Welcome (back)

Well it's been at least two months since we've put a post on here but our friends at British Telecom have finally cooperated in providing internet so we are now mobile again. It's been a good end to a drizzly summer with some nice wee adventures to keep us happy. Autumn days are here (photo from my morning commute in Green Park):

There are a couple of great new websites that may be of interest:

Che and Erin are now well entrenched in South America and have started a fantastic website with some incredible photos, Juliet and Logan are on the road again and Jake and Lou have been travelling well ... for ever. Check out their sites in the links in the sidebar or below:

www.traveleor.com/logzjulz

www.erinandche.blogspot.com/

www.louandjake.blogspot.com/

Toblerone for breakfast

A few photos from our long weekend in Lausanne, Switzerland. This was disguised as a weekend of running, but once our races were over, it quickly degenerated into an excuse for demolishing Lindt chocolate by the cake load (new favourite is the Fig & caramel!).

We took a beautiful drive around the vineyards alongside Lake Geneva on Saturday. It was a spectacular day but the sunshine in the photos hides the fact that a freezing wind roared up the lake all day and was a bit restrictive. I was pretty relieved to survive my first attempt at driving a right hand drive car on the right hand side of the road and equally as relieved to ward off some stern directions from my co-driver.

After gladly booming the freebies at the pre-race "pasta party", we watched with relief to see the Springboks lift the Rugby World Cup and then an early night before our race.

Gaybs started first at 10am in the 1/4 marathon and carved up in her international debut running for New Zealand. I had to wait until 1:30pm for the half marathon to start. It was a fantastic run along the shore of the lake and through some local villages with bands and good local support along the way so there wasn't much opportunity to dwell on being broken.

After the run we drove out to Gruyeres to have dinner with the Cruickshank gang and promptly put back on all the calories we had just lost by stuffing ourselves full of cheese fondue. I, of course purchased the obligatory kick ass army knife with all the trimmings that I will never use but for a man who has grown up with Macgyver, that is not a problem.

Drive around the vines:

Hanging out on the lake front with my beloved motorway visible in the background:

Gabrielle is easy to spot, one of the only people not in lycra!

To some these are just photos of animals in a paddock with bells on. To me this is a complete mystery.

Views of Gruyeres at sunset, with the cheese fondue at Le Chalet:

Dining with Jason, H, Lucy, Lana, Dan and G.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam was the perfect city for a weekend break with beautiful architecture, canals, galleries as well as the notorious red light district. It is a very compact city, so we managed to walk everywhere.

Our first morning found us eating pancakes at a brilliant little place recommended by Hamish's mum, and then on to Anne Frankhuis where, while standing in a queue with about 100 other people, Hamish loudly asked "did Anne Frank write a book?"

The weather was drizzly the whole time, so instead of hiring a bike and taking a trip out to the countryside to look at windmills and clogs, we decided to go to the movies one afternoon! Not a very dutch thing to do, but we ended up seeing the Bourne Ultimatum which we both highly recommend to anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

We also took in the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum. Other than that we just drank the local brew (Heineken), ate waffles and generally took it easy.

Oh, couldn't forget the Red Light District..... I found it all very odd.....near naked prostitutes propositioning passers-by from their little neon lit cubicles. We didn't last there long, especially as we had to dodge all the English stag parties also frequenting the area :)

The real X-Factor visits London

We had the pleaseure of partially returning the hospitality of Josh for a week of London's late summer in which we visited the Oval to see Mark Ramprakash score a fine hundred and the Rosebowl in Shouthhampton to see Shane Warne slog out for four. Also managed some fine cricket of our own in Wandsworth Common criket Oval as well as some good bbbq's, pizza's and dark and stormy's at our local nightclub on Salcott Rd. Thanks for a great week X.

Turkey Part 4: Back to Istanbul

We saved most of our sightseeing in Istanbul for our return - especially as we wanted the opportunity to fully stock up on goodies at the Grand Bazaar without having the burden of carrying them around for two weeks!

Dried peppers at the Spice Markets

Mmmm :)

Drinking apple tea, and a very nuclear looking kiwifruit tea, at the Spice Markets after buying 1kg of turkish delight for Hamish. He demolished it within about 48 hours.

Spent nearly an entire day in the Grand Bazaar bargaining for turqouise jewellery, backgammon sets and other trinkets.

Lanterns in the Grand Bazaar:

Sharife, a friend of Steph's, who we spent an evening with. She lives on the Asian side of Istanbul and these photos are taken on the ferry crossing from the European side.

Steph having her fortune told by rabbits:

My rabbit 'told' me that I was going to meet a powerful person in an unexpected circumstance and that the meeting would change my life. Apparently all my life's dreams would come true because of this person. I'm still waiting.......

We also spent our last day looking around Topkapi Palace, Aya Sofya and the Blue Mosque:

The most spectacular scaffolding I've ever seen!

Needless to say, I wasn't going to pay this man to find out how much weight I had put on during my time in Turkey. Damn that baklava!

And to top off our last hour or two in Turkey we also managed to bump into the Prime Minister. He was entertaining another big wig at this meatball joint:

Turkey Part 3: Cappadocia

After taking an overnight bus from Olympos we arrived in Goreme at about 6am to find about 30 hot air balloons floating above us. We had been looking forward to this the whole trip and could hardly wait for our turn the next day.


We only had two days in this area but managed to cram in so much. Unfortunately that also means a lot of photos, but I have tried to cut it down as much as poss!


Cappadocia really is a hard place to explain, but if you can imagine a lunar landscape with rocks which look like asparagus spears or giant penises (depending on your perspective) then you're probably starting to get the right idea.



On our first day we wandered around the Goreme Open Air Museum. The entire area is covered with these rocks where people burrowed their houses and churches into stone cliffs and also created underground cities.

Looking down over Goreme. We were staying in one of the 'fairy chimneys' below:

Overlooking Goreme at sunset:

We met some random carpet guys who took us into their very posh showroom. I never thought I could be interested in rugs, but when they change colour as you walk over them, and are worth about $30,000 USD it was easy to be impressed! I think in this photo I am wrapped in about $50,000 USD worth of carpet:

The very posh carpet shop people were also associated with a very posh luxury boutique hotel and they gave us a tour. It was ridiculous just how 'swish' it was, but I'll leave you to judge for yourselves: http://www.anatolianhouses.com/

Our hot air balloon flight was fantastic and something that I would recommend to anyone. I was expecting to be a little scared, but it was so gentle that often we would have risen a few hundred metres in the air without me even realising it.

Getting started:

The way they could control the direction and height of the balloon was amazing, mostly demonstrated by being able to land our basket on the back of a trailer which probably had about 30 cms of space on each side!

Deflating the balloon - although I wish they had told us how dirty you get doing this!

And a glass of champagne to celebrate our return to solid ground: