A Glimpse of our Winter Adventure in Berlin

We knew it would be cold in Berlin. In the minuses, we knew, and in preparation had brought additional layers of clothing for our winter holiday there. However we had not expected the locals to complain as well!  ‘It is minus 7 degrees with a wind chill of minus 21! our shivering cab driver informed us as she hauled our luggage into her boot.    We travelled under a grey sky along grey streets and were met at a grey door behind which was our accommodation. Through a passageway and there they were – the beautiful, red brick, Berlin Lofts!  Once warehouses, today they are tastefully transformed into warm roomy hotel apartments – equipped with practically everything that visitors  to Berlin would want. I could quite happily live in this apartment with its open plan kitchen, dining and lounge area in which a party of 100 people would rattle about.  

Bundled into our many layers we  quickly strolled around the neighbourhood, purchased a few necessities   - oh look! over there looks to be a friendly local pub!  Such warmth – we sighed blissfully as we peeled off our layers of clothing and sat down to enjoy some local beer, wine and food  - and at very reasonable prices, too!  Our 20-month-old grandson was an instant hit with both the staff and regulars – our first realisation that the Berliners love babies!!  This pub became our ‘regular’ during our stay in Berlin  - no doubt the regulars missed our noisy repartee and baby’s antics after our departure.

The Jamiesons Adventure at Midleton, Ireland

Well worth visiting is the Jameson Heritage Centre in Midleton, Cork, in the South of Ireland.

The heritage buildings, perfectly restored, relate the way whiskey was produced in the past, including the secrets which made Jamieson’s Whiskey so renowned today. After touring, visitors arrive at the pub where one is expected to drink whiskey, not beer - and where they can have a whiskey tasting or sample one of the many ways that Jamieson’s whiskey can be enjoyed.

An ideal way to commence our Cork adventure before travelling to the Carrigaline Court Hotel.

Chris' Getting Lost Adventure, in Waterford, Ireland

After a wonderful day exploring Kildaire, the Kildagan Stud, and Kilkenny we travelled to the historical Waterford, Ireland. While the name ‘Waterford’ means ‘windy fiord’ it was calm and raining when we arrived. After depositing our luggage at the Waterford Marina Hotel we set out to walk, in the gently falling rain, along the waters edge to visit the Waterford Chamber of Commerce. After quite a long time of walking, it seemed, we decided to grab a taxi to the venue. However there was not enough room for us all so husband Chris, being the gentleman that he is, and also the only person with a hat, said that he would continue walking. We arrived at the Waterford Chamber of Commerce buildings, walked up the beautiful and unique oval stairwell to their offices, to be warmly welcomed by local members.

After quite some time we noticed that Chris had not arrived. Oh dear! And he did not have his iphone with him! So out with the search party….. where might he be?? Was he wandering up and down the Waterford Streets in the rain, still looking for us? Would he have given up on finding us and repaired to the warm hospitality of a local pub to enjoy a beer? And which pub would he have visited? Maybe he returned to the Waterford Marina Hotel? A phone call to the hotel revealed that there was a kiwi in the hotel pub – no, that was not Chris.

But wait, who is that at reception, waiting for a taxi? There he is! Much to our relief, Chris joined us all at the Waterford Chamber of Commerce, in time to meet our guests, enjoy a whisky tasting,then repair with us all to dinner in the beautiful restaurant at the historic Granville Hotel and pub, on the water’s edge of Waterford.

Visiting Dublin, Ireland

Dublin, Ireland, the city of romantics, poets authors and artists. Oscar Wilde, James Joyce Today a city empty apartments and shops, shoppng mals, negative building values and unemployment. Very old and interesting buildings nestled amongst newer uglier ones. A traveller needs time to explore a new city however with not much ot it available we elected to bipass a visit to the Guinness factory - which, we found out was an excellent historical display culminating in one of the best high views of Dublin, complemented by a glass of Guinness beer in one’s hand. Instead we walked through Dublin City to visit the Book of Kels at Trinity College. Our Trinity College guide was a young graduate student who was saving to study as a lawyer in London later in the year. With typical Irish humour he had us Dublin' in laugher as he described the triumphs and tribulations of the construction f the university buildings - many shortcuts were made, usually as a result of lack of funds. The book of Kels exhibition was very well presented - much information about the book and the beautifully intricate art. What patience and precision those early artists had! The Long Room library at Trinity College with its high arched ceiling and books reaching to it from the floor is the storage place of all old and new published books. It had a fascinating display of publications - opened - going back centuries with details about the artistic and publication techniques. I have to say I am not sure if I would return to Dublin - probaby because we spent so little time there and therefore did not absorb the feel of the city - unlike Belfast, but that is another story.

First Impressions of Dublin, Ireland

I have to say that I had no idea what to expect in Dublin, Ireland, for our Irish adventure, after arriving by a most enjoyable trip on the fast ferry overseas from Hollyhead, in Anglesea, Wales. I suppose I expected a very old city, complete with old buildings such as we saw in Chester and Liverpool, but that was not the case. From the Dublin ferry terminal to the Jury's Inn Hotel Custom House on the River Liffey, we saw a lot of 'modern' style light industry and low rise character less and certainly not old (!!) buildings which rather unsettled my 'romantic' notions of Ireland. It is not until after we had settled into our hotel and went to look for our associates at Captain America's Restaurant in Grafton Street, that we did find some older character buildings worth stopping to inspect. To us it seemed that the older buildings were mixed up with the newer ones and this was the character of the city. After meeting our travelling group and Captain America's where they seemed to stand out as the grand parents of most of the other clients, we strolled back to Jury's in via refreshing ourselves with a beer at the very traditionally Irish Lannigans Bar, named, we are sure, after the relative of one of our tourist party.

The Chester and Liverpool Adventure

We travelled by rail from London to Chester, through gentle hill rolling green fields and hedgerows, still rather sodden from recent deluges. Very easy on the eye and this green eye candy, along with the gentle rocking of the comfortable Virgin Express train soon had our heads nodding. Our hotel at Chester was at “The Mill’ a former corn mill set on either side of the call, and converted into a hotel by its owners about 20 year ago. Both our room and bathroom were luxurious and spacious, thanks to the hotel website which family inspected when booking the best room they could find for us. The Mill Hotel was immaculately kept and compete with large spa, gym and swimming pool, whick I immediately took advantage of. We expecially liked the prints of Venice (one of our favourite cities) taken many years ago, which adorned the walls - so appropriate for a hotel spanning both sides of the canal and also boasting the only privately owned canal bridge. Chester and the River Dee were most significant for milling, waterway trade and transportation, and more recently for hydro power generation and tourism. The food, tudor style architecture in the main shopping mall and the walkway around the city walls is most popular with travellers. Ah, Liverpool! Home of the Liver Bird and the Beatles! No, we did not do a Beatles tour, but we did stroll down Mathew Street which features the ‘Cavern’ - not the original, and the many Beatles paraphernalia shops and pubs with names such as the ‘Hard Days Night.’ A stroll along the Docklands - now a World Heritage Site - gazing over the Mersey River - remember that song by Gerry and the Pacemakers?? and a visit to the Beatles Museum brought the nostalgia, the music and the exciting days of the 1960’s to the mind. The lads of went to the pub a beer and to watch the Irish v All Blacks game whle the gals quckly checked out the summer sales. While the shops and prices were the same as London, the overstocked untidiness and crowds and queues in the London shops wre missing - much more condusive to shopping!! And yes, we did purchase a couple of little items......

Monaco - boating paradise in the sun

We travelled by rail from Nice to Monaco. We emerged from the railway station, which is modern, marble paved and set in the middle of the mountain into sunshine, warmth, to a scene crowded with wall to wall boats on the blue waters and wall to wall hotels and apartments piled up against the mountains. After strolling along the waterfront admiring all the yachts we moved on to inspect the Monaco Yacht Club's Racing Mark Laying boat. Instead of using anchors to secure the marks on the ocean floor, we noted that concrete blocks on the end of twine are used. Presumably the twine is cut and the blocks remain on the ocean floor! I wonder what the archeologists in the year 5000 will make of these when researching it for clues of human activities in the year 2009! After retiring to the very modern, classy Monaco Yacht Club for refreshments, we walked to the top of the old town and visited the Aquarium. Built by Prince Albert of Monaco, a passionate ocean and wildlife exporer in the late 1800's, the building hosts many acquariums of unusual and endangered fish and sealife. While inspecting the exhbition, and finding out about the research techniques carried out by Prince Albert and his team, one wonders if these practices would be acceptable today. However the sealife exhibits talk a lot about conservation, preservation and of the aquarium's most successful breeding programme for overseas aquariums. If you ever venture to this neck of the woods, the Aquarium is well worth a visit.

Out into the sunshine again we strolled, and relaxed at one of the cafes near the palace, where royalty still live, to enjoy Monaco's award winning beer. Then, somewhat reluctantly, we wended our way to the beautiful Monaco railway station back to Nice.

Oh, that's right - it is Saturday! Time to watch the New Zealand All Blacks play the French!! And to enjoy the conviviality of the Hotel bar where there is a wide screen TV!

And then, tomorrow, to sunny, exciting Cannes....... uh oh - don't like the look of the clouds - surely that cannot be correct????

Ports of Call when on a cruise ship around Italy

The first port that our cruise ship Costa Serena berthed at was Bari. As we were to be there for about 4 hours we did not take a tour but walked around the shops then the old town. Being the end of the tourist and summer season, it was very quiet and the street paving in the old town were so white that they looked as if they had been scrubbed clean. Many streets were narrow and resident's laundry hung from balconies above. The laundry was often covered with sheets of plastic, whether to protect it from the rain, or pidgeons, we were not too sure. From the wide walkways around the water's edge it was obvious that Bari would have been a seaside paradise for crowds of holiday makers during the summer season. Our next port of call was the Island of Corfu.This trip rather challenged our holiday timetable becuase the cruise ship was passing from one time zone in Italy, to another in Greece, so we had to arise an hour earlier in the morning to go ashore - dreadful for people like me who do absolutely everything on a cruise ship! Many resort hotels, restaurants and bars on Corfu had closed for the season, which meant that the only tour groups visiting the churches and monuments were from our cruise ship. Corfu is best known for tourism and olive oil production and its seven months of summer! The waters are calm and deep blue and the scenery - awesome! No wonder many people cruise here and also to the many islands of nearby Croatia.
Next we visited Valetta on the Island of Malta. We arrived at dawn, weaving and turning on a five cent piece to get into the narrow entrance of the harbour. Many of the old towns have fortress have walls built right at the water's edge and the houses on the cliff faces above - exactly as you see on pics of Malta. Our walking tour group were all English speaking, and we had a hilarous time laughing with everyone.This was most refreshing as on the ship many languages were spoken so it was good to have a few laughs in English with everyone, including the tour guide. Valetta is very well set up for shopping, and many people in our group peeled off to do so. After we visited St John's Cathedral which houses the tombs of 400 knights of Malta (this was a most interesting story in itself) there were only 4 of us left of our group! So we had a quick peek at an exhibition of Flemish tapestries - not part of the "official" tour then repaired to enjoy the local (and famous) local beer at one of the local cafes. Because it was the beginning of the quiet season in Valetta and Malta we were able to enjoy a conversation with our waitress, an Australian lady who had come to Malta for a holiday and met a man - yes 25 years later she was still here. She told us she misses the mountains and open spaces and if she ever returned to Australia, she might never return!

We had a chuckle upon returning to our cruise ship Costa Serena. Becuase it was such a fine sunny day everyone had gone to the upper decks to sunbathe. And what outfits! No, not bikinis, g's or even shorts! Yes - jeans, boots, jackets, overcoats, topped off with Costa Serena black and yellow check woollen blankets! I kid you not....

Flight called - and more champagne - will write soon....