Camels, Monkeys and Pigeons - Morocco

March 2016 

It took ages to decide: Portugal or Morocco?

With the promise of camel riding in the desert, Morocco won out and we booked flights for my birthday weekend. After a bit more too-ing and fro-ing, we made the call that a destination like this deserved a bit more time, so we flew out after lunch on Wednesday 9th March.

After a three and a bit hour flight, we landed in Marrakech, exchanged some pounds for Moroccan Dirhams (1.00GBP to 13.82MAD), and hopped on a bus to the city centre. I'll always remember Morocco for it's array of smells - sometimes pleasant, often pungent - and Marrakech was no different. After a short walk we found our Riad that we were staying in that night and quickly discovered the hospitable tradition of mint tea. Lots and lots of mint tea. Or 'Berber Whiskey' as it was also referred to in the North. You were offered tea whenever you arrived at accommodation or in shops, and you could take it with or without sugar. It was lovely!

Post-Christmas

January-February 2016 

Winter in London isn't too bad... until Christmas is over. Then it feels cold and dark all the time. 

So we tried to keep ourselves entertained during January and February, while trying not to look at all of the photos of picturesque, warm and sunny New Zealand on Facebook. 

December felt pretty warm, but January felt like proper winter. There was even a light dusting of snow at one point, and some of the ponds froze over.

Snow outside at 3am

When in Rome...

December 2015-January 2016

...you pack a huge amount of stuff into your trip! 

We flew in to Rome and landed early afternoon. After a slightly crazy drive in the shuttle, we were dropped off at our hotel.

We had a very cheap lunch at Navona Notte, a pizza, mussels, pasta, bean dish and flatbread for €25, and a nice bottle of red for an extra €12.

The Pantheon was amazing, even better than we'd expected. Rach in particular was pretty awestruck. And to think it was built 2000 years ago, and it's still standing.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

December 2015 

Christmas in London is a wondrous thing.

In Bruges

November 2015 

It was back to Belgium for our latest overseas adventure.

We needed to get back and see Flanders Fields, and properly see Bruges given our last trip to the city so short. Our trip was also  made more affordable with some help from Eurostar - the compensation from a 73 minute delay on our last trip to Belgium in August knocked off half of the ticket price!

We had a bit of trepidation leading up to the trip - the Paris attacks happened two weeks beforehand, with the pursuit/manhunt in Brussels locking down the city and raising the terror alert across the whole country, up to just a few days before we arrived. We got in to Brussels Midi on the Saturday to see a big police presence - about 10 cars outside one entrance, and groups of officers with assault rifles patrolling the station.

But everything still felt safe, and after transferring trains arrived in Bruges an hour later without any hassles. 

Duke Fluffington and The Last of the Summer Wine-d Up

September-October 2015 

WE HAVE A HAMSTER! Introducing, Duke Fluffington!

Amsterdam

September 2015 

Another great trip.

We flew out of Southend Airport, which felt like a provincial New Zealand airport rather than an international London airport. We touched down around 9pm and caught the train in to the city. Our accommodation was pretty impressive - a full, modern apartment to ourselves - booked again through AirBnB.

Our hosts had left stroopwaffels for us but we thought we'd need something a bit more substantial - so we ventured out in the pouring rain. On the way we actually saw a cyclist being hit by a car at some speed - luckily the cyclist was ok but his bike looked to have bit of a dent in it. The only food place open at 11pm was a kebab-type establishment - but our late night pizzas were surprisingly good.

The next day, after a 15 minute walk to the central city we started our walking tour at 10am. It was a good and informative tour, but not quite as good as the one in Brussels.