Seniors' Sabbaticals

Ao Nang, Thailand

Breakfast at the resort is really good with tropical fruit salad, cereals, bacon etc etc. Your eggs are cooked the way you want them as you wait.

We went to the pool straight after breakfast when few people were around. Violet is becoming more confident each time she is in the pool. George is a fish!

Liam had gone down to the end of the beach before breakfast to get some photos of the dogs. Fortunately he found a pack – beginning to worry that they were no longer around.
It was so hot when we walked into town for lunch to a cafe Liam and Becs already knew.

Whilst the kids slept after lunch Gray and I did another soi dog reccee. We found 3 in various parts, mostly around the massage stalls. We also noted that there were plates of scraps left for them.

Another swim in the afternoon which was cut short by a thunder storm!

The resort staff had just set tables under the trees ready for their Saturday crowd when the heavens opened. We had planned to eat their tonight, so ended up in the inside dining area. We all had very yummy Thai food!

The kids went to bed and the grandparents babysat whilst Liam and Becs managed a little respite in town.
Off to bed. Being on holiday is quite tiring!

Singapore, Singapore

Today our Trade Me ad finishes – good timing!
After a good sleep we had an amazing breakfast of tropical fruits, bacon, eggs, pancakes etc etc
Gray and I took Violet on the Skytrain back to terminal 2 to find a coffee shop. We ordered coffees “regular’ size. Mmmm I wonder what a large one would be served in?

Back to our room, packed and off again on another plane to Krabi.

An hour or so later we arrived in Krabi.
“Thailand is quite hot, Grandma”.

Our resort at Ao-Nang is lovely. Tropical gardens, lovely pool and dining areas.

We wandered to the shops to buy beach shoes for Gray.
We all went to dinner at an Italian place because Violet wanted pasta. As we went to pay discovered they do not take credit cards! Next time, ask first!

With full tummies we wandered home and all of us went to bed early.

Melbourne, Australia

Gray,Todd and I headed off to Pitt Street where Liam and Becs were frantically packing and clearing the lounge and kitchen ready for their flooring guy to come in when they are away.
At 4pm we were on our way.

The kids were brilliant on the flight – but what would you expect? Perfect grandchildren!
After a quick Skytrain trip we were at our hotel.

Auckland, New Zealand

We are more than quite excited to be off on holiday to Thailand with Liam, Rebecca, Violet and George.

Roadcat to Auckland – mmmm. Dusty old van and hairy driving!
We arrived in Melbourne to be met by Liam and Violet, then off to Todd’s for a good night’s sleep! Neither of us slept Tuesday night as it had been quite a day wit an offer being made on the orchard.

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Auckland, New Zealand

Zzzzzzzz !!

Berlin, Germany

Xandra and Sebastian collected us for breakfast. What a feast!!

They planned an amazing day for us. In other cities I’ve found interesting buildings etc to photograph, but today our city experience was so much richer. These 2 East Berliners had so many tales to tell about when the wall came down and all the renovations that have happened and new constructions that are now in progress.

We were very spoiled all day.

The population of NZ is in Berlin, yet there are still wide open spaces and many trees. It is bustling and vibrant and we just loved it.

We had the Berlin equivalent of Fish and chips for lunch – Curry Worst. Very good! Not like our curried sausages at all as the curry sauce has quite a tomato taste.

We were dropped off at the airport, checked our luggage through to Auckland and braced our selves for the long haul home.

So it’s auf wiederseh from us or should it be Tschüss

What a holiday it has been!!!
We will treasure many memories for a log, long time.

Berlin, Germany

So now we know the literal meaning or Eurocity – let’s find as many places between Wien and Berlin and go there. It’ll only take 10 hours!!!
It was actually fine until we thought, where are we? From the billboard advertising we figured it must be Czechoslovakia – www……………cz

Xandra met us at the new main station in Berlin – best train station we’ve been in! (We have been in a few)
Sebastian and Xandra drove us through the CBD with all the lights on, on our way to dinner with Xandra’s parents in their part of the city.
They chose the place because it was typical German food – it was so good! The riesling slid down well too. We enjoyed the food, company and atmosphere of the evening. A perfect end to a long day.

Then Xandra announced that they had organised an apartment to stay the night. We felt quite humble by their amazing generosity.

And we slept well to

Vienna, Austria

After not much sleep, (surely not too much food last night), we headed for the station for the trip to Vienna.

Hotel Prinz Eugen is delightful.

Tonight we were off out to dinner and a Strauss and Mozart concert in the Stadt Park. We had expected it to be a bit ‘cheesy touristy’ but as with many of our experiences over the past few weeks, we were surprised.

The 4 course dinner was superb!

The concert was full of fun, with a small (13 piece) orchestra, 2 ballet dancers and 2 opera singers. However, the music was pretty good! We noted that most of the audience of about 500 people were aged 50+, so were thrilled to see that 4 of the musicians were probably under 30.

We heard pieces by Johan and Josef (his younger brother), Mozart and Puccini.

So what is Vienna like? Well, we only got glimpses from taxis, but the theatre we went to was magical with winding staircases and huge chandeliers.

Tomorrow, it’s off to Berlin to meet Xandra.

Gute Nacht!

Innsbruck, Austria

It has poured with rain all day which is such a pity as we are in a wonderful place.

I had some shopping planned for the morning, so we ventured out with umbrellas as we did not have far to go.

Also did our usual routine of working out which platform we need tomorrow to go to Vienna.

Of course we found a coffee shop and looked longingly at their goodies. So you can guess where we happened to go for afternoon tea!

We’ve just dashed out as there has been a break in the weather and joined hundreds of other tourists shooting away.

We’ve come back really hungry as the smells wafting from all the eateries was really quite cruel.

Stepping back into the hotel, even more yummy smells wafting from the kitchen. I’m glad we are staying in tonight to sample this ‘famous Tyrolean chef’s’ fare.

Just as well we are doing lots of walking – we’d be the size of houses with all this great food!

Innsbruck, Austria

We have arrived in Innsbruck to a fabulous hotel in the ‘old town’. It is a wonderful end to a not so wonderful day.

It was too wet and miserable to venture far with the sight seeing this morning, so after a quick recce of the nearby streets and to work out how to get to our platform without using stairs, we set off to the railway station. We bought lunch at a bakery, packed it and the brollies into the backpack and headed up the escalator. We got separated on the escalator but both arrived at the platform together. I was aware of a guy who had pretended to help me on the escalator, hanging about, so was wary of him. Next thing he appears asking Gray for help to read a sign, just as another guy steals the backpack. I saw it all, so just yelled my head off – “Thief, thief!!!” You probably heard me.
The guy pretending to want help, then hung about hoping Gray would give chase. As if he would, leave me with all the luggage for a backpack. As the guy with the backpack ran down the stairs he was waving a wallet still trying to get Gray to chase him. By now the whole of Geneva knew what was happening and both guys disappeared, especially after Gray whipped out his iPhone and said he was phoning the police! (He didn’t even know the number!)
Next thing a security guy appears with the backpack, which had been dumped as soon as the hullabaloo started.
Little did they know the backpack contained my iPad, wallet with cards etc.

Very shakily we boarded the train and were glad to get out of Switzerland. In Italy, (Rome and Florence), we were aware of beggars and in Marseille we were aware of crowds of people milling about, but it was only when we arrived in Geneva that I felt uneasy. We ate very close to the hotel last night because I was not keen to walk down the ‘main street’ at night.

The first train took us to Zurich and we had 10 minutes to find the platform and board the train to Innsbruck. We were still finding our seats as the train slid away!! We climbed high into the alps and around St.Anton the snow was down quite low – in the streets.

However, now in Innsbruck, we can see snow on the high hills and it is cool, but not very cold. The streets around us a quite magical and we are looking forward to exploring them tomorrow.

Our hotel has a restaurant, but it is closed on Sundays, so we will try it tomorrow.