The final stretch....

Hey guys,

Just landed in Osaka, Japan. on our way home, the flight from Paris was good, we were upgraded to business class which was awesome! hehe a nice surprise. Paris was great we did a lot of sightseeing ending our trip by walking up the Eifel tower and staying there til dark and watched the lights come on, really nice and great view of Paris!

Well our trip is coming to an end and we have had the time of our lives, it seems so long ago we were arriving in Italy we have seen so much and learnt a bit on the way. and finally there will be someone waiting for us at the airport!!! So this is me signing off for the last time..... im sure i`ll have much more travels to add to this in the future! You guys will have to nip round for a coffee or perhaps a few wines for a some stories and pictures (theres a lot!!). thanks for following and for all the comments etc

see ya`z back home..
xoxoxox

Fyi.... can not wait for good old bacon and eggs on toast with spaghetti!!!!! hehe

a few pictures.........

Well guys, Paris was awesome!!! we are at Paris Airport waiting to board our long flight home. thought i would stick a few quick pictures from Ireland up. Ill have to show you them all when we are home!! Anyway see you guys back in NZ!!!!!

xox

Hey guys

well we have done so much!! our time in London has come to an end, we have just come back from Cork, went to see Doneraille Court for you guys who know what I am talking about!! it was amazing, I got shown around all the rooms and Seamus (the guy that showed us round) was very knowledgable ,hopefully i can bring new info. home! Theres quite a bit of restoration underway which is good to see, when its finished it will look awesome! Took lots of photos and video so you guys will have to come round for a viewing session! haha. Went to St Finbarres Cathedral to see where Elizabeth Aldworth is buried, the guy who was working there shook my hand when i told him who i am! they took pictures of me beside the plaque and let me light a candle in her memory which was special! It was really neat seeing where she grew up too (Doneraille)

Came back to London for a day, while Alisha and Danae went to do a bit of family history stuff I caught a train to the station closest to Leeds Castle, got there and the last shuttle had gone for the day at 12.50pm, weird that they dont go later since it is open 'til 5pm!!! there was no other way of getting there apart from an expensive taxi ride, guttered i couldnt see it as it is yet another part of our family history! so i took a picture of the train station sign, just to show how close i got! will have to do it on another trip :p we fly out to Paris tomorrow....the french air traffic control are on strike so hopefully we make it!!

Not long now until we are home, less than a week!!!! We are a bit over arriving in airports with no one to greet us at the arrivals area :( haha, so it'll be nice to finally have someone there after 12 flights!!!!!

Anyways,
Ciao for now

xoxoxo

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HELEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! XOXO

London 2.....

Well London has a lot of things to see! we saw the usual attractions like Big Ben,Number 10 Downing street, changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace and heaps more! we saw the war memorial for the kiwi soldiers in hyde park corner, seeing it in pictures it looks nice and simple but modern but up close it is awesome! each cross has details cast in like maori patterns and writing and each has a theme behind it, so cool!

Today we went to Westminster Abbey which was so amazing, didnt know there was so much history and so many well known figures in there! it took 2 hours to go through, and for nanny, poppa etc i found Oliver Cromwells first resting place inside with a stone with his name and stuff on, found the statue of him outside too!

Thought i would upload a couple of photos from some of the places we have been since im at a computer where i can!!





A view from the fairytale castle in Germany - for little Alisha

For little Alisha, picture of the fairytale castle!!

statue of Oliver Cromwell........
for the record it was 1 degree and i was getting funny looks!
the swiss alps!!! the highest point in Europe
Swiss Alps


that infamous hike we did in Les Sciernes
Lake Geneva
trendy mining suits at the Salzburg Saltmines

London!

Hey guys,

sorry its been a while....
well our stay in Montreux was great we walked around a part if Lake Geneva and went into a castle there, we went sledding which was heaps of fun too!! we then went to Zermatt, which is a really beautiful place, a big ski resort which is full of tourists at this time but not too many people which is nice! we went up the Swiss alps to the highest view point in Europe! 12,736 ft looking straight across to the top of the Mattahorn...the most amazing feeling being that high! (even though is a bit hard to breathe because of the altitude!) we were able to see the alps from Switzerland, Italy and France! amazing experience, even saw a poster of Sir Edmund Hillary up there for an add for Rolex! go kiwis!!!!

We had a night in Zurich so we were close to the airport for our flight to London, and here we are!!! first day and we have seen alot! and there is so much to see here! we wont get to see it all in the ten days we are here but we will fit as much as we can.

We will be in Ireland in about a week and i will be getting shown around Doneraille court...(family ancestry stuff for those who are wondering) if you guys want anything specific like questions or whatever, flick me a message and i will try and follow it through! also looking at visiting Leeds castle, Aldworth house and St Finbarrs Cathedral - im going to fit as much as i can in!!


xoxoxox

Switzerland!!

Hey y'all

Well the salt mines were great! We got to go on trains, slides and a boat in the mines (and I must add...in our very fashionable mining suits we had to wear... We looked stunning :p) we trammed to Switzerland yesterday and had a night in luzern which was nice, today we took the panoramic scenic train to montreux. Best scenic train ride yet, it was amazing. We got to go through the snow covered mountains and past small villages. Soon after arriving we found ourselves getting back on a train. We found out the place we were stating in was 12km out of Montreux and a taxi would cost 150francs! Lucky we have our eurail passes,these are very well worth getting if you come to Europe! We were a wee bit worried when the conductor said he would specially stop at the station we needed to be at as no trains ever really stop there much. We travelled for about twenty minutes and all the recent stops had been very tiny stations and nothing but mountains and trees surrounding them. We went into survival mode a bit thinking of what we would do if we had to sleep in the snow hehe just joking...but our stop was very similar to the one I just described....

We were dropped at a vacant trainstation which resembled something close to a shack, we looked around and it kind of looked like a farming area. A couple of houses visible in the distance. Don't know why but we were not worried! We were quite excited at this new experience! We found a map and we were definitly in the right place. So we started walking (I must add that it was pretty hazy and quite a bit of snow was falling) we could just see a building emerging from the haze so we walked towards it, it was a hotel thing but not ours. We needed directions so went up onto the deck and tapped on the window the girl was really nice, told us to come in ( we realized we had come through the back door as she told us to cut through the hotel and go out the front door.

In fits of laughter we said thanks and goodbye and started walking down the driveway, this is when I made my first spectacular slip. Luckily I
had my backpack on and one across my front which broke my fall. Itvwas hard to get up after laughing so hard! The second and final one happened about 5 minutes later with a nice face plant into a pile of snow alisha having to dig my camera out (good old Sony still goes!) Danae was well ahead of us but we had her footprints to follow then Alisha took a nice trip down the road, we had to have a bit of a break to stop laughing !!

Well we finally reached the bed and breakfast as it got dark. It's so cute! It's like a ski challet.we were given a welcome glass of wine which I think was well deserved after our interpid journey!dad you would be proud! Haha Maybe not so much laughter when I wake up with a bruised thigh tomorrow - nothing a bit of arnica won't fix! Being dropped in the middle of nowhere has already turned out to be awesome , the population in this town is only 100 so it's very much a small town situated in big mountains. It looks really beautiful, can't wait to have a look round tomorrow!

Xoxo

P.s - sorry for no recent pictures, haven't been at computer where I can upload them. Might be able to in London though !

Austria

Hey guys,

The rest of Athens was great! Saw the acropolis which was amazing, excellent view of Athens. We saw the changing of the guard which involved a parade too and they do it every sunday. We saw the temple of Olympian Zeus and the Olympic stadium. Saw the Athens museum which had so much stuff! Even an Egyptian exhibition with some mummies!

Now in Austria we have just been to Vienna where we saw schoenbrunn palace - home of the Hofburgs (2nd royal family and most recent.) for those who have seen the movie Marie Antoinette, this is where she grew up. Also where Mozart played for the queen for the first time at age 6! We had a look at the spanish dancing horses which look really cool to watch, a hefty fee to see them though! We walked around the city and saw a lot more things and had a really nice dinner (weiner schnitzel) and cocktails with Alisha and Danaes relation Stefan.

Went to a place called Melk for a few hours, a little town just out of Vienna where we went to 'Stift Melk' which was built in 976 a.d. It was and still is a monastry. Really beautiful and one of those secret treasures you never hear about. It had a massive library in one part, 12 rooms! We saw 2 of them and they were BIG! There was a book 1100 years old! There were 16,000 books in just one room!

Afterwards we went back to Vienna to get our packs and caught a 4 hour train to Salzburg.....the land of the sound of music!!! Haven't been able to get that song out if my head since arriving here! Today we did a bit of exploring - saw some sights from the movie, saw where Mozart was born and grew up, walked up to the hohen Salzburg fortress - the oldest fortress in Europe. We cooked up a storm for breakfast lunch and dinner- the first kitchen we have had on the trip!! We were going to see 'eagles nest' (hitlers lookout where he lived for a bit in between other things - Byron this is in band of brothers) unfortunately it is closed for the winter as it is unreachable.

Well another day in Salzburg tomorrow, might make a trip out to the salt mines!

Xoxox
Sarah

Hey everyone!
Well we have left Berlin, the day before we left we had a look around the shops and went to KaDaWe which is a massive department store which is 7 floors!!! Really big and a shoppers dream! We found a dressup shop and tried on a traditional german maids dress haha it was quite fun! We found a huge store, you'd never get your kids out! There were handmade toys , soft toys that cost over 100 Nzd because they are hand made but so well done! Nanny I think I saw those bears u were talking about....Herman bears?!?!?! I think that's what they were called, anyway very expensive!

We were going to go to the perganon museum but unfortunately it is closed at the moment. It started to snow quite heavily which was quite fun ( except for it going in your eyes) so we continued to look around the shops. The next day we had a flight to Athens, we left -19 degrees and arrived in 10 so we were baking especially when we had a lot of layers on! We arrived and were a bit shocked I guess you can say, a new learning experience - Greek words have different symbols/ characters so we don't even know how to pronounce anything! We had the roads in English but we found no English maps and so they were spealt completely different. It took us about 3 hours from landing to find our hotel!!! But we made it! The next day we caught a bus to delphi, really nice place! Small town, nice and peaceful, our hotel had a veranda and all you can see are the surrounding mountains covered in trees and off to the side another town far in the distance, beautiful view! We saw the temple of Athena, the museum and archaeological site and then had a Greek meal in a restaurant with very reasonable prices!! Very yummy although I might not eat potato chips for a while, I had a kg of the bloody things on my plate that I forced my way through!!

We came back to Athens today, a day and a bit in Delphi is enough to see everything, it's a very small town. So just having a relaxing evening ( our first one!) maybe the acropolis, Parthenon etc tomorrow.

Anyway, c ya'z later
Xoxo

Berlin

Howdy,

Well today was a fresh -15 degrees in Berlin! It was actually colder than in the south pole today!! We chose to go on a walking tour of the city so were quite layered up and still a bit cold! The guide took us round the famous landmarks and also showed us some of those hidden landmarks that people miss. We saw the royal mile, museum island, checkpoint Charlie, Berlin wall (part of it), we got to see where hitlers office used to be, if any of you have seen valkyre we stood at the building where it was filmed and saw where that final scene actually happened.

We stood on the spot where hitlers bunker was, it was destroyed (after many attempts, it was bomb proof and bit of a hard one to crack!) there is now a carpark on top of it. All that marks the spot is an information sign with a map of the bunker.
By the bunker we stood by the spot where his body lay and was burnt- at his request. Pretty weird to think we stood at the spot where the body of the most evil man in history once lay. Just around the corner of that is the memorial to all the Jews, it's huge! And underneath is a museum for them aswell which we looked at, it's really well done! A really nice tribute to them although sad. They have a website if you wanted to check it out www.stiftung-denkmal.de we saw the hotel adlon where all the stars stay, including michel Jackson, that is when he hung the baby over the balcony! At the moment the israeli prime minister is staying there so the area around is blocked off and the place is swarming with police (most of whom are sleeping!) we went to the Brandenburg Gate, saw where einstin studied, across the road - bebelplatz (the scene of the Nazi book burning), then we went to the Reichstag building and went up thedome on top of it and had a 360 view of Berlin!

We saw lots more and it's been a busy day as you can probably tell!!! Tomorrows suppsed to be colder so we are getting prepared! Maybe legoland and museum island tomorrow......

Xoxo

Munich to Berlin

Hey guys!!!

Had a great time in Munich!! Had great weather! We went to a concentration camp in Dachau, the first camp. It was a very creepy place and extremely sad, it was tough learning about all the stuff that happened there. The day we went was overcast snow everywhere and freezing! It added to the mood of the whole place, very eerie!although it was a sad place, we are glad we went as we understand it more. The next day was much happier, we went to the fairytale castle! (neuschwanstein castle) it was perfect weather- sunny and clear, and lots of snow, it was just like a magical winter wonderland. (Alisha, I have lots of good pictures for you to look at!!!) it was quite a hike to get up there though! 25 minutes up a steep hill! ( in the millions of layers we were wearing).

Had dinner at the hofbrauhaus in Munich town, its where Hitler held some of his first meetings. Apart from that bit it had really nice food and beer though! Last night we caught an overnight train and 12 hours later arrived in Berlin. Lots of snow here and a fresh -11 degrees and set to get colder tomorrow! We are handling the cold quite well!

Hope everyone is well, and thanks everyone for the comments, it's always nice to hear from u lot in little nz!

Until next time,
Xoxo

Hey guys!!

Well since my last post we have been to Belgium and back to Cologne. Belgium was really nice! especially the chocolate! we spent a bit of time going around the chocolatiers and having some taste testers. haha, we snuck some more everytime the shop keeper turned away, ate so much! Aunty weez - u would go crazy here! hehe. we spent time walking round and seeing Belgium and then caught the train to Cologne. the past few days have been spent at the exhibition which has finally happened! still cant believe I#m showing something at the worlds second largest design fair next to all the top professionals!! Lots of people have been impressed with our work (go lil NZ!!) and maybe a job offer has arisen.....have to wait for further details....

Last night we went to a product launch by a well known designer Ross Lovegrove, he was launching his new product range 'freedom'. At first the person introducing him spoke German so we were thinking the whole thing was in German, we had walked an hour to get there so decided to stay! luckily enough the designer spoke english. He took the time afterwards to come and speak with us which was awesome!!!! This is someone who's work we study at uni. he talked to us for a bit and said to email him when we are in London and he will show us his design studio!!!

We spent our last day at the exhibition today, even though it goes until sunday. we tried to see all the different areas of the exhibition but it is just so big! Off to Munich tomorrow, should be fun!

dont know when my next post will be but before i forget...HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALISHA DICKINSON!!!!!

Ciao
xox

Holland 2

Hey Guys,

Well we are off to Brussels, Belgium today after staying a few days in Holland. We stayed with a lovely family in Gouda which is just out of Amsterdam, we saw alot of things like the Van Gogh Museum, Anne Frank house, The Gouda town Hall and so much more! There has been the most snow so far, so pretty!! went walking over a frozen lake which was a little bit unsettling, hehe. i walked a bit too close to some bushes and cracked the ice! haha. and i made a snowman!! So we are off to Belgium today for a bit of a looksie before heading to Cologne for the exhibition!!

Holland!

walking on a frozen over river

me and my snowman....

haha, my snow man i made!

me and a giant clog

me and ma new boots in the snow, yea baby!

Cologne

Well hello guys!
We are now in Colonge, arrived last night from Milan, had a really nice couple of days in Milan with nice sunny fine weather! didnt think we would get to Cologne at least on time because of the weather over here but we did! arrived to a fresh -2 degrees and snow! it´s really pretty!
Us girls shared a nice bottle of wine on our last night in Italy, even making the effort to dress up in our new clothes we bought that day!

We are off to Amsterdam tomorrow for a few days before returning to Cologne for the exhibition. Will post some photos when I can, we have taken alot!!

Anyway.
ciao for now

xoxo

Venice

Well i think im in lovewith Venice! so pretty! and nice to be in a place where there are no cars or anything with wheels! our hotel is right on the canal and across from the train station which is awesome. there are alot of glass shops here! They are famous for their Mulano glass. We been for a walk around venice and looked at more churches and landmarks. also shops!!!! havent brought anything as it is a bit out of our price range!! Raining today which is not the best but we still went for a walk even if we were like drowned rats! off to Milan tomorrow, sorry this is brief, i promise i'll do a nice long post when i can with lots of pictures!

send us a bit of hot weather please :p

xoxo

Hey guys!

Sorry for no updates recently, had no access to internet. Wow, so we left Naples and had a 2 hr train ride to Rome, very scenic :) It was sad leaving our new family and friends but we will probably see some of them in London. We saw so much in Rome the colosseum, Spanish steps, the Pantheon, and the Trivi fountain (Poppa i threw a coin in for ya xo). We saw so much more aswell! The hotel was nice, the next morning we ate as much as we could for breakfast and set off to see the Vatican - WOW! it was quite packed even though it was a wet day. we had a kiwi as our tour guide! glad we got him, it meant we skipped the 2 hour line and went straight on in. He knew so much too and explained everything really well. The Sistine Chapel was like awesome, alot of people but it was spectacular and so much to take in! never thought i'd see any of the stuff i have so far!

Yesterday we got on a train to florence, we very nearly missed it!! we were running with backpacks on! man, we were baking in our puffer jackets but just got on as it was about to leave! thank goodness! we then got off at a stop that was not the right one when they said it was, by now it was dark and wet, but spirits were still high. we found a man who spoke english, thankfully he helped us get on a bus and get to the town center - no one spoke english where we were. so that was our first experience of bad italian transport! and might i add Danae made a very graceful entrance onto the bus, tripping and ending up in some guys lap!!!

We got to our hotel and have just been up the doumo, awesome views of Florence!

Will post photos when i can

Ciao for now

xoxox
Sarah

Day 8 - Last day in Naples

Rabbit!
Me eatting rabbit!
Davides mum wearig the apron we gave her :)
Eatting our pasta

Today is sunday, been pretty relaxed, woke up at 1pm after getting home at 4am!Im feeling much much better which is good, hopefully the worst of my cold is over! got up to the house packed with family ready for their traditional sunday feast! another one. first dish- pasta, 2nd- more pasta, 3- RABBIT!! all i could picture was my cute bunnies at home, but i managed to finish it, it was really quite yummy though! after that we had fruit. i was not full! and that was after 4 plates.

Everything is closed today so its been quite a chilled out last day in Naples. Getting on the train to Rome tomorrow morning. Going to miss our Naples family and friends, they have been so welcoming and generous, and will definitly miss the food!

xox

Day 7 - Amalfi

Byron, thought you might like this one :)


Laughter at the farewell dinner
Eating ice cream in Amalfi - it was kinder surprise flavour!!


Amalfi

Eatting lunch on the way to Amalfi

I woke up not feeling very good this morning, have a head cold and it was the worst i've felt, probably because im far away from home. I had such a sore head my eye was puffed up but its alright im now feeling much better, i had my temperature checked and its normal so i dont have swine flu! Everyone has been fussing over me making sure i'm ok, i've learnt how to say I feel better in Italian! :p feeling like staying in bed all day i got up and ate a massive breakfast - definitly havent lost my appetite! Felt better after that. we went to the Amalfi coast today and went through Sorrento, it was so nice!!! it was a nice drive and amazing landscape. Amalfi is such a cute town with the buildings up the cliffs and a little marina with all the bright coloured boats moored. We had ice cream (yes, crazy!) but it was very nice - kinder surprise flavour icecream=heaven. We had look around and went for a walk before making our way back.

Davides friends and family held a farewell dinner for us which was really nice (Danae told them we leave tomorrow but then we found out its actually the day after hehe), another big meal this time with pizza and different meats and things - very nice!

Tomorrows our last day in Naples, it will be sad to leave the family and the new friends we have made, they have been great and we'll be lost without them! and so will be the next part of our travels....Roma.

xoxo

Salvetore, Me, Alisha, Danae, and Davide

New Years Feast - Just chillin'

Playing the Napolitan game of Bingo

hahaha Davides dad putting chocolate on my head!

Getting serenaded at the dinner table by Davide. Typical.

Eatting fish heads!

Nanny, look what shoes im wearing!hehe

Setting up for a new years concert in front of the palace