Marianne and Kathryn's visit...

Marianne and Kathryn (an Auntie and Cousin through Stephen's side) recently stopped in on their world (well, Europe and China) tour - Kathryn fresh from a Contiki tour around Europe that has just inspired us to see more places, and Marianne fresh from her first overseas flight.

We were working during the week, while they were having a great time checking out all of the sights, but on Saturday and Sunday we managed to take a some time to travel around with them.

First stop was Notting Hill for the markets, followed by Kensington Palace (on the outskirts of Hyde Park). Kensington gained much of its early fame by being the residence of an asthmatic king, who found the air much cleaner 2 miles out of London than he did within London itself - ironically the palace is now on the border of the congestion zone, and so the air may well be marginally less clean. More recently it is famous as the residence of Diana.


After checking out the opulent palace, we headed down to the Orangery, a beautiful cafe within the palace grounds. Originally a conservatory, it was refurbished during the 18th century at a cost of nearly 7000 pounds (quite a lot, compared to the budget of 3500 pounds - good to see some things never change). Here we feasted on scones and cakes, and felt really quite posh.

Very posh

Cakes at The Orangery

Dinner that night was a special treat for Sarah's birthday - we went to one of Gordon Ramsay's gastropubs, The Narrow, in Limehouse (just down the DLR from our place). Although simple in conception (fish and chips, bangers and mash and chicken and leak pie were three of the mains on offer) the quality of the ingredients and the preparation meant that it was a delicious meal. The view across the Thames was lovely as the sun set.

Dinner at The Narrow

Sunset on the Thames

Sunday we got up bright and early to visit Warwick Castle. Last time we'd been it was the depths of winter, and so none of the interactive exhibits were operating. This time, on the other hand, we got to see archers, duellists, the ghost tower (with real actors jumping out) and the trebuchet (which flings a 15kg weight 250 meters). It was a lovely day out.

At the gates of Warwick Castle

Loading the Trebuchet (watch the men walking in the hamster wheels)

Launching the Trebuchet

Marianne and Kathryn moved on to Paris, and then onto Beijing (and we are a little jealous...) but the house won't be empty long...next up, Blair!

Marrakesh

About a fortnight ago, I went away with work for a few days in sunny Marrakesh! As you can see from the photos, life was pretty tough for us, but on our breaks we managed to fit in some fun activities like horse-riding and shopping at the markets.

Two views of Canary Wharf (one featuring SNOW)

As mentioned a little while back, after 1 year and 1 month we finally said goodbye to our flat in Maida Vale. Maida Vale is a great spot and we are going to miss things like:

• The huge park just across the road
• Jane and Ben just up the road
• The local shops and restaurants
• The Bakerloo line

but our new place in Canary Wharf has plenty to offer too:

• Much more living space and some water views!
• A balcony so we can set up a BBQ
• A 15 minute walk to Stephen’s work
• Fab shops in walking distance

Of course, the views do incorporate Stephen's work, but it is pretty at night.

Incredibly (given that it is April already) we got snow this morning, almost 2 centimetres settled across our part of London

Milan and skiing in Val di Fassa

From Krakow we headed down to Milan (where we stayed overnight) to pick up a car and drive up to the Dolomites. The Easycar depot in Italy was run by LocautoRent and provided good service (which was a nice change for an Easycar depot), although the chains they gave us were broken - but more on that later.

The Dolomites are about 380km from Milan, but we made pretty good time, especially given that the speed limit on the motorway was 130km/h+ (although a few people went past us at that speed like we were standing still). Everything slowed down a bit when we got up in the mountains, though, since it had just snowed and the road was still covered with slush. Without chains it was hard going, but we managed to pick up our skis and find our hotel in Possa di Fassa with no dramas (thanks mostly to Sarah's excellent driving skills)

First signs of snow

Real snow on the road up the mountain - and very fresh

We got an afternoon of skiing in on the Monday, which was fantastic since the snow was fresh and the crowds were thinning out by the minute. We also had our first taste of Italian skiing life, when we grabbed delicious food at one of the little family-run restaurants that seemed to be at the top of every lift - most of them serving both Italian and Austrian-style food as we were very close to the northern border of Italy (and most of them bi-lingual in German and Italian, fewer speaking English - they all assumed Sarah must be German when she didn't speak Italian)

Our first ride up the gondola, with the snow-covered town of Pozza di Fassa behind us

By the end of Monday we'd pretty much skied every run fed by the 'Buffaure' lifts, but we relished another of be benefits of Pozza di Fassa - it was part of a big complex of resorts, linked by lifts and buses. So Tuesday we checked out the neighboring resort (where Stephen conquered his first ever black run), while Wednesday we headed across to the next part of the valley. This commute required a gondala ride, a chairlift, a red ski run, then another chairlift, another red run then a black run, a bus ride and then another gondola - and scenery was fantastic the whole way.

Conquered!

Heaps of snow!

It was more than worth it, as not only was there more runs and nice snow (including some shin-deep powder to play in) but there was also the chance to go up to the top of Sass Pordoi, the highest peak in the immediate vicinity at 2,950m. There was the option to ski down from there, but we chickened out when we saw the warning signs and heard the guys who looked hardcore talking about how hard it was. The view was brilliant, though!

The view from the top of Sass Pordoi

Sarah on top of the world!

Why we decided not to ski back down from Sass Pordoi

The village of Pozza di Fassa (where we were staying in the Hotel San Nicolo) was certainly quietening down for the end of the season while we were there, and the whole area seemed family oriented - we didn't see many other couples our age (we did see lots of three-generation families though - grandparents, parents and kids). This probably explains why there wasn't a lot of nightlife (although our hotel did have a bar) but it meant it was even more of a relaxing holiday. And having a 50m walk to the bottom of the gondola was fantastic - makes you never want to stay off-snow again.

Another favourite discovery was across the road from the hotel - an excellent pizza place which did a really light version of pizza in a wood-fired oven, with some delicious combinations (and some really high quality ingredients)...so we ate there three of the nights (we tried a couple of other restaurants when we just couldn't face any more pizza...but kept coming back).

The Hotel San Nicolo

We think we timed our skiing perfectly - the slopes were quiet, and it had just dumped down some snow. When we first arrived, the fields around the town were white, but by the time we left they were clear of snow, although this hadn't started to really impact the skifields at all - we think we probably got the last week of real snow.

We were flying out of Milan first thing on Sunday, so we decided to spend Saturday checking out the city. After a few navigational issues we found the main square, dominated by the enormous gothic cathedral - the Duomo. The shopping around the cathedral was pretty amazing - both the beautiful Galleria Vittorio Emanuele (more impressive for the building than the shops) and the 'fashion quadrangle'. I don't think we were tempted to buy much (especially with the sticker shock) but it was fascinating to see the concept stores, especially the Polo store which was decked out like an English country house.

The 'Duomo' Cathedral in the centre of Milan

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, Milan, was full of all the big brands (there is, however a McDonalds there - the Golden Arches were actually a tasteful shade of gold (rather than Bright Yellow))

Krakow for Easter

A while back we decided to take advantage of some cheap flights and get our first taste of Eastern Europe...and finally Easter arrived and with it some much needed holidays. We arrived at our hotel in Krakow late Friday afternoon only to find that due to a dozen blokes on a stag do trashing a whole lot of hotel rooms we needed to move to another hotel - fortunately our new hotel was closer to the centre of town so things actually worked out quite well for us.

We headed into the main square and despite the cold were pleasantly surprised at the pretty square filled with lots of market stalls. Since it was 4pm and we hadn’t eaten lunch yet, we quickly set ourselves up with some mulled wine and barbequed meat with mustard and watched the world go by. After checking out the stalls and shops we explored some of the backstreets, only to find a cute bar serving some more mulled wine (much needed to warm us up again :)) and sat back enjoying our pre-dinner drink.

The mulled wine stall is in the barrel to the left, while the sausage stall was doing a roaring trade

Sarah by the 'cloth hall' in the main square

One of many cute little bars in the city

The next day our driver came to pick us up and take us out to Auschwitz/Birkenau and the salt mines. Once at Auschwitz we signed up for an english speaking tour to get the most out of our visit. Auschwitz was actually originally built and used as Polish military barracks – and once the war started was initially used to house Polish political prisoners. To look as it is not as grim as Birkenau (converted horse stables) – in fact to look at it didn’t really look like a prison (except for the barbed wire) until you looked inside the rooms at the inhumane conditions. It is hard to get a sense of the magnitude of the crime until we saw the tonnes of remaining hair, shoes and suitcases meant to be sold in Germany.

The main entrance to Auschwitz - the German words mean 'Work will make you free'

The main fence at Auschwitz - prisoner accommodation on the left side, guards on the right

The main gate to Birkenau, where the trainloads of Jews would come in to be processed

The living conditions inside a hut in the concentration camp

Looking out across the extent of Birkenau, each of the chimneys represent the remains of another hut

Unfortunately, we never made our Salt Mine excursion (with no notice the Salt Mines decided to close up early due to Easter L) however managed to go and check out the Palace in Krakow instead (Wawel). It was another impressive Palace, but unlike the legend, there were no dragons to be seen.

The grand square at Wawel Castle

We returned to the main square late in the afternoon, only to find we were able to visit the main Cathedral in Krakow – and it was very spectacular! Beautiful painted ceilings, impressive stained glass windows and statues. Unlike every other Cathedral we have visited so far this one was really colourful. We got a real sense of how alive religion is in Krakow – not just with Cathedrals marking what seemed like every block, but also the large number of attendees (although it did help that it was Easter).

Krakow cathedral - every hour a bugler appears in the left hand tower and plays a song, which is cut off half way through to remember a bugler who was killed by the Tartars hundreds of years ago

For dinner that evening we decided it was time to check out the local cuisine – ‘Pierogi’ or ‘dumplings’. I would describe them as being the Polish equivalent to the Chinese dumplings you get at yum cha. Over dinner we shared a plate of meat filled dumplings and a plate of cottage cheese and potato dumplings – and boy they were really good!! Dessert was strawberry filled dumplings served with natural yoghurt, not as sweet as I imagined they would be but also very good. We finished the night with a cocktail at the local jazz bar – loved the surroundings which has been elaborately done in the most unique way, and which we later learnt, seemed to be a common theme amongst the café/bar’s of Krakow.

Near the walls and gate-tower of the old town

Our final day in Krakow, Easter Sunday, was spent doing not much (and given that since relaxing Sarah had managed to get sick again was probably a good thing!) But a word of warning for those traveling to Krakow – Easter Sunday is not such a good tourist day with virtually everything being closed. But we managed to find café that was tucked away and for the first time since I can remember spent the day sipping tea, blowing my nose and watching the world go by…