Christmas 2006

Our first Christmas in UK had the potential to be a bit of a sad occasion being so far from our families.

We were excited about the prospect of a cold Christmas and even a remote possibility of a white Christmas.

We had been invited to Oxford to have Christmas with some friend, one of whom was from Oxford.

A group of us booked in to the Oxford YHA. Jackie had to work xmas eve so she turned up after work.

There were some great things from this Christmas experience, including:

• first of many trips to Oxford, it really is a magical city, probably the subject of a future post.
• going to the pub on Christmas day to share a drink with the locals from the village 
• pigs in blanket
• brussel sprouts were yummy for the first time ever
• eating and drinking lots is way easier in cold weather
• Oxford YHA was quite a find, we stayed there a couple more times
• Trip to Blenheim castle

No snow unfortunately but the weather was suitably cold to make it feel very festive.

We were so grateful to the hospitality of the Moxham's who hosted a bunch of rowdy 20 somethings for Christmas.

Brussels February 2007

Another catch-up post.

No doubting I'm a romantic, well I try at least, it doesn't always work out.

Valentines Day 2007 I made Jackie home made pizza and we had a picnic in our flat. I had bought Jackie tickets on the Eurostar to Brussels but a weekend trip. Just 2 nights. I had toyed with the idea of Paris but I thought we'd want to save that for a longer trip. In hindsight I wish we did go to Paris because it ended up being a long time before we got to Paris and we loved it when we got there. Brussels on the other hand was probably one of our least favourite trips, not bad, just average.

The Eurostar was great. This was when the Eurostar still left from Waterloo, which was pretty close to home. Getting a train to Europe was a novelty which didn't wear off.

From Brussels station we found our hotel which turned out to be in a relatively uninspiring part of the city. The room was fine and the breakfast was buffet so we were pretty happy.

It was still winter, so pretty cold and grey. We walked around town taking in the sights. Impressive old arcitecture, churches, the massive Palais du Justice (which was closed up, under renovations).

We did manage to get our first taste of Belgium beer, in Belgium, that was a bit of a highlight.

I went for the traditional mulles at dinner.

The shopping precincts were impressive.

One of my favourite stories of the trip (and of our marriage actually) is Jackie telling me how she had learned French at school and would be able to dust off her language skills. I was looking forward to this. English was pretty prevalent in Belgium but the locals switched between any number of languages.

Anyway, we get to this impressive sweets shop (pic below), Jackie is a sucker for treats so we go an get our pick 'n' mix, Jackie's going to have a go at doing the transaction in French. I waited in anticipation. Jackie approached the counter, the staff member took one look and asked "English?" Jackie looked confused. Staff tried again "Francais?", Jackie's stumbled response "Um, uh, YES!".

Parlez-vous Francais?
Yes!

Not, Notre Dame 

Very impressive, indoor shopping

Palais du Justice

Anyway, we walked around, soaked up the sights and the atmosphere. Had a nice dinner.

Buffet breakfast and back home on the train.

While it wasn't the most memorable trip, it was easy and we'd learned that we had some work to do on our language skills.

Prague January 2007

Catch-up post this time is the first European trip we did after arriving in London.

We had arrived in London late September, it took us a little while to settle in but we were keen to get in to some European travel. At this stage we weren't sure how long we'd by in London for. We were still only planning on being there for a year or two so were keen to get some travelling under our belt.

We planned a trip with a few friends, which allowed us to draw on our collective experience and also meant we had safety in numbers.

Just a 2 night stay from what I can figure out looking at the photos which meant just 1 full day of sightseeing.

First thing I can remember from the trip is flying in to Prague. We flew over a lot of snow on the way which was beautiful but it wasn't until we came in to land I started to think about how our plane would land in heavy snow - not something I've had to think about before. I figured they must be used to this so decided we'd be fine. And we were.

Next challenge was finding our accommodation. I think this involved a taxi, or maybe a tram.Either way I don't think it was easy as we had no Czech and the locals we came across didn't have much English. We got there in the end. I didn't get any pics of our accommodation, it was pretty basic but they must have had reasonable heating, otherwise we probably would have died.

I think it might have been late afternoon or evening when we got to our accommodation, a little exploration I think is all we had, this included a little explore, snowball fight and maybe snowman building...

First night just near our accommodation

This wasn't scary at all

In the morning we woke ready for a day of sightseeing. The snow had been pretty solid overnight.

Jackie and Fran, there is a car under there

 Being relatively new to proper cold weather I didn't have ideal cold weather clothing. My biggest issue, just visible in the photo below was shoes. Here I am modelling a pair of brown leather work shoes. Designed for looking stylish in a carpeted office. The didn't offer much but they were the closest thing I had to anything water/snow proof.

This guy had the right attire (including bayonet) 

Prague is known for it's Gothic architecture, this is what a lot of our sightseeing involved. Given this was our first European adventure we quiet taken by this, I guess though if you'd already spent quite a bit of time in Europe it might have been a bit repetitive.

See the ice coming out of the gargoyles mouth.

It is impressive

It is beautiful

Snowy

 Something interesting that was happening around town while we were there was semi regular fire engine sirens. We eventually found out what this was about. The firemen were removing the icicles hanging from rooftops. I guess these things could cause some serious damage if the landed on someone's head.

Danger

Jackie looking suitably attired. 

Not a lot of food memories, onion soup was one and it was a good memory being a very welcome winter warmer. I also recall going to a restaurant/bar type place,down some stairs, Turns out it really wasn't designed for tourists but we managed to somehow get some food, served an large pieces of wood.Can't recall exactly what we ate but it had to be hearty to keep us going in the cold. 

Inside having a famous Czech beer, warming up and eating something. 

The famous astronomical clock. It does more than tell the time. 

Statues on the Charles Bridge

I would like to come back when it's warmer to sit at these tables and enjoy a beer. 

Quick trip, made a little longer but the fact that we managed to get on the wrong tram so spent a while heading away from the airport. We did manage to catch our flight ok though so no major hold ups. 

And that was that. We were so excited to have our first trip done, we certainly learnt a bit like, make sure you've got the right type of clothing and 2 night trips are probably too quick.

We were hopeful of getting back to Prague but it didn't eventuate, I'd like to go back some day in summer when we could do some sitting outside in beer gardens and watching the world pass us by. Hopefully we get a chance to do that one day.