Cinque Terre, Italy

This was the second year that we've spent Easter with Kylie and Anthony, and this year the destination was the Cinque Terre, in Italy. What we found when we got over there was that a lot of Aussies and Americans had heard of it, but pretty much nobody in England has – it seems to be a secret shared amongst travellers but not amongst the English (from what we hear, though, in summertime the Italians are out in force).

The Cinque Terre is a group of five (cinque) villages (terre) strung along the coastline about 90 minutes south of Genoa in Italy (near the front and top of the boot, for those who are more visual). There is a lovely walk between them, as well as a train line that joins them up so it is possible to start at one end, walk through, and then catch the train back – it certainly isn't car-friendly.

We arrived into Genoa about lunchtime on the Friday and lost no time in getting onto a train heading southwards, stopping at Monterossa, the northernmost village and our home base. Our hotel (Hotel Pasquale) was built into the cliff and overlooked the beach and the start of the trail.

The view from our hotel

A local shopfront - I don't think that the cat was for sale

The weather was fantastic, so we headed straight out to take advantage of it. The first two walks, to Vernazza and Corniglia are the hardest, steepest and longest, but also the most scenic and least developed, with lots of places where you feel like you're walking through someone's backyard 'olive patch' or 'grape patch' – farm or vineyard would be too grand a term, but the local olive oil and wine is fantastic so small really is beautiful.

Some local scenery on the walk

Vernazza from a great height - there was quite a bit of climbing involved

Above Vernazza

The town of Corniglia, perched up on a hill

We set a pretty good clip (except for regular photo stops) and each of the legs took about 75 minutes – certainly long enough that we felt ready for dinner by the time we had finished the second leg at the village of Corniglia, especially since it is the only one perched at the top of a hill so there is much more uphill than down on that leg. Our hotel had recommended a restaurant back in Vernazza, the second village (counting our home base as number one), and rather than retrace our steps we just jumped back on the train (it really is a great setup).

Unfinished business - the next town...

Saturday dawned, and fueled by the great breakfast at Hotel Pasquale, we were ready to knock off the remaining legs. It was actually something of an anti-climax – the villages were still great, but the walks were relatively short and easy, and before we knew it we were in Riomaggiore, the final village.

The cliff track between Manarola and Riomaggiore

Anthony's Italian friends at work had recommended a couple of other towns in the vicinity – Portofino and Portovenere, and so for Saturday afternoon we decided to see where the wealthy play in the Italian Riviera at Portofino. After a few mishaps with our trains (including sitting at the end of the line, too engrossed in a game of 500 to notice how long we'd been stopped at the station) we made it to Santa Margherita, the jumping-off point for Portofino and a really pretty town in its own right. From there we caught a bus around to Portofino (the ferry wasn't running) and were glad that we'd not brought a car – there wasn't enough room on the road for the oncoming traffic and the bus, and how we didn't wreck some very nice cars I still don't know.

Portofino itself was very pretty but surprisingly small and, although there were only a few (albeit huge) yachts tied up when we arrived, we could see how you could make yourself very comfortable there for the summer. Dinner was at Miky, a Michelin-starred but very reasonably-priced fish restaurant back in Monterosso – Anthony's salt-baked fish was a particular highlight.

Portofino - not one of those shops was not an expensive designer brand

Looking down over Portafino

After the trek out to Portafino proved to be such a challenge, we made sure we were much better organised for the trip down to Portovenere, south of the Cinque Terre. La Spezia, the jumping-off town, was much less interesting, but Portovenere was one of the highlights of the trip – it clings to the coastline behind a high town wall, guarded over by a castle, and like all towns where space is a premium, has grown narrow alleyways and taller buildings without a strong plan. It was great to explore, and taste some of the local produce including the pesto, which is a speciality (it was about here that we decided to check in some suitcases instead of taking carry-on, and stock up on local produce to take home with us).

The town of Portovenere

Kylie and Sarah just outside the walls at Portovenere

We were really sad to be leaving on the Monday – especially since after two greyish days on Saturday and Sunday the sun was finally coming out...but hopefully one day we'll be back.

Premier League Game

I finally got along to a Premier League game a couple of weeks ago - Phil at work is a member and sorted us out with some great tickets to Fulham vs Manchester City. Fulham football club is right on the banks of the Thames, and the walk there is lovely - along the Thames and through the park. Fulham were riding high on a win in Europe, but unfortunately didn't carry that form into the weekend and lost 2-1 in the end. Still - a fantastic experience...

Paris with Rick, Joel and Elaine

Rick has moved to Paris for the year, and Elaine and Joel were passing through Paris on their way home from two months in Tanzania, so we decided to jaunt across there for a long weekend to catch up.

It was really cool to see a slice of the life that Rick has now (he was great at taking us around, chatting with the locals and showing us cool spots that you'd never see as a tourist).

We also got out to Versailles for the day which was fantastic, if not a bit freezing (it was still very much winter) - but we spent most of our time hanging out, enjoying just being in Paris with friends and getting to know Elaine better...

Sarah and Elaine at Versailles

At the Neptune fountain in Versailles

The ceiling of the chapel - you can only go in if you go on a tour (top tip)

Trying a little too hard to be arty...

Just another hallway lined with paintings and artwork...

Everyone wanted the money shot of the hall of mirrors...

...which truly was spectactular

Our last day together in Paris, outside the Opera House - probably rivals Versailles for the beauty of the rooms, and was the inspiration for the Phantom of the Opera

Australia Day

Di was kind enough to send us some bits and pieces to celebrate Australia Day with and we decorated our balcony - a small slice of Australia in the midst of Canary Wharf!

Christmas and New Years

This was our first Christmas in London, and while the lead-up had threatened it we just missed out on our first ever white Christmas. It was great being in London in the lead-up, and the highlight was Handel's Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall.


We weren't the only ones spending Christmas without our families, and were joined by Matt Williams for Christmas Eve and Christmas lunch, and then by Kylie and Anthony for Christmas dinner. A few things that stood out for us at Christmas this year:

• Public transport in the UK simply does not operate on Christmas day; we hired a street-car to do a shuttle run to drop Matt off and pick up Kylie and Anthony - and the roads were totally empty...
• It's impossible to buy a ham over here that doesn't need baking - but honey glazed baked ham is fantastic and I think we'll do that every year now...
• We were glad to have friends around but missed family a lot - thanks to Skype we could video-conference with them which makes the whole world seem a lot smaller...

For New Years, we'd arranged to go to Hogmanay (a street party in Edinburgh) with Rick, Matt and Jo, but Sarah was shaking off the last of the flu and with temperatures ranging from -7 to +2 we didn't think it was such a good idea for her to go. I went alone, and it was a really fun few days (quite reminiscent of the college days, including a Terminator movie marathon and a visit from our former exchange student Nikki). Sarah wasn't abandoned, catching up with Kylie and Anthony for NYE in London.

Pre-Hogmanay drinks in our apartment

We armed ourselves with light-sabers, but the crowd was fantastically well behaved and a really fun atmosphere

Fireworks over Edinburgh Castle were amazing

A rather sinisterly-named pub...

We went on a New-Year's day walk up Arthur's Seat - and boy was it icy (not shown - Rick, Matt and Nikki sliding down the slope on their bellies like penguins)

There was a fire festival all up the Royal Mile as part of the celebrations

And a giant puppet walking up the main street (right by our apartment)

Copenhagen

We were looking to go somewhere properly wintry for Christmas Markets this year, and got great flights to Copenhagen in Denmark (surprisingly less than 2 hours flying time away). The market there is in the Tivoli Gardens, the one of the world's oldest amusement parks and apparently part of the inspiration for Disneyland.

Santa's little helpers playing in the snow

By the 'Oriental' lake - there was also an 'Arabian' section, a pirate ship as well as more traditional Northern European alehouses and restaurants

We started Saturday with lunch, wandering around the markets in Tivoli, before heading out to the city streets. Denmark is famous for its sense of design, and we had a great time wandering through the shops along the pedestrianised city centre (which I could neither pronounce nor spell the names of). With the Climate Conference starting in a week's time, the city was gearing up for it, with many demonstrations and displays (the lights on the Christmas tree in the city centre were people-powered, while Greenpeace had set up a polar bear made of ice in the middle of one of the squares).

Lego and wind turbines - couldn't get any more Copenhagen in one place (and this was at the airport!)

Somebody has to work hard to keep the lights on...

Outside the Greenpeace tent (which looked like it had a gas-fired generator running, but I am sure that it was running on biofuel of some sort...)

Night fell early, and with it the cold – we guarded against it with hot chocolates (the perfect remedy). We had dinner in one of the restaurants that line the Nynhavn – a canal reaching up from the harbour towards the centre of town. The Danish food isn't cheap, but (at least at the restaurant we picked) was really good – if a little 'peasanty'.

One of the department stores lit up for Christmas

We finished our evening by heading back to the Tivoli Gardens, which by now were a wonderland of fairy lights. After a mulled wine and a quick blast on the rollercoaster (we picked the tamest one that someone taller than 4ft was allowed on) it was time to call it a night.

Looking back from the main entrance to Tivoli

More shots from inside Tivoli

We must have been more tired than we thought (or still on UK time) because by the time we left the hotel on Sunday it was after midday. We decided to walk north to The Little Mermaid, and see what we could see on the way. It was a pretty walk, but one of the highlights was the Marble Church, built as a perfect domed circle with incredible acoustics, and amazing decorations inside and out. The mermaid itself wasn't breathtaking, but was worth the walk (especially when the walk was so nice).

One of Outside the marble church

And inside - the acoustics were amazing, since it is a perfect circular dome

With the Little Mermaid statue

Copenhagen was a great city to head to for a city break – the streets are pretty and clean and the focus on quality and design was really refreshing. The weather was better than we'd expected for wintertime in Scandinavia, too – down around freezing overnight, but up as high as 5 during the day – so no snow for us. They way that the weather has been in London, lately, I think we'll see it here instead!

Dreamforce in San Francisco

I was lucky enough to head out to San Francisco for a work trip to Dreamforce, Salesforce.com's annual training and networking conference. To make the most of my first trip to the States, I tacked on a couple of extra days at the start to check out the city.

I flew in on Saturday evening and in a great coincidence, Adrian Biggs, a friend from high school that I'd run into in London a few times was in town. He lives in LA now, but had spent some time in SanFran – and knew all the best places to go. With a couple of his friends we visited some great cocktail bars – and because he works 'in the industry' they took great care of us (a big thanks to him and Borys if he ever reads this!)

Thanks to the change in timezone, I woke up bright and early on Sunday morning to catch my boat out to Alcatraz. The island isn't large in itself, but really does dominate the harbour, and the prison (which is looking very much the worse for wear) had some really interesting stories to tell. The views back to the city were stunning as well. It sounds touristy, but it is really worth it. I got there early, which meant that I was actually by myself at the solitary confinement area – which made it somehow so much more real.

Heading out to Alcatraz

Arriving into Alcatraz

I'm never going to complain about the size of my bedroom again...

Freedom doesn't look so far away - apparently on a still night you could hear the parties happening onshore

After a few hours the crowds had built up too much, so I headed back to the mainland and down along Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39, where I stumbled across a random marching band (I'm still trying to figure out who they were) and had the 'classic' clam chowder in a bread bowl – well worth it.

Random marching band - bonus points for anyone who can tell me who they are!

Lazy seals at Pier 39 - this was actually taken about 10am, and they're still just lying around basking in the sun

I continued along the waterfront to the 'Long Now Foundation' museum and shop. The Long Now Foundation was formed to encourage people to think about the 10,000 year view (that number is relevant given that civilisation really started 10,000 years ago) – I really enjoy their podcasts and they had been talking a lot about two of their projects, the 10,000 year clock (which is being designed to sit within a mountain and run, untended, for 10,000 years) and the rosetta project, which is building a collection of over 2500 of the world's languages, engraved in incredibly fine print on a titanium disk. They had samples of both the rosetta discs and small-scale prototypes for the clock on display, and it was really cool to see the podcast brought to life.

A model of part of the 10,000 year clock - the real gears will be something like 8ft in diameter

Monday I rented a bike (from Blazing Saddles, who I would recommend) and rode across the Golden Gate bridge – really spectacular. I carried on North from there up to Sausalito and to Old Mill, which had some amazingly tall trees. I had hoped to ride all the way around to Tiburon, but realised that if I did that I wouldn't then have time to get back for the dinner that was arranged for the conference, so caught the ferry back from Sausalito instead.

On the way to the Golden Gate bridge

Those are some big cables!

The spectacular trees at Old Mill Park

Wholefoods Markets - great spot for lunch (they had far more than pumpkin in store)

Tuesday I slept in (having been up until 4am because of a conference call in the UK – stupid time zones), then headed around to the Exploratorium, the science museum in SanFran which is right near the Palace of Fine Arts (an extraordinary Neoclassical slice of Rome in SanFran). This was brilliant, like being a kid again!

The Palace of Fine Arts - possibly the most out-of-place building in the world

From Tuesday afternoon the conference really got going, and I had a fascinating time learning about where the product is going, and how we can make better use of it at work. The also had Colin Powell speak about leadership, and the Black Crows played at their gala event (don't ask me, I hadn't heard of them either, but they were actually really cool).

The conference wrapped up about lunchtime on Friday, by which time I was well and truly exhausted. But after a siesta I was refreshed enough to check out one more sight that I'd heard on a podcast – 826 Valencia, the Pirate Store. Dave Egger is a writer from SanFran who was looking for a property to build his after-school writing program for disadvantaged children – the place he found was required by a by-law to include a shop. They didn't particularly want to sell anything, just fill the space with something cool – so they created The Pirate Store. They've gone the whole hog, selling everything from peg-leg oil, to anti-scurvy lotion. They also sell a range of propaganda to support their ongoing battle with 'Captain Rick's', the Walmart of pirate stores. It was hilarious, and a really fun place to visit – there are other 826 Valencia shops across the US so you should check them out if you ever get the chance.

The Pirate Store at 826 Valencia

I had only a few hours on Saturday morning, so took a brief run along the waterfront and then up to Lombard St, and finished up my trip by catching a cable car around to the cable car museum (an amazing reminder of how things could have gone if electricity distribution hadn't been developed, and mechanical power transmission was the way to go instead).

Classic San Francisco - a cable car, a steep street, and Alcatraz in the background - eerily close

San Fran was a great city to visit, but it wasn't more than just fun times and sightseeing – I learned a lot at the conference and met some really good contacts there as well (but won't bore you with that)...