That's all folks!

Well we're done. Today we had a very quick look around hong kong after crashing yesterday with jet lag. What a busy place (no shit)! Amazing to see the number of skyscrapers all over the islands. Pretty much any piece of land that's relatively flat has a skyscraper on it. You do kinda look at the city and get a little annoyed at the amount of smog and the carbon footprint they're leaving behind, especially after watching a pointless and let's face it, pretty crap, light and sound display over victoria harbour which runs EVERY night.

Apart from that slight sour taste in my mouth (and nose and lungs) they're a very friendly bunch. Numerous times we looked like confused tourists looking lost and people were more than happy to offer help, this happened a lot!!

So what a holiday! It seems so long ago when we left freezing melbourne. My nose has been sunburnt many times between then and now. We've had a wonderful time full of fun and memories which will last a lifetime. We are however looking forward to coming home and seeing you all again soon (some of you anyway). Hopefully its not as cold as it was while we were away!

Russ + Auds.

Leaving London

Hi all, just a quick post to let you know we are just about to board our flight for Hong Kong. We haven't posted for a while or been able to upload any photos so you'll just have to sit tight and wait a little longer. We'll either upload some photos from Hong Kong or we'll do it when we get back.

I wont rave on about London, most of you have probably been here and done that and aren't interested! Suffice to say we've had a great time looking at the sites and doing the tours of the city, especially the Jack the Ripper guided walk! WHAT A PSYCHO!

3 down, 2 to go

We're currently on board our flight to London. The last week has been spent in Seville and Barcelona (which for the blonde people in the family ARE in Spain!)

Seville was a nice small town to have a look at with our first taste of paella, tapas and sangria! It was very hot on the first day which was over 40 degrees but still managed to walk around and view the few sites. We visited the king's palace when he's in seville (probably doesn't happen often) and also the local bull fighting ring which was interesting. However bullfights are only on the weekend and we missed out :(

The stories about Siestas are true - especially in Seville. The whole place shuts down between 2pm and 5.30pm and people go home for lunch (and maybe a sleep). This is the real heat of the day, so it is a pretty good idea. The place wakes up again afterwards and people head out for dinner at sundown, which is usually 8pm. Not a bad lifestyle!

We then headed to barcelona which is just an ordinary city. The bus tour around town really only offered facts on which buildings were designed by Gaudi. Although they are very unique, it is not a lot to show off after 2000 years of civilisation.

We had a good look around, wandering the laneways of the Gothic quarter where we stayed and walking up and down Las Ramblas, Spain's most famous street. It is a long street lined with interesting stalls, restaurants and street performers.

All in all a nice country to visit, the food and the weather being the best parts.

So we're just about to land in london where we'll be for a few days, then to hong kong for a couple of days. Finally back home sunday morning!

When in Rome

We hit the ground running in Rome. We arrived at the train station on friday morning, checked straight into the hotel and then hit the sights. The city sightseeing bus took us to all the usual places of interest like the colosseum and vatican city as well as amazing buildings and sights that we'd never heard of.

The travel books tell you "it takes a lifetime to know Rome" and that photos can't capture all of its beauty. Hate to go along with the crowd but its so true.

We crashed by saturday. Too tired to do too much after running all over the city in 35+ degree heat on the roof of a bus the day before. We did however check out villa borgese and castel st angleo, an old castle that the pope used as a fort if the city was being attacked.

Sunday was the full tour of the colosseum and palatine hill. The guided tour was certainly worth while allowing us to jump the long queue, but more importantly get a true insight to what the enormous "sporting" arena had to offer in its day. Again, photos can't really tell the full tale.

Palatine hill is usually the free add-on to your colosseum pass, but it was actually just as interesting and had many more stories to tell about the life of romans. After all it was that place rome was founded over 2500 years ago.

After seeing the great value of our colosseum tour, we decided to take the same tour company for the vatican city. Again, this is worth every cent. You could see the people walking through the museums un-guided having no idea what they're looking at or what they've missed. Walking through the old pope bedrooms looking at the amazing ceiling and wall paintings done by michaelangelo and rafael was hard to comprehend. The size of st peters basilica is decieving when you're inside. In fact most melbourne skyscrapers would fit inside!

All that and no mention yet of the spanish steps. We actally stayed in a lovely little (and I mean little) boutique hotel almost on the steps themselves! Couldn't have asked for a better location.

What we found strange about Rome was the location of some of the major attractions. On the first day we went looking for the Trevi fountain. We wandered down some narrow laneways of appartments and shops, turn a corner and there is this magnificent fountain on the side of a building. Then the Pantheon - right in the middle of ordinary streets. It amazed us that you could just turn a corner and stumble across such things.

So we're now on the plane heading to seville. If this post reaches the website then we've landed safely. We don't have many plans for seville other than doing what the locals do eating paella, tapas and staying up late having lots of drinks! Sounds like fun!

If you haven't checked out the photos recently I've uploaded stacks more of rome yesterday, click the link on the right to check them out.

Ciao now becomes Adios amigos!

For those concerned about Spanish airlines

In light of a recent plane crash in Madrid, we thought we would provide details of our next flights.

Tomorrow, the 27th, we fly from Rome to Seville with the Spanish airline Vueling. Flight V8749 departing Rome at 10.40 and arriving in Seville at 13.20.

On the 29th, we fly from Seville to Barcelona with the same airline. Flight V1053 departing Seville at 13.05 and arriving at 14.40 in Barcelona.

photos

just a quick blog to let you know we are in a cafe uploading some photos. click the links

Florence and Siena

Over the last few days, we have got to know Florence very well. We have walked around the city a fair bit and visited the several markets and shopping strips and sampled a lot of the food, wine and beer. The house wine here is fairly cheap and very nice to drink.

Yesterday we took one of those double decker bus tours of Florence. It was very worthwhile as it gave us a much more complete view of the city. The audio commentary was great, as the place is full of so much history. "Michaelangelo did this here", "Galileo lived here", "da Vinci tested his flying machine here" were just some of the famous names mentioned. We went on 2 routes during the day and went on the first route again after dark to see the city at night. It is a beautiful city.

On monday we went to Siena, a medieval town about 1 1/2 hours away by train. It doesn't look like it has changed since the 12th century. The city has retained most of it's walls that were used to defend the city for centuries and it is full of narrow laneways. We visited the last resting place of St Catherine of Siena (well at least her head and her thumb!) In a beautifully decorated sancutary.

Tomorrow we will head to Lucca, another city nearby, and then we are off to Rome on Friday.