England, France and Spain

Hi all. It's been a little while since the last update but unfortunately our holidays got in the way of updating the blog. And now that you've got us, we are only going to give you the bare essentials. Holidays are too short to be on the computer :)

If you want to skip straight to some photos, click your way to our online Photo album or choose an album below.

Southern England

France

Spain

London

So after Tokyo, we hit London and immediately started working through the long list of friends to see in this part of the world. This included time with Rohan and Ainslie in the delightful town of East Grinstead, Joo and John in their very cute cotswold cottage in Malmesbury, and the London crowd of Greg and Jenny, and Rob and Aimes (who we stayed with). Was great to go out with all of Jenai's uni crowd (minus a few exceptions still stuck in Australia) together again and see their favorite pubs and clubs. Also managed to do some sunbaking and see the white cliffs at Beachy Head, navigate the alleyways and funky shops of Brighton, and see the overpriced but impressive baths@Bath.


Who would have thought that public transport could be so fun?

From here it was a skip over the channel to gay Paris. We had an unahamedly touristy time, wandering through the postcard perfect streets to the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dam, Musee D'Orsay, and Champs Ellysees. The TGV took us down to Avignon, which was a little underwhelming (or perhaps it was the freezing wind) but the next stop at Aix-en-provence to see Jonathan and his squeeze Celine. Aix was a very cute little town with cobbled streets. We sampled French cuisine including Duck Confit (which you can buy in a can highly recommended) and also King Cake (long tradition but basically Jenai officially rules over Matt!!) . Hired a car and saw the countryside including a spectacular mountain which Cezanne used to like to paint.


The beautiful streets of Aix-en-provence

Then hopped over to Barcelona which was very cosmopolitan and funky in parts, hired bikes and cycled through the city and its many greenways, Jenai got a chance to practice her Spanish and we both started to get accustomed to Spanish hours which we are still having trouble breaking out of, but what is the rush when we are on holidays?? From there caught a flight to Malaga and had a brief stopover, just long enough to chuckle at the beaches the English tourists flock there for. Then hopped on a bus and did a bit of a whirlwind tour through Andalucia. We both really liked Granada with the Alhambra (an old moorish fortress/palace) and lovely plazas and streets buzzing with students. Cordoba was nice for a short visit with whitewashed old buildings but a bit like a museum really! Last stop was Seville where we had our best tapas so far consisting of "father of bambi" and watched Spanish football in requisite smoky pub. Seville was also where we both contracted "The Spanish Flu", managed to spend 18hours continously holed up in a hotel room. Despite not being fully recovered we managed to keep on travelling but only with the assistance of some kickass cold and flu tablets which may or may not be available in Australia! They were so effective that Matt fell asleep before we took off on our plane on the way to LONDON, again.


Jenai bays for blood at the Roman Ampitheatre in Tarragona

In London (2nd time around) we stayed with Jenai's friends Greg and Jenny. We were lucky enough to see the snow falling and go for a walk through Hyde Park. Matt caught up with school friends (Pave, Michelle and Tracey) but he actually lost his voice on the way to the restaurant so ended up relying on sign language for communication. Had another night out with Jenai's uni friends at the London equivalent of Sydney's Cargo Bar. Also caught up with Pete, an old friend of Jenai's family. Had a more successful outing with Matt's friends to the Tate modern (by which time Matt had recovered his voice and could actually make conversation). And so ended our European Vacation......


Snow fall in Hyde Park (spot the rat in its winter coat)