Last day in Pisa, and Italy, and the Ryanair Adventure

Up the leaning tower of Pisa to view the hazy city, a crazy pose in front of the Leaning Tower – a must, apparently after watching everyone else do so - visiting the cathedral, a walk around the Pisa's Cathedral Square and it is time to depart or the Galileo Galilei Airport.

 Uh oh, what a scene – why are the xray machines not working?  Why are there crowds standing around not moving? Delays?  Cancellations ?? Fog???  We never saw any clouds – just distant haze….  Old radar?  Over cautious pilots?  We spoke to many interesting people during our long wait – and heard about lives, families, work etc and the inconvenience.  Very late in the evening we were all informed that there would be no more flights and that there were stretchers upstairs. Really??? Sure enough, a large room was crammed with them, each stretcher accompanied with a thick orange plastic wrapped blanket.  This was not good enough!  Wait, our flight is being called – a bus to a hotel?  That’s better!   After travelling for an hour, at 2.30am we arrived at a Novotel Hotel at an airport north of Florence.  At this striking but very old hotel, we were quickly registered and departed to our warm room of 2 single beds with one small pillow each and a very stained, cigarette butted carpet, for 4 hours sleep before breakfast and an hour’s trip back to the Pisa Airport.  London, here we come 18 hours later – at last!!!!

Our travelling from New Zealand to London Adventure

Perhaps the most interesting sights when flying from New Zealand to Australia are the cloud formations. Today’s display was ‘out of the box.’ For the past few days in Auckland the days had been grey with much low cloud cover, so to rise above this blanket into the dusky blue brightness of the early evening sky was quite ‘uplifting.’  (you may laugh….)  We did not have to wait long for the first display. In the distance a line of black puffs of cloud rose above the border of the now dark grey blanket below and morphed into a long spinal skeleton of bones against a white sky.  Then they moved on to become the Southern Alps of our South Island  - a fitting way to leave New Zealand, we agreed.  But Australia, not to be outdone - after the sun set, rearranged the clouds into two charcoal vertical bands – separated by a band of brilliant orange!     Welcome to Australia!!!

We are now on our final leg of our flight to London, without any incident so far – apart from the fact that Christ spent ages in the shower at the Dubai airport and I had to send in an attendant to get him to hurry along – and we are enjoying the scenery outside, that is if you like rows and rows of rocky mountains sticking out of beige desert sands. Not as colourful as Australia’s outback.  Soon we ascended high over more rocky mountain ranges and plateaus which, to my surprise, were all snow covered.

 Just before our last trip this way there had been a dramatic sand storm and we had to divert to Bahrain to refuel, then return to Dubai so we saw nothing of the terrain.   From the air Dubai looks a bit like what Auckland might become   - many suburbs of apartments and occasional blocks of leafy suburbs and a city center of tall buildings.  Otherwise lots of sandy sand spits and bars, a few ships – no concentrated port that I could see - but no doubt there is one!!  So here we are on the plane – 7 hours to go  - after 17 hours of flying the seats are getting very hard – great to be offered thin mattresses and chardonnay to make the going easier……..

Thank you to the assistant at the Melbourne’s duty free shops who was able to help us with daughter’s duty free order.  ‘She has had 8 months to come up with her order and she text’s me when we are travelling!!! ‘ grumbles father.  Five minutes after tapping this lovely lady on the shoulder   HELP! – only in more colourful language – all was sorted.  BTW Christian Dior fragrance prices have risen significantly over the last vey weeks. I had to pay about NZ $40 more than expected – I should have bought when I first enquired (note to self).

Time for a doze – or shall I watch a movie??  All these choices when flying…

Travelling to Trieste, Italy, from London

We travelled to Trieste from London via Ryanair from an extremely busy Stansted Airport and cruised over many mountain ranges which did not yes have much snow. We had heard about the issues that passengers often have with Ryanair and sure enough – the first issue for us began   - our booked pickup did not arrive!  Two hours later the Trieste airport information centre phoned the airline – who refused to come and get us as we were only two and it was Sunday evening. So we ended up traveling on the local bus at a fraction of the cost.  Will we get a refund?  I suspect the odds are against us……..

London on a Balmy Autumn day but is it balmy for everyone??

Today, Saturday is the latest of a few balmy days in London. As we cruised along on the express train to Gatwick Airport, admiring the disappearing clouds, the black trees with greenish and brownish leaves and looking hopefully at the slowly brightening sky (but for how long, one cannot help but ask) it is hard to imaging that last time we travelled to London it was at New Year, and freezing! Everyone was walking in a hurry, and like me, coughing, snorting, and sneezing. Today the All Blacks are playing Scotland and Twickenham. We had breakfast with son Neil who was kitted out in his AB grear. Nearby some guys in white shirts with red flowers were hanging up their national flag around their breakfast table. In the streets there were several groups of similarly clad people with anticipatory smiles on their faces. The conversations everywhere are not so much that the AB's will win, but about the handball incident in Italy.

It is hard to imagine that up north, a 1000 year flood has altered the lives of so many people and taken one of a very brave policeman. Many people know of folks who live in the area.

However, englist people do keep their sense of humour up. And great to see, in the Daily Telegraph, an add for the all blacks called Longdrop beer.... When I figure out how to, I'll upload it....

Winter snapshot of Madrid, Spain

Flying is such a great way to travel! One usually has a glimpse of the land of one's destination and flying over the Spanish countryside, over the 'swirly' mountain ranges, which looked as if they had been 'combed' in white snow, we reached the different shades of brown flattish countryside around Madrid. That's interesting, I thought, no snow! A few days ago I had received an email from a Swedish relative wondering if we had encountered a blanket of snow in Madrid. From the air the city did not look as if it had suffered from any snow at all. It was not until we taxied into the airport that we noticed that there were quite a few large clumps of snow on either side of the runway.

Madrid Barajas International Airport is huge. Situated about 13 kilometers from Madrid, it is a central hub for travellers, including to South and Central America, and Cuba. In 2006 a new extension was added to the airport, doubling its capacity. The terminal we arrived in and travelled to Cuba from, was light, airy, spacious and clean, and pleasantly free of travelling crowds. It even had a few sculptures here and there - some of which are in the slideshow. Our first glimpse of Madrid while travelling in from the Madrid Barajas International Airport, was a city of low buildings, apart from 4 skyscrapers on the horizon. Apparently these buildings, all individually architecturally designed, are part of Madrid's new business centre in the north of the city. Soon they will be joined by Spain's biggest, and brand new convention centre which will be shaped like the rising sun, reflecting Madrid's growth.

It was most pleasant to stroll around Madrid's City Centre, enjoying the large silvery fountains and feeling of light airy space. The temperature was a cool but dry 6 degrees and we were able to shed more layers of winter clothng. The city is around 100 years old, so the buildings are not too tall, plain with decorative features near the tops (sorry don't know the style) and the footpaths and boulevards wide. Madrid citizens are great walkers, and indeed the later in the day it became, the bigger the crowds grew in the shopping streets. However the wide boulevards in the middle of other wide streets were not too crowded as to make walking a mission, as it was not quite warm enough to sit outside in the cafes.

Yes, I know we said that we had had enough of museums!!! But we could not resist a peek at the Titanic exhibition which, even though most of us know the story inside out, was well worth the visit. As a result I and Daughter-in-Law each now own a necklace featuring a piece of coal off the Titanic!! And yes, we had a look through the Royal Palace, with it's luxurious velvet hangings and drapes, and inspected the huge and most impressive Armoury. Not only that, we just had to visit the Museo Nacionale de Prado. We spent about 3 hours in this world renowned National Museum, which, in its programme, had noted all the 'must see' art works and sculptures in its huge collection, which was very useful. Works by Spaniards Goya, Greco, Rembrandt, Rubens and Gainsborough have been beautifully restored and displayed in large spaces. Ideal for viewing, especially as it was winter and not the tourist season so we could see everything at our leisure. When we left the Museo Nacional late in the day we noticed a very long queue of people outside the entrance. We found out that the museum offers free entry on Sundays at 5pm and one weeknight free of charge, to residents who are unable to pay the entrance fee.

But the most interesting and eyecatching exhibition was an outdoor public event, the Cow Parade! They have done quite a bit of travelling since their visit to Auckland, New Zealand, a couple of years ago. These fibreglass, lifesized cows travel the world and are painted by artists in the various locations. At the end of each exhibition the cows are auctioned off for charity. After their Madrid sojourn they will be on display in Hong Kong.

Now, after 6 weeks of travelling to Europe in winter I am hankering for some sunshine and warmth. Thank goodness we are travelling to Cuba tonight......

Christmas holiday in the Snow

As our plane travelled down below the clouds to land at the St Petersburg Airport, we gazed out at a city and country scene covered with a white blanket of snow. Chris' dream of having a white Chrismas has come true!

But what will being in a white wintery world really be like? All we have done so far is walk for 30 seconds from a warm airport to a very warm hotel, and back, so far!


And that is what it has been, over the three days in St Petersburg, formerly Leningrad, Russia. Sometimes our bedroom is too hot for our layers of thermals, winter garments and jackets. Then we go outside, all togged up and think - yes we do have enough on. Then we get into a warm car, museum, shop or restaurant, and we are roasting again!

It's lovely being in St Petersburg at this time of year. It is almost surreal, walking along the streets, with the sidewalks covered in snow, and soft snowflakes twirling out of the sky on your hair, face and clothes. And in the twilight, of which there is plenty, gazing at the beautiful street Xmas decorations.


As a result of their past opression, Russians love celebrating anything today. So the Xmas decorations in the streets were erected in December and will be up intil the orthodox Christmas on January 7. Each year the decorations are improved upon, and swapped from area to area so everyone sees something different. This year 74 artificial Xmas trees were decorated and erected around the city. 20 of these were over 18 meters high and 33 were more than 20 metres high. The largest and only real tree (which apparantly took over 100 years to grow) was erected, as per tradition in the Palace Square.

So when people travel to St Petersburg in the future may expect to find an extremely awesome Christmas display, not only from the trees, but on the buildings, over the streets and in the shops. Even the trees and buildings, decorated by nature with their coating of snow, give a dramatic look to the Christmas scene.

We are not sure what we will do to celebrate Xmas day, as the emphasis for party celebrations seems to be on New Year's Eve. As the shops and museums will be open all day on Christmas Day, we will probably just go cruise around the city. But we don't mind - it was worth all the travelling just to enjoy the Xmas season....