on this but the flights are so cheap at the moment it will only cost us about £60 return for the two of us so it will be hard to pass it by.
Hope you enjoy the photos!

We arrived at Stonehenge on a rather freezing and misty Autumn day.

The birds flying around added to the eerie atmosphere.

Mike at Stonehenge.

Suzi at Stonehenge

We thought that Stonehenge was pretty cool. The rocks are huge, I have no idea how they would have got them there, although the myths about it were quite interesting to hear about.

Here we are with our flatmates (fellow Kiwi's) at Stonehenge. Not the best photo as Malcolm's arm was not long enough to get a distance shot.

This is the view as we drove into Bath from Stonehenge. We thought the houses looked pretty cool (the way they were set out). We thought Bath was beautiful and would love to go back again.

Here we are at the Roman Baths which is a bathing complex that was built in the 1st Century in South West England.

The complex of the Roman baths was really large. This is the main bath that is naturally heated by a spring.

The view of the Bath Abbey from inside the Roman baths.

Saturday 10 September 2005

We have had an amazing past 6 weeks travelling around all of the different countries in Europe. We got a little carried away with the photos that we put on but it was so hard to pick out the best ones as everything we saw was just great. Have fun looking at our travels and we hope it doesn't take you too long.

Our first destination in Europe was Bruges, Belgium which was very colourful. These buildings are just the restaurants in the main square.

In Brussels, Belgium we saw the Atomium which was built in1958 for the world fair.

Took a visit to a cheese and clog making factory. Just had to try the clogs on. Believe it or not they are actually really comfortable to stand in, but once you start walking it is a little more difficult.

Went to a clog making and cheese factory and Had to try this one on for size.

Just out of Amsterdam we visited this 355 year old windmill.

This is the huge Cathedral in Cologne, Germany. It is 161 metres tall.

The Rhine river cruise was lovely, lots of castles and neat buildings to look at.

We made a stop for lunch at the Black Forest so we could try the black forest cake, which I must say was outstanding. This side of the cafe/shop is actually a huge cuckoo clock.

The Black Forest is where our bus broke down for four hours. We didn't mind though as the setting was very pretty and there was food and drink to fill in the time.

Stopped at the Rhine waterfalls on our way to Lucerne and as you can see they were enormous. If you look at the trees in the middle you can see two people walking around.

We ascended Mount Pilatus in a cogwheel train which was so steep. The mountain is 7000 feet high.

On our way up Mt Pilatus we saw some highland cattle with their bells on. The bells are really easy to hear as the sound just travels for miles.

The view from the top was rather interesting. A little like our trip around the Ring of Kerry in Ireland. It was a real shame as we saw postcards of how it should have looked.

We descended the mountain in gondolas with awesome views.

Had a very traditional swiss lunch with some interesting entertainment of swiss horns, yodelling, flag throwing, bell ringing and saw playing. Tried the swiss cheese fondu.

After lunch had a lovely Lagoon cruise on Lake Lucerne and managed to get a picture of Mt Pilatus without all the low cloud.

The area of Heidiland, which is where the little girl in the book lived, was some of the most beautiful scenery we have ever seen.

Another picture of the Alps as we left Liechtenstein and headed towards Austria.

This is a typical Swizz house with the brightly coloured flower pots outside and the Swizz Alps in the background.

This church was one that our tour guide said was his favourite in Europe because of the amazing interrior. We agreed with him as we have now seen a lot of churches.

Had a visit to the worlds most modern ski jump. It was so steep I can't imagine why anyone would want to use it. The funny thing is at the end of the ski jump, just behind where we took this photo from there is the local Innsbruck Cemetary.

The view from the top of the Ski jump gave us an excellent view of Innsbruck and the georgous mountains.

While we were in Innsbruck we enjoyed an Alpine horse and carriage ride and the traditional schnapps in a small town called Seefel.

In Salzburg Vienna we had a tour around and saw many of the places where the Sound of Music was filmed. This is the Abbey where the real life Maria was a nun and is shown in the film with the red onion shaped steeple.

We visited the Eagles Nest in Salzburg which is where Hitler would hold his political meetings with all the high profile leaders. This is the tunnel which goes 124 metres into the middle of the mountain where Hitler would drive his car.

The original brass elevator that Hitler used to use goes up 124m through the middle of the mountain. It is about a 40 second ride to the top of the Eagles Nest.

Visited Shonbrun palace. Was absolutely beautiful inside with very detailed golden designs everywhere.

Shonbrun Palace gardens and fountains.

Vienna is well known for its music so we couldn't miss seeing the Opera house. Was really nice inside. Unfortunately the picture does not do it any justice as the furnishings are actually a deep bright red colour.

Arrived in Venice and hopped straight into the gondolas as there is no other way to see this beautiful city.

We had a romantic gondola ride through the streets of Venice accompanied by some tradtional accordian music.

We had a ride down the Grand Canal past the famous bridge.

We made a stop at St Marks Square to see the amazing Basillica. While we were there we tried the traditional Bellini and listened to a great live jazz band.

We took a trip to a small island in Venice calle d Burano. Had a look at the markets and the cool coloured buildings. The colour of the building represents a family.

These are the popular Spanish Stairs in Rome. Everyone was just sitting and relaxing in the afternoon sun.

We thought the Pantheon was alright, looked quite old. Our tour guide told us to go in and have a look. We were amazed!!! It

We arrived at Vatican City quite early as the ques are meant to be massive. We managed to get ourselves third in the tour group line which was great considering that there were 123 groups visiting that day.

This is one of the decorated ceilings at the Vatican. It looked like it was carved but it's acutally been painted.

This is the ceiling that leads you to the Sistine Chapel, it's so detailed.

The Arch of Constantin made a nice entrance to the Colosseum.