Tracey comes to town...

I'm not even going to try and do a catch up in terms of Tracey's visit - she's been gone almost two weeks now :-( . But some of the fun bits below - and loads of photos are now on Flickr. More than my facebook album!

• Day out at the seaside in Brighton
• Beautiful Stresa/Lake Maggiore
• The heat in Bologna and Milan
• The weather during Tracey's last week
• Leeds Castle
• Buckingham Palace - no Queen but we did see 'The Dress'!!
• London Zoo - always a good day out :-)
• The Lost Gardens of Heligan - stunning
  
• Eden Project - great to go back to
• Having someone to drink G&Ts with!
  

Gulp... time to play catch up

OK...

Its been a while - I'll admit that. But whats two months (almost...) between friends! So now I'm playing a whole lotta catch up :-).

All in date order so this is going back to the end of May - hope you enjoy finding out what I've been up to!

I've had extenuating circumstances - Tracey's been here for a month!!

Fleur - thanks for your call, reminding me to catch up - at last I'm starting to get around to it! And David commented on my lack of activity yesterday as well - guilt and shame finally caught up.

It will take me a few days to catch up though so do keep checking back!

And then there was one...

Tracey left on Saturday 5th July :-(.

We met Maya and Chris for lunch as it was Maya's birthday, but then went back to my flat so Tracey could finish squeezing in everything she had bought back into her bags.

A mess up at the airport meant that we didn't get a chance to say goodbye - not the best way to end her trip. We were both really upset and sad about it.

But it was a great month - as the photos prove!

High among the tree tops..

On Tracey's last Friday I took the afternoon off and we went to Kew. Its latest attraction is a walkway amongst the trees - very very cool.

It hasn't been open that long, but you can already see that once it is a bit more well established it will be hard to tell the supports from the trees. Most impressed.

Only annoying thing was that the lift was broken so we had to walk up loads of stairs to get to the top!!

The support for the walkway

The support for the walkway
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Tracey on the walkway

Tracey on the walkway
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Dublin bound

Sunday we caught the train from Belfast to Dublin - took about 2 hours and was a much nicer way to go instead of bus. We ended up going to the wrong train station (I was slightly unprepared...) but we still managed to get on the train in time!

Monday was an orientation tour around Dublin and a visit to the Guinness Storehouse. Followed by some beer and dinner at the Porterhouse. Both very enjoyable - and Tracey managed to down her pint of Guinness at the same pace as me - most impressive!

Tuesday was a trip to Croke Park and a tour of Kilmainham Gaol. Both of which I've done before, but still really enjoyed them. Again we got a bit lost finding Croke Park but we got there in the end...

Interesting landing coming back into Heathrow as our Aer Lingus flight pulled up at the last minute from the runway and we had to circle back around. Then we saw another Aer Lingus flight do the same thing... most strange.

Tracey at Croke Park

Tracey at Croke Park
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Tracey pitchside, with Hill 16 in the background.

Kilkeel

On Saturday we got a bus to Newcastle and from there on to Kilkeel. We had an hour to kill in Newcastle so we went for a stroll along the seafront - where the Mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea... The weather was a bit grim (as you can see in the photos!), but it didn't actually rain much.

Despite Kilkeel being a fishing town, Tracey and I managed to not be able to find the harbour... But we did have an incredibly delicious lunch of fish & chips, and then wandered around for a couple of hours. Its a fairly bleak town though - I wouldn't want to be a teenager there...

Not so much fun was the drunk man on the bus from Newcastle to Kilkeel - kept asking where we were from, where was the bus going and could he have our sunglasses...

The mountains of Mourne sweeping down to the sea - Newcastle

The mountains of Mourne sweeping down to the sea - Newcastle
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Back to our roots

We flew out to Belfast on Friday night - flying EasyJet from Gatwick and it really wasn't delayed that much at all. I think we were very lucky!

Our taxi driver into town had a plastic tiki hanging from his rearview mirror - turns out he is a NZer who has lived in Belfast for about 30 years - so he certainly didn't sound like a Kiwi!

I see a little silhouette of a man...

We Will Rock You is possibly one of the most cheesiest musicals around - but it was great! A very thin story pieced together around Queen's greatest hits - fantastic! Again we had great seats, and we were all up singing at the end - Tracey more than me and Maya, but we did get up!

I am now really quite keen to get Queen's Greatest Hits...

Nail biter!

On Thursday me, Tracey and Kevin headed off to the Oval to watch the Black Caps vs England in a one-day international.

Our seats were only 3 rows back from the pitch (is it a pitch for cricket?) which was great. I'm sure we must have ended up on tv!

Absolutely brilliant game - I've never been at such a nail biter before! To go right down to the last ball on the last over... and then to win through an English error! There were lots of very cross English fans as we left the ground...

And off we go to Austria... Innsbruck highlights

We got the train from Salzburg to Innsbruck - I dozed but Tracey enjoyed the views I think! Highlights included:

• The cable cars and going up to the skiing areas. Fantastic views - and the cable cars were just well cool!
• The expedition to Achensee - "home" of The Chalet School. From the steam train that pushed us up the hill(!), to actually seeing the places the book was based on. Maybe slightly nerdy but for two sisters who used to get so excited when we found a book we didn't have at a church fair we were very excited!
• Swarovski Kristallwelten - I'm not even that big a fan of Swarovski, but this place was cool! Lots of lovely sparkly bling to look at... and I even bought some!

• Disappointment was the ski-jump being closed as they had turned it in to a fanzone for Euro 2008. So my pics on Flickr were as close as we could get :-(
  

Crystal tree - Swarovski

Crystal tree - Swarovski
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Pretty sparkly bling...

Tracey in the carriage

Tracey in the carriage
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Waiting to head up to Achensee

Conductor checking tickets - while the train is moving

Conductor checking tickets - while the train is moving
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Checking tickets en route...

Enjoying a beer on high!

Enjoying a beer on high!
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

What a fab spot to enjoy a Stiegl!

And off we go to Austria... Salzburg highlights

Which is not part of Germany just in case you were wondering... (Our guide for the Sound of Music tour was most insistent on that!).

I can't do a full on post on the whole week so here are the highlights - lots of photos on Flickr...

• The aforementioned Sound of Music tour. Great fun - even not being a die-hard fan it was still good!
• The Spaniards!! Euro 2008 was on while we were there and Spain was playing Greece in Salzburg. They were the best bunch of fans - so entertaining! And they went on to win the whole tournament (beating Germany in the final), which made both me and Tracey very happy!
• Stiegl beer - yum yum
• Schloss Hellbrunn. Trick fountains were such fun, and we were there on a very hot afternoon. Brilliant.
  
• Learning about Red Bull - well not much, but it is made in Austria, and they do have a thing about bulls in that country... There is a model of one at the Fortress as apparently when they were under siege and down to their last bull they painted the same one different colours and paraded it along the battlements to fool the besiegers that they had lots of food. So the besiegers went home...
  

Me and the view

Me and the view
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

From the battlements of the fortress