Travel adventures of the Cooks

Gallery: Spain

sean_and_liana — Tue, 1 Apr 2008 04:53:00 GMT

Torremolinos and Peuto Banus- Costa Del Sol

Gallery: Guinness Brewery - Dublin

sean_and_liana — Tue, 1 Apr 2008 04:28:00 GMT

Tour of the Guinness Storehouse

Irish Shenanigans

sean_and_liana — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 05:25:00 GMT

Continuing with our attempt to get to as many of the major events in Europe as possible, we headed to Dublin to celebrate St Patricks day with the Irish! Well one slight problem, it seems the Irish don’t live in Dublin, so we celebrated with half of America instead!

Lynsey had booked two one bedroom self-contained apartments right in the centre of town so Sean, Taff and I flew in to meet the girls (Lyns, Nic and Chloe) who had all been on a tour around Ireland for 5 days. The apartments were fantastic! A nice bit of Luxury for us all. Sean’s mate from home Dicko also came to visit and spent a few days couch hopping between the two apartments!

With only 5 days and plenty of celebrating to be done we were kept very busy. Taffs birthday was on the Saturday we arrived, and then Lyns shared her birthday with Paddy on Monday.

We did manage to get in a few tourist activities, visiting Croke Park the home of Gaelic Football and Hurling, where we had fun exploring the Museum and Sean and Taff had a go at Hurling a ball with a stick, before going on a tour of the stadium. I’m becoming a pro at sporting stadiums…think I might be ready to give a few tours myself after Lords, Millenium stadium and now Croke Park. But it was a good way to spend a few hours.

We managed to spend several hours over the week in the Local souvenir shops setting ourselves up for St Paddys! There was no question about whether we had the Irish spirit!!

St Patricks day we got up early, as someone had given us a tip that you would need to be in a pub by 8 if you wanted to secure yourselves a spot….that was a bit early for us, so we headed out at 10, only to find the pubs were still closed. There were a few less than wise tourists like ourselves hanging around, and we all thought it must mean that the pubs were opening at 10.30, then we thought maybe 11. By 12.30 when they finally did open we were all frozen to the core and ready for a genuine Guinness!! We were the first people throough the door at the world famous Temple Bar. We found ourselves a great table off in a corner right by the disabled toilets which became our private Loo….we realised later this was a godsend, as there was about a 45 min wait in the queue for the toilets. We drank our fair share of the best Guinness in the world (and yes it really does taste completely different in Dublin!!). Sean and Taff dressed as Giant Leprechauns were the stars of the day, and posed for many photos including with the bar staff who were very impressed with their sheer size and Irish spirit….they also managed to perfect their irish accents and over the following days had us in hysterics every five minutes with their niche nche niche niche niche chuckles.

By about 7.30 we were all about guinnessed out and a little weary and decided to head home, feeling a bit like old women leaving the pub before it was even dark, but we reminded ourselves we had started rather early! In our Guinness fuelled wisdom someone decided a meal at a nice restraint was in order so after dropping off some of our Irish paraphernalia so we looked a little less like drunken tourists who had just stumbled out from the pub, we found a nice Italian restaurant and headed for a meal. We were sat at a table next to a group of older Irish women who made us look very sober and intelligent as they sang irish songs (getting many of the s wrong mind you) in their warbled voices until the boys were about ready to launch their knives over their heads to put everyone out of their misery!

St Paddys day was a wonderful day, however we were all a little disappointed that we hadn’t managed to experience anything Irish until the drunk old women. Temple Bar which advertises live Irish bands every day had decided not to play ANY Irish music on St Paddys day, and seeing as though there was not an Irish person in the pub, if it wasn’t for the sea of green you would have thought you were in a pub in New York!

The next few days were spent exploring Dublin, walking around and seeing the sites (not a lot to see, the Dublin needle and Dublin castle, Christ church and of course the Guinness Storehouse Brewery, where we managed to spend a good part of an afternoon! The Brewery was great, really well set up with 7 floors of things to do and see. We learnt how to Pull a perfect pint of Guinness, and pulled our own to get a certificate, and then enjoyed the view from the top level bar over the whole city. After a little more souvenir shopping (Ireland definitely hold the record for number of souvenirs purchased in our travels) we headed off to find a true irish pub meal. After calling into over ten pubs we finally found one serving Steak and Guinness Pie…and I promise it was worth the search!! Absolutely brilliant!!!

Our Last night in town we headed off to the Arlington Hotel which our lovely taxi driver on the way from the airport had told us was a good Craic. They have a live irish music and Irish Dancing show every night. And what a show it was….how those men get their legs to move like that I will never understand! We were all blown away and inspired to go and have Irish dancing lessons (I think we lost a little of that inspiration after the Guinness and Bulmers wore off).

After five days of good fun and wonderful beer we were back home to London, but Sean and I were not too sad, as we were only a few days off going to Spain for some sun and relaxation!

Gallery: Ireland

sean_and_liana — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 01:35:00 GMT

Dublin and St Patricks Day

Gallery: Liana's 25th birthday

sean_and_liana — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 02:12:00 GMT

dinner at Alfornos in wimbledon

Gallery: Paris

sean_and_liana — Mon, 7 Jan 2008 22:33:00 GMT

The beautiful Bits of Paris and silly photos

Gallery: Marseille and Chateau D'If

sean_and_liana — Mon, 7 Jan 2008 22:27:00 GMT

Gallery: Lyon and Grenoble

sean_and_liana — Mon, 7 Jan 2008 22:20:00 GMT

Photos around lyon and our trip to Grenoble

France

sean_and_liana — Mon, 7 Jan 2008 22:13:00 GMT

Next stop on our travels was France, and we decided to try and see a few different city’s in the country which everyone claims is so brilliant! Trying to describe France is difficult. Lets just say it did not impress me! Even though we have had some lovely experiences, I still have an overwhelming feeling of dislike towards France that I can’t shake no matter how had I try. I cant say that I haven’t enjoyed myself, but I can say I am in no rush to return.

I have tried to write down the positive things about France, but somehow seem to get stuck on the negative, so lets just get that our first. French people in the majority (well the majority that we came across) are rude, arrogant, pushy and extremely unwelcoming! If they aren’t pushing you on or off the train, they are acting like you don’t exist. When it comes to speaking English, even though it is the law that all French children must learn English from age 5, therefore most people in France should be able to speak a fair amount of English, they refuse! Now I Don’t expect that everyone should speak English because I do, but its so frustrating when you are trying to ask a question and the person is so busy trying to tell you over and over again that they do not speak English, that they cant stop to listen and try and work out what I am saying using a combination of the French I know and English! And then when they finally realise you are not going to give up, all of a sudden they can speak quite a lot of English! Funny that!

The other thing that I wasn’t bale to get past in France were the huge amount of homeless people everywhere you go, every corner you walk around you come across another dodgy character lurking in the shadows. But unlike the homeless people we have at home, these seem rather privileged, most with “houses” set up in an alcove, complete with fullsize mattress, loads of blankets and more belongings than we are travelling with! No matter where we went, I always felt we were in the bad area of town.

And then to top it all off, the French railways have decided they don’t like travellers with Eurail passes, so all of a sudden our passes have become almost useless, as they only allow a very small number of pass holders on any train. We have been stranded in Marseille for three days not able to get a seat on any train, even thought trains to Paris leave every hour! Our only way out was a 6am train on a Sunday morning, but then we are unable to get a seat on the Eurostar to London, so now have to spend 2 days in Paris before we can return home!

But whinging aside, we did see some nice things in France. While we were in Lyon we decided to take a day trip to Grenoble, the capital of the French Alps. It was quite a gorgeous little town, and had a fantastic cable car that ran to the top of the Bastille Fortress, with amazing views of Grenoble and the Alps. We had a great lunch in a restaurant up the top of the mountain and a good time exploring the fort. It turns out many of the good times we had in France were spent exploring Forts. Lyon Itself did not have too much to excite the average tourist. We did manage to find Lyons version of the Eiffel Tower, and a Basilica (some sort of Church) right on the top of the hill with great views of the city at night.

From Lyon it was off to Marseille, with a 3.5 hour train trip on a very dodgy and very dirty local train as we weren’t able to get a seat on any of the high speed (1 hour) trains that week. We went into Marseille with high hopes that it might make up for Lyons Downfalls. Unfortunately not! And now at the end of our rail adventure Marseille keeps the title of my least favourite city. Fortunately I had found another great hotel deal and we were in a new self contained serviced apartment, so we were able to cook some decent meals and relax in a little comfort and space. The Old Port was an interesting excursion with several fortresses around it that we were able to explore, and loads of restaurants (none with an English menu). On our second day in Marseille we decided to take a boat trip out to an island with a fort/castle called Chateau D’If, and spent most of the day out of Marseille. The Chateau was really fantastic, and apart form the rain which tried to dampen our spirits, we were able to have a great day and take loads of photos. On our way to the Boat we walked through the Old Port Fish markets which were crazy with some of the strangest seafood I have ever seen, including massive flat head, eels, and some very odd looking shellfish. I would have taken photos, but if you got too close to the market they seemed to force you to buy something, and they weren’t people to be messed with.

From Marseille it was off to Paris for a night before we could finally get a train home. I have to admit I came into Paris very reluctantly, and with a very poor impression of France. First impressions confirmed my current opinion. Paris was dirty, smelly and full of extremely rude people. But then we went to the Champs Elysee. Wow!!! What a difference, talk about pumping all a city’s money into a select few areas, the streets sparkled! And it was just pure beauty everywhere you looked. After visiting the Arc De Triumphe we wandered down the Champs Elysee to the Grand Palace and across a gorgeous bridge to take our first photos of The Eiffel Tower. Paris was slowly moving up in my opinion!

That night was spent at the Tower, and I think I have almost equalled the record for the number of photos taken in one place( I think Murren may be slightly in the lead). I expected the Tower to be impressive, but I didn’t expect it to be anywhere near as impressive as it was. We didn’t have to line for too long, and went right to the top of the tower, Cloud was setting in and at the top we were right in the clouds, so were not able to see too much, but the views from the first and second levels were amazing! I couldn’t get over the beauty of the tower, and we spent our last night of our Eurail adventure taking silly photos and laughing like we hadn’t for quite a while! Turns out France could be fun! But I don’t think ill be in too much a hurry to return!

Today we head off on the Eurostar back to London, and I must say I didn’t think I would be so excited to return to London! But the thought of a clean underground system, and people speaking English, and people smiling and being friendly (well friendly in comparison) is something to get very excited about!

Gallery: Brussels

sean_and_liana — Fri, 4 Jan 2008 05:15:00 GMT

Photos around Brussels

Hotel Bound in Brussels

sean_and_liana — Fri, 4 Jan 2008 05:11:00 GMT

After a wonderful Christmas in England with Sean’s relatives (unfortunately not a white Christmas) it is back on the train tracks and off to explore more of Europe!

We took the overnight Ferry to and from Hull which was fun. More like a cruise ship than a ferry there were bars galore, a small casino where Sean managed to win a little bit and some duty free shops. We had a small cabin with two bunks and a bathroom with one of the best showers we have had (water pressure doesn’t exist in England and Europe!!).

Then it was back onto the train to Brussels where I had researched have a great fireworks display for new years and a really great atmosphere. Unfortunately the terrorists have also heard that and decided to plot to destroy it, so the fireworks were cancelled and half of Brussels was closed, along with the train lines. Luckily I had managed to get us a great deal at a five star hotel, so after we had explored the little there was left to explore of Brussels we were at least able to relax in comfort.

Sean wasn’t a huge fan of Brussels and even after I found a beer museum to take him too he still didn’t seem very impressed. We did mange to find a great restraint which had a special lunch offer of a 3 course seafood meal for 10 euros! I had escargot (or your average garden snails) followed by a huge serve of mussels (the local dish) and icecream. Sean skipped the snails and had prawns then the mussels and icecream. Was all very nice and I was starting to get Sean a little less down on Brussels, until he found out he beer he had just cost him 8 euro!!!

We spent new years eve watching Kids movies on TV and Sean watched the fireworks all over the world each hour as more countries reached the new year. I fell asleep a little before midnight Brussels time, but Sean told me I did mange to wake up and wish him a happy new year about 4 times!

Getting out of Brussels was not as easy as we had hoped so we spent a large chunk of new years day sitting in the dingy train station waiting for a train. To top it off the stupid woman who sold us the tickets didn’t bother to tell us that when we changed trains in Paris we also had to change stations, luckily I realised just after we had ordered some food in a Paris restaurant, and we ate and ran and made it to the other station just in time to catch our train to Lyon. Hopefully France will impress Sean a little more than Brussels!

Gallery: Christmas 2007

sean_and_liana — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:12:00 GMT

Chirstmas and the surrounding festivities

Gallery: Soaring through Switzerland

sean_and_liana — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 23:41:00 GMT

Flying from 2600m

Gallery: Murren

sean_and_liana — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 18:11:00 GMT

The breathtaking views from a ski village

Soaring through Switzerland

sean_and_liana — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 18:07:00 GMT

Another train journey, another blog entry. Today’s train takes us from The beautiful Interlaken, Switzerland, to Amsterdam via Frankfurt. At this point we have just boarded after 2 hours in the freezing cold at Frankfurt station, so my fingers will hopefully defrost as I type.

Switzerland has definitely stolen the crown for the most beautiful place in the world from Prague. But maybe that is because of the way we saw it! After a disappointing stay in Vienna we moved onto Bern, expecting it to be a little busier and a little more exciting. We have since discovered that this is the quietest time of year in Austria and Switzerland! Who would have thought countries with such breathtaking scenery and snow covered mountains with the best ski resorts in the world would be busier in summer?

We spent one night in Bern, and a day exploring the Swiss capital. It was a lovely city, but not too many sights to be seen so we were able to cover it within a few hours and then have some time to relax and regroup, and more importantly do some washing. Bern is built on the side of a small mountain (in comparison to the other mountains we have seen, so the trip to the hostel was via cable car, and the view from the top of the cable car was lovely, unfortunately it doesn’t look so amazing in the pictures due to the fog cover, which we are now seeing everywhere we go! We have been told the temperatures are too low for snow through Switzerland and Germany at the moment, but there is very thick fog and ice on all the trees and ground so everything is white, jut isn’t actually snow.

The sights in Bern were limited mainly to a statue which we were unable to find (I think it was buried under construction works, the town clock which was slightly more exciting than the Astronomical clock in Prague, but not nearly as exciting as the cuckoo clock I bought while we were in Bern, and the bear pits, which unfortunately no longer have bears (I suppose that is fortunate for the bears!)

The hostel we stayed in was huge, but there were only about 15 people there, so we hardly saw anyone the whole time, From there it was on to Interlaken, we were meant to catch a train which would take less than an hour, but unfortunately the train station was closed just as our train was due to arrive, so we had to walk through the city (we had already walked a long way from the hostel to catch a bus (Talk about sardines!!)to another station where we stood in the cold for about 45 mins waiting to find out when another train would arrive, it was then two more trains to Interlaken. The hostel was a HUGE walk from the train station (the directions given by the hostel were a huge under exaggeration) But we arrived eventually.

Interlaken was stunning, it was down in the valley a little and all you could see in every direction was snow topped mountains, the view form our hostel was amazing. But nothing on what we were going to see the next day.

Again our hostel was deserted! There were only three people the first night and no more than 10 the other two nights! We had been expecting a huge party scene as that is what this hostel was known for, but again, it’s the quietest time of year! So it was just us and the very friendly bar staff, and one young aussie guy from albany the first night, who’s mum very coincidentally was from a village near Scunthorpe only a few mins from Seans dads home village! The first night the guys at the bar told us about paragliding, which Sean had read about and wanted to do, but the brochures said he was over the size limit. The bar guys assured us that they would find someone who would take him, and rang some of their mates who agreed to come and have a look and see what they thought. They came the next morning and told us the conditions were not looking good for going, but because we were really keen they would take us with them as they were planning on doing solo flights anyway, and then see what happened. They kept telling us it was only a very small chance that we would be able to go as the conditions needed to be perfect to do tandem, and the only site they could try was the highest site they ever use. I was petrified, but had got myself into it and there was no backing out. We went with them up to a Village in the mountains called Murren, definitely the most breathtakingly beautiful place I have ever experienced, and they left us there so they could go up higher and attempt a test flight to see if it was going to be ok. Walking around Murren we decided even if we didn’t get to fly it wouldn’t matter as it was just so beautiful that we had not wasted a second!

An hour and a half later we saw three paragliders fly past, the three guys we had come with. They had had to wait a long time to get the right conditions, and only had a minute or two to go before the wind changed again. They rang us from the bottom and said it didn’t look good but they were willing to come back up and wait it out and see if there was another opportunity for us to go. So up we went on the chair lift to a slope on the edge of the mountain. The one thing they told us was that if we wanted to fly we were going to have to run, and we had to be confidant that we could run, because if we didn’t we would go rolling down the slope! Anyone that knows me knows I cant run to save myself, but we had come this far so I had to commit myself to it. After about 5 mins the wind changed just for a short time and we were ready to go, so with my little pilot Robbie attached to my back we watched Sean and his pilot Richard take off and then it was our turn.

It was quite a sight watching Sean and Richard take off, as Sean was quite a lot taller than him it meant his feet were off the ground well before Sean’s and poor Sean was left to do all the running while Richard just sat back and waited to take off. It had everyone else on the mountain in stiches laughing! But before I knew it Robbie was counting down for me to run, and somehow my legs managed to follow his directions and off we went running down the slope, he had told me not to stop running, until after I was sure my feet were off the ground, he eventually had to tell me to stop because we were well and truly off the ground but I think I was too scared to stop! But once we were off it was the most amazing feeling, the harness turns into quite a comfortable seat and you just sit back and soar through the sky! We were in the air for about 15 mins but it felt like and hour! Time just seemed to slow right down and the view was incredible! Words cant describe how it feels to fly between two of the most beautiful mountains, over villages with the sun out and snow all around! At one point Robbie told me we were going to fly over Murren and I had to look down between my legs, we went over the edge of a cliff 700m high, wow what a feeling! The flight itself was 2600m from top to bottom, the usual flights they do for tourists is 500m and over Interlaken landing in the main park. How lucky for us to be able to fly so far and land in a snow filled field (or in Sean’s case the car park after flying between two trees). We both got to control the glider for part of the flight which was just an amazing feeling, and the pilots took a pile of photos while we were in the air (stay tuned I will add these as soon as I get access to a scanner).

Paragliding was one of those experiences that I will remember for my whole life. I can see why people become addicted to it, it’s the most amazing feeling!

The next day was set aside for Skiing, so we went off to the Ski Hire shop in the afternoon so we were all prepared for the next day. Unfortunately the guy at the hire place was not at all interested, and subsequently hired us all the wrong equipment, in particular extremely ill fitting boots, so much so that I wasn’t even able to walk form the train station to the baby slope without going into another hire shop to get them checked. The extremely helpful people in he other store took one look at my face and then my boots and sat me down instantly, horrified that I had been given the boots I was and gave me another pair, we headed off to the baby slope, and put on our skis with much difficulty. I didn’t manage to move forwards at all, sliding backwards every time I moved a muscle in my body, and Sean went flying down the slope accidentally twice before his boots also caused his feet to cramp up so badly that we decided to call skiing quits and went straight back to Interlaken. The guy from the shop was very uninterested in the fact that he had completely ruined our day, but eventually agreed to give us half our money back after he realised Sean was not going to leave until he did. Not the best way to spend our last day in Switzerland, and probably the last time either of us attempt skiing. It’s a shame people like that are allowed to work in tourist stores as it has such an impact on people’s experiences.

But thankfully our experience in the skies above Switzerland clearly outweighed the skiing saga, and Switzerland will be sealed with positive memories!

Today we are off to Amsterdam for one night, then onto Rotterdam tomorrow to catch the ferry to Hull to meet Sean’s parents and to have Christmas with all his relatives before we head back to Europe to continue our rail adventure.

Gallery: Bern

sean_and_liana — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 02:36:00 GMT

SHort stopover in Switzerlands capital

Gallery: Interlaken

sean_and_liana — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 05:18:00 GMT

Photos from our first day in interlaken and the train ride in

Gallery: Vienna

sean_and_liana — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 04:30:00 GMT

Photos from the train from Prague to Vienna and around Vienna, including the christmas markets

Feasting in Vienna

sean_and_liana — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 01:53:00 GMT

Vienna the home of Mozart, wiener schnitzel and apple strudel is the next point of call on our tour of Europe via the rail. After a wonderful train ride from Prague to Vienna we arrived to quite a substantial snow fall. Made our little dance in the street after snow in Prague seem a little pityful, so we followed it up with a dance outside the train station in Vienna!

We are definitely starting to see the real cold winter temperatures everyone warned us about. While its snowing you don’t seem to notice the cold, but when the snow stops falling the novelty wears off and all of a sudden its just cold and you have wet patches creeping up your jeans from walking in the snow!

After defrosting in Our hostel we went off to see the world famous Vienna Christmas markets. Everything I have read says they are the best in the world! And they certainly impressed, if not the markets, the view of the buildings around the markets all lit up, in the snow definitely impressed! One of the buildings was lit up as an advent calendar and looked absolutely fabulous! The song I have been teaching the children from work really hit home at these markets and I had to stop myself from bursting into a rendition of “its beginning to look a lot like Christmas”. After sampling a few of the local hot punch drinks and a bit of local food, sausages and apple kebabs and some very strange cake that was like a massive profiterole log with mock cream, we had had enough of the massive crowd and decided to head back to the hostel for a quiet night so we could spend the day doing the tourist thing the next day before getting the train to Salzburg. A quiet night didn’t really eventuate after the American couple in our door invited us for a drink, which turned into many beers in the hostel pub, followed by a HUGE weiner schnitzel at 11pm and then more drinks at the restaurant where we got the schnitzel (I had to do it just to tell Dad I had Weiner schnitzel in Austria!). Then we were convinced by the restaurant owner to try her homemade local peach schnapps or firewater as we called it. We then got an amazing performance from a trio of old guys on the accordion, violin and Double Bass. They were incredible, playing so many classical pieces! Never would have guessed it was a dirt little late night café open till 6 am!

By the time we got up the next morning and checked the train timetables on the net we discovered that salzberg was not going to work with the train connections, so we had to give it a miss and decided to stay in Vienna for the day and then get the 9.30 overnight train to Bern, Switzerland. A whole day to sight see in Vienna. Only problem was no one had warned us that NOTHING and I mean NOTHING is open in Vienna on a Sunday, so after a very cold walk around the city we ended up spending the day in and irish pub watching English football and waiting until we could get our train! Bit of a disappointment.

Stay tuned for the story of our first overnight train and Bern!

Gallery: Picturesque Prague

sean_and_liana — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 02:33:00 GMT