Autumnal update

October-November 2016 

A selection of what we've been up to this "fall" 2016:

Elis James and John Robins / Cambridge

We took a day trip out to Cambridge for a comedy gig. I'm quite a fan of the Elis James and John Robins Show radio show. In the parlance, I am a PCD (podcast devotee", because I listen to the show on podcast as opposed to on live radio), vibe-taster (seen the live show), 106-er (I started listening at episode 106), and a retro-1er (I have gone back and listened to all previous episodes). The London show was sold out so we decided Cambridge might make a nice day trip.

Cambridge has some very nice pubs and we particularly liked The Eagle, the favourite watering hole for RAF pilots in World War II. The RAF Bar at the back has a ceiling decorated with burn marks from pilots' matches and lighters. The pub is also famous for being the lunch spot of Francis Crick and James Watson (discoverers of DNA). Reportedly they had lunch there that fateful day, and one of them was so excited he jumped up and exclaimed to the pub that they'd found out the secret to all life.

It also had a good selection of cask ales, one of the better ones being Battle of Britain. Pubs are one thing that Britain does very well, an area where New Zealand could really learn a thing or two. The beers are also very good, to the extent I've given up on drinking lagers and almost exclusively stick to cask beers (as opposed to keg). 

We also joined a walking tour of Cambridge, where our guide showed us the main sights of the university and explained how its complex college system works and just how wealthy the university is. One of the university colleges (Trinity College) owns a chunk of the port of Felixstowe (busiest in England), the O2 arena in London, and half of supermarket chain Tesco, along with huge swathes of land across the country.

At times there was a bit of pandemonium on the river in Oxford.

After an afternoon spent in pubs and exploring, it was time for the show. Elis and John didn't disappoint, putting on a great show. The only perplexing part of the show was the ending, when Elis starting belting out "Working on the site, From Morning 'till night, That's livin' alright". Only later did we realise this to be the theme tune to Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. Here's a link if you'd like to listen to this cracker of a tune.

We had to dash out after the show to catch the last train to London, and were back home in two hours, just after midnight.

The Lumineers 

We saw the Lumineers again! After such an amazing show at Glastonbury we had to see them again, and I bought Rachel two tickets to see them at the Hammersmith Apollo. They didn't disappoint, putting on an even better show with more obscure songs packed into a longer, more energetic set. The opening act, Bahamas, was also very good.

Moving house

We also moved house! With our lease in Kensal Green coming to an end, we decided we'd like to try living in another part of London. And we found a nice one bedroom place in Dalston, east London. Dalston has quite a reputation for being a trendy hipster area, but thankfully it hasn't been so far. We are only a couple of weeks in though...

From Kensal Green to Dalston

We're also happy that our new place is about twice the size of the old one, with modcons such as a full sized oven, bench space, a bath, and separate lounge and kitchen. After several trips on the train with our belongings (and the one eyed Duke) we're fairly settled now.

The Duke now weighs in at a hefty 79 grams, up 15 grams from a few months ago.

The very cool mural that greets you as you leave Dalston Junction station.

Food / drink

Some of the priorities when moving to a new area include finding a good curry, good fish'n'chips, and a good pub in the area. We've nailed the first two already, and we'll start on the last one in earnest soon - there are about five within 500 metres of our house so no shortage there. Let's hope there are some good cask ales on tap and not just lagers...

Ice creams

We tried the made-for-Instagram ice creams from Milk Train. Rachel's photo became a mini Instagram sensation (in technical terms, it was "regrammed", where the shop reposted the photo on its own page). 

Re-grammed

Crime

You read that right, crime. We were burgled!

The intruder/s forced the window (now fully secured courtesy of the landlord) and stole our laptop, back up hard drive, my headphones and my Kindle. They also took our UK and Irish passports, but not the New Zealand passports - they actually rifled through, picked up and then discarded the NZ passports, which is actually quite offensive!

Autumn generally

Seeing all of the colours of the leaves in London in autumn is sending Rach into fits of joy.

That's it from us, until we post on our next excursion - to Munich Cologne.

Amore in Italia

September-October 2016

When we moved into our flat in Kensal Green, we soon met our 'neighbour' (tenants in the rooms behind ours) Davide, and shortly after that, his lovely girlfriend Flora. It wasn't long before we took turns entertaining each other - dinner parties at ours and bbq's and bonfire nights at theirs. We were devastated when we learnt they were moving out, but before that happened they got engaged!

Billy Joel

September 2016 

Many moons ago I was sitting at work when an email came across my desk with the prospect of attending an event that I had hoped and wished for, but had long-since given up on. The dream that Billy Joel would tour once more to a city I was in. I broke the news to Mike in a flurry of messages and very ‘subtly’ 'hinted' that this would make an excellent birthday present. Thanks to Mike, the dream came true and nearly ten months later we found ourselves in the hallowed grounds of Wembley Stadium.

Sailing Turkey

September 2016 

After only four days at work since getting back to London from Italy, it was time for our next boat-based holiday - Turkey!

This trip was for our friend Joelyne's 30th, and a group of 16 of us were filling a boat and cruising along the south west coast of Turkey.

Bella Italia! Cinque Terre & Tuscany

August 2016 

Bidding farewell to the salty seas of Croatia and to Stacey and Blair we set forth on the next leg of our adventure: Cinque Terre!

A cluster of five small villages clinging to the Italian Riviera coastline, the bright pastel-and-azure-blue-coloured destination had been on my bucket list for a long time. Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. They did not disappoint.

Saling Croatia

August 2016

Without any conscious planning, 2016 has become our boat year - three boat-based holidays in France in June, Croatia in August, and Turkey in September. Our last couple of holidays were in quite close proximity to each other - in the space of around 4 weeks - and it takes a while to edit down our massive numbers of photos and write the blogposts for each. So first up, here's what we did on our Croatian trip.

Wednesday 

We flew out of Gatwick at 6am Wednesday morning, having stayed the night before at a hotel in the airport. We landed in Split around 10am, and had a minor panic when we found we couldn't withdraw all of the cash we wanted from the ATM - luckily resolved quite quickly - and took the bus to Split harbour where our boat Providenca waited for us.

We signed up for the "Explorer" cruise with Sail Croatia, which is the cruise for young professionals and "young at heart" - i.e. not a party/STI/drinking cruise! We left from Split and spent a week along the Croatian coast before returning to Split.

Our friends Stacey and Blair had just moved over to London and were joining us on the cruise, they'd had flown out a couple of days earlier so we met up with them on board. The boat was big, with about 30 passengers and spacious double cabins. There was a bit of a mix of nationalities and ages on board - people aged from 20s to 60s, and from South Africa, Germany, UK, New Zealand, Australia and the USA - you could usually hear the Amercians before seeing them, though they were friendly and a good laugh. After the intro and safety briefing, we sat down for lunch and the boat left Split harbour, heading south.

Our first stop was rafting down the River Cetina. We were dropped off on shore and then driven for about 45 minutes up the coast and inland. The rafting was very nice, calm and picturesque and at times becoming a bit more exciting. It was only a low/medium grade difficulty so no major dangers there. We also made good friends with Becky, a lovely English school teacher in our raft who we hung out with for the rest of the cruise.

With our rafting guide afterwards

We were then driven to Makarska where the boat was docked for the night. 

Rach perving a statue in Makarska

Interestingly, because the ports are quite small there's limited space for larger boats like ours; so we had to tie up to other boats in Makarska and a few other ports, and often had to walk across other boats' decks to get to and from the shore. 

After getting back on board and changing into some clean, dry clothes the five of us wandered the town. Makarska itself is quite small, stretching along the waterfront. We had dinner at a seafood restaurant - including squid and shellfish - which was fairly good but a little pricey. We then began the holiday tradition of getting ice cream every day. 

Finally we went to Deep Makarska, a club in a cave on the waterfront for a couple of drinks - and Blair had his very first jaeger bomb which he seemed to really enjoy.

Thursday 

We set off the next morning from Makarska. 

Here was our daily routine on board the Providenca:

• 8am to 9am: continental style-breakfast of cold cuts, fruit and cheese (my breakfast), along with a few hot items like eggs or bacon (Rach's choice). We never skipped this, though increasing numbers of the passengers did as we went through the cruise
• up to 11:30/12:00: cruising - often we would read up on the top deck in the sun loungers and admire the scenery. Luckily every single day was clear and sunny, at around 28-30 degrees.
• 11:30/12:00: first swim stop
• 1pm: three course lunch, and daily briefing/talk from Maya our guide
• 2pm to 5pm: excursion and/or second swim stop
• 5pm onwards: explore town on foot and have dinner (the only meal not covered on the cruise)

For Thursday's swim stop, I got in and ventured out into the deep water for the very first time (in my life) by holding on to the rope at the back of the boat. I've always enjoyed being in the water, but had never before been in water deeper than shoulder level. The Adriatic (and the whole Mediterranean as we later found out) is very salty and makes you very buoyant, and I couldn't sink even when I tried - which made swimming much easier for me.

Thursday's swim stop -  when the swim stop looks like this it really helps. 

We then arrived on Korcula Island for our buggy excursion. The buggies were quite fun, but not the fastest - I think we may have cracked 45kph at one point - and the narrow roads made overtaking almost impossible. Though Rach being the daredevil did manage to overtake an American couple when she drove. They said they were going to win and she wasn't going to let that happen!

At the halfway point, we had a half hour break so went for a swim at the beach. After we dropped off the buggies, we were driven to nearby Korcula town, which is sometimes called "little Dubrovnik". The old town is built on a very small peninsula which is walled off from the main part of the island, and is built with a fishbone style layout of a main street with several small streets running off it. It was very picturesque with its old buildings and narrow streets, especially as the sun set. 

Korcula town

The five of us had cocktails and wine at Cocktail Bar Massimo, a bar set at the top of an old tower. We had to climb a ladder to get up there, and drinks were sent to the top via a a pulley system. We also had great views over the water. 

Words of wisdom.

The pulley system in action.

Afterwards we had pizza for dinner in the central square. Rach, Becky and I shared a litre of red wine which became our staple for the rest of the trip, Blair tended to have a beer and Stacey had cocktails or coke. We then wandered around the now lively town and listened to a busking covers band playing on the waterfront.

Friday

Serious breakfast

We set off as usual after breakfast and had our normal couple of hours cruising towards Dubrovnik.



We docked quite far from the old town, which meant we needed to bus in. We were dropped off at the Pila Gate, the main entrance to the old town, and began to wander through.

Pila Gate, Dubrovnik

One of the cool things about Dubrovnik is that the TV series Game of Thrones was filmed a lot on location here - so it was cool to wander around and try to figure out the scenes.

This harbour was used a lot for boat departures in Game of Thrones

The old town itself is very nice, with a lot of old buildings and narrow streets - though the huge crowds of tourists did kind of ruin things a little. Those damn tourists. That kind of made me appreciate Korcula a lot more.




We explored the town together for an hour before doing a walking tour. Rach was very excited to find the "Steps of Shame" featured in Game of Thrones.

Afterwards we went up to walk the wall of Dubrovnik. We timed it to catch the city at sunset, and the views were pretty stunning. We probably took twice as long to do the walk, as we had to stop every 50 metres to take photos. We took far too many photos so I'll let a few of them do the talking here..

Sunset over Dubrovnik

We then had another pizza dinner: pizza is really, really popular in Croatia but luckily its pretty good quality (and I was happy to find a goat's cheese pizza). We then had a few drinks at a bar called Buza, which was set on a sea cliff face where you could jump into the sea. By this time it was pitch dark so I was very happy that Rach decided against jumping off.

Saturday 

Sunday swim stop

Saturday was our turnaround point, where we began to head back towards Split. The swim stop was the best yet, with no currents or wind for quite a while. I finally swam without using the rope for the first time. It was exciting but also slightly scary at the same time, especially when I thought about all of the deep water below me. But having nice warm, buoyant water definitely helped.

We shortly afterwards pulled into Pomena, a town on Mljet Island. The five of us went to explore the Little Lake and Big Lake (those are their real names) which are in the national park. We all swam, and Blair and I snorkelled for a bit, which was my first proper snorkelling since Goat Island a few years ago. We also took the ferry over to St Mary's Island which had a little monastery on it, and a donkey or two which started trying to eat Rach's back, but only managed to get her shirt.

Lakeside, Mljet

We also had fun in a little channel that connected the two lakes. The water flowed quickly between them so it was cool to just lie on your back and be shot through under the bridge to the Little Lake.

That night was the barbecue night, one of the only dinners done on board. The five of us were the only ones on board not to opt for the bbq - it was 160 kuna each with no drinks which was fairly expensive, and we enjoyed being on land and exploring a little. We managed to find a nice little place across the port from the boat, where we had a good dinner plus a couple of drinks each for 156 kuna - score! But even better was the view of the sunset from the restaurant.

Sunset from our restaurant on Mljet

Our view of the Providenca and the neighbouring Contiki boat blasting party music.

Sunday 

On the next day's cruising we passed by Korcula again.

Korcula town

The obligatory swim stop (Sunday).

After the obligatory swim stop - there was a bit more snorkeling by me and Blair - we stopped at the town of Hvar for the night, which is the "party town" of the cruise.

We climbed the hill up to the old fort which had some really nice views of the whole harbour and out to sea. The only blemish was the gargantuan supermodern superyacht which dominated the harbour.

Hvar

We decided to mix things up a little with burgers for dinner. which were pretty damn good. And since it was the party town, at 10pm Maya took us to a bar for free flaming jagerbombs for our obligatory partying, then had one more drink before going back to the boat. 

Hvar by night

Monday

We left Hvar early the next day and went a short distance around the island to Stari Grad - literally "old town" this was the main town on Hvar island until the town of Hvar was built. The morning swim stop was our least favourite due to currents and wind.

The afternoon excursion was a wine tasting at an old farm. It was really interesting hearing about the history, as the area was settled as a Greek colony around 400 B.C.The land was divided up into little plots and the boundaries have remained the same ever since, with the land being farmed for almost 2,500 years. The three of us (Rach, Becky and me) did the excursion where we tried two white, one red and one rose wine; three types of olive oil (standard, virgin and extra virgin) and some nice anchovies, cheese, salami and olives. The wine was ok, but the location was outstanding, in a little set of buildings in the middle of the fields.

Ancient olive press, Stari Grad

Afterwards the three of us were dropped off back in the town and walked through the winding old streets, before finding a little bar where we had another litre of red wine in a sunny courtyard lined with flowers and kiwifruit vines.

Alleyways of Stari Grad town

We headed back to the boat afterwards for our final dinner, the Captain's dinner. The meal was tasty - all of the meals on board were pretty good quality, but we wished they'd come with a description of what was in them. I was ok, but Rach wasn't particularly keen on all of the fishy / seafoody surprises.

Sunset over Stari Grad harbour

Tuesday


We had a fairly turbulent start to our last day, with a lot of wind and sea spray so our final swim stop was fairly cold.

We arrived back in Split harbour in the early afternoon after lunch. Stacey and Blair had already seen the most touristy parts of Split so were happy to wander around other areas by themselves. The remaining three of us explored Split. 

The most impressive attraction in Split is the ruin of Diocletian's Palace, which the Roman emperor Diocletian built around 300 A.D. as a holiday residence. The dungeons of the palace are still intact so we looked around there, and the walls of the palace complex were gradually incorporated into the buildings of the city. We also went up the bell tower and wandered through the streets.

Diocletian's Palace dungeon, Split - aka Daenarys' dungeon for her dragons (with a little added CGI)

The five of us then regrouped and went to a nearby nearby beach for pizza and a few drinks. We finished up with some ice cream on the city waterfront, then returned to Providenca to pack for our early departure the following morning and said our goodbyes to Becky. Our fellow wino will be missed!

Wednesday 

We got up at 6am and took the bus out to the airport for the next part of our adventure - Italia!