Check out http://www.duoboots.com/.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
SPECIAL ENTRY! Lifelong dream....fulfilled!!!
This is just a short entry, but a very special one. I filled a lifelong dream at the weekend......I bought my first ever pair of knee high boots! I seem to have been gifted with tree trunk calves which makes finding a pair of boots that will zip up past my ankles near impossible. However, there is one store in the UK that sells boots not only by shoe size, but also by calf size! I over indulged slightly and spent a few pounds on a pair....but they are possibly the perfect pair!
Check out http://www.duoboots.com/.
Check out http://www.duoboots.com/.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Oxford & Bath
Hi from mild London! That's right...it's been at least 10 degrees for most of January! The weather has been much better than we imagined so we have embarked on a couple of trips to other parts of the UK –Oxford and Bath.
The train system here is fantastic and makes a trip to pretty much anywhere in the UK very simple. 1.5 hours west of London is Oxford. The town is very much a university town where bicycle seems to be the most appropriate mode of transport. The colleges that make up the University are scattered around the small town –they are all amazing old stone buildings with centuries of history. There were plenty of book shops to shelter from the cold wind in, so we managed to kill some time perusing the shelves of some very academic looking books –Mat was looking for a specific kind of dictionary but it is a Rogers Dictionary....something that proved pretty hard to find in Oxford!!!
Christ Church
Oxford University Library
Bath was amazing –just under 2 hours out of London it was another very easy day trip. We went with some of Mat's fellow classmates from Unitec –Peter and Rachel, so architecture was definitely a hot topic. Our day started at the Bath Abbey –with a vaulted ceiling that is 67m long it was very impressive (FYI it's an Abbey and not a Cathedral because there is no Bishop)! It is also pretty cool from the outside –with its gothic architecture and flying buttresses (note this is Sam here and, my, hasn't my architecture knowledge improved!!!). No trip to Bath is complete without a visit to the Roman Baths. Apparently the English are still struggling to come to terms with hot water bubbling out of the ground! The audio guides provided gave us a really good insight into what used to happen at the baths –it was mainly a place of healing for pilgrims.
Mat and I at the Roman Baths
Rachel, Pete and Mat with their audioguides
The Bath Abbey
The Royal Crescent
Bath is an old Roman town that has been re-built, and highlights of the re-built architecture are the Circus and The Royal Crescent. The Circus is a set of houses set out in a circle and the Royal Crescent is just that –a crescent of expensive houses built in crescent shape. They are all classical buildings with a traditional order of roman columns (Doric, Ionic and Corinthian...there I go again!!!!), and are famous for their shapes.
Mat would like to comment that the Cider there is pretty good too, and it was also the highlight of fashion for me, as we heard about a store that sells boots by both foot size AND calf size.....watch this space!!!
Cheers –Mat & Sam
When Kiwis go to London they.....
Are surprised at how good the post-Christmas Winter weather is
Are told way too how good the Kiwi Summer is (and how it's the best in the last 10 years!!!!)
Struggle to decide which country to go too next!
The best meal we've had since our last update was.....
Tapas with Flick and Ben at a great little Spanish restaurant in Putney! Not sure how Spanish Banoffee Pie is……but it's highly recommended!
Underground countdown
Our total so far is 56/320 and new entries include:
Putney Bridge
The train system here is fantastic and makes a trip to pretty much anywhere in the UK very simple. 1.5 hours west of London is Oxford. The town is very much a university town where bicycle seems to be the most appropriate mode of transport. The colleges that make up the University are scattered around the small town –they are all amazing old stone buildings with centuries of history. There were plenty of book shops to shelter from the cold wind in, so we managed to kill some time perusing the shelves of some very academic looking books –Mat was looking for a specific kind of dictionary but it is a Rogers Dictionary....something that proved pretty hard to find in Oxford!!!
Christ Church
Oxford University Library
Bath was amazing –just under 2 hours out of London it was another very easy day trip. We went with some of Mat's fellow classmates from Unitec –Peter and Rachel, so architecture was definitely a hot topic. Our day started at the Bath Abbey –with a vaulted ceiling that is 67m long it was very impressive (FYI it's an Abbey and not a Cathedral because there is no Bishop)! It is also pretty cool from the outside –with its gothic architecture and flying buttresses (note this is Sam here and, my, hasn't my architecture knowledge improved!!!). No trip to Bath is complete without a visit to the Roman Baths. Apparently the English are still struggling to come to terms with hot water bubbling out of the ground! The audio guides provided gave us a really good insight into what used to happen at the baths –it was mainly a place of healing for pilgrims.
Mat and I at the Roman Baths
Rachel, Pete and Mat with their audioguides
The Bath Abbey
The Royal Crescent
Bath is an old Roman town that has been re-built, and highlights of the re-built architecture are the Circus and The Royal Crescent. The Circus is a set of houses set out in a circle and the Royal Crescent is just that –a crescent of expensive houses built in crescent shape. They are all classical buildings with a traditional order of roman columns (Doric, Ionic and Corinthian...there I go again!!!!), and are famous for their shapes.
Mat would like to comment that the Cider there is pretty good too, and it was also the highlight of fashion for me, as we heard about a store that sells boots by both foot size AND calf size.....watch this space!!!
Cheers –Mat & Sam
When Kiwis go to London they.....
Are surprised at how good the post-Christmas Winter weather is
Are told way too how good the Kiwi Summer is (and how it's the best in the last 10 years!!!!)
Struggle to decide which country to go too next!
The best meal we've had since our last update was.....
Tapas with Flick and Ben at a great little Spanish restaurant in Putney! Not sure how Spanish Banoffee Pie is……but it's highly recommended!
Underground countdown
Our total so far is 56/320 and new entries include:
Putney Bridge
Saturday, January 12, 2008
New Years in Zurich
Happy New Year! It has been a while since we last updated our blog, and this entry in well overdue, but here goes….
We headed to Zurich on Dec 27th for 5 nights in sub-zero temperatures. We had a fabulous time and the definite highlight was a day trip to Mt Titlis (yes Mat had fun with that name!!!). We put on as many clothes as we could but were still frozen up the mountain. We took 3 gondolas to get to the top (10,000 feet!) and the last gondola actually rotated 360 degrees as it went up. There were amazing panoramic views of the Swiss Alps to reward us at the top –we have a feeling that we were probably able to see Italy, France and German all at the same time!
We also managed to find some rubber tubes and have a blast sliding down a man made purpose built track.
We spent New Years Eve on the edge of the lake where there were plenty of food and beer tents and an array of DJ’s and live music. My fav was the ‘Pure 80’s’ tent! It was freezing cold and we couldn’t sit down for more than 5 minutes or else we started to lose feeling in our extremities. At midnight everyone gathered around the lake ready for midnight –the strangest thing is that their tradition is to have fireworks at 12.20am! At midnight a token firework went off and everyone wished each other a happy new year, then we all waited for 20 minutes for the real fireworks to begin! The coolest thing was that all of the city lights were turned off for the fireworks so it was really dark.
We have decided that we really miss January 2nd in NZ as it is a holiday. Here, everyone is back at work on the 2nd –most still hung over from New Years Eve if they make it in at all (1 in 5 Londoners called in sick on Jan 2nd!).
So it is back to same old same old at work, but with a lot of planning going on in the background on how to best spend our 5 weeks of annual leave for the year!
We have been dreaming of the sun and sand after looking at holiday pics on Facebook, but are looking forward to seeing more of Europe this year to make up for a severe lack of daylight and warmth at the moment.
Cheers –Mat & Sam
When Kiwis go to London they.....
Are astonished at how little travel the locals do outside of England!
Do nothing ALL weekend recovering from the last European trip (also to shelter from the weather)
The best meal we've had since our last update was.....
A traditional lamb dish in Zurich –the meat is crumbed and baked very slowly in an oven. It was the most full I have felt in ages!
Underground countdown
Our total so far is 55/320 and new entries include:
Royal Oak
Not such a good couple of weeks due to being out of the country.
We headed to Zurich on Dec 27th for 5 nights in sub-zero temperatures. We had a fabulous time and the definite highlight was a day trip to Mt Titlis (yes Mat had fun with that name!!!). We put on as many clothes as we could but were still frozen up the mountain. We took 3 gondolas to get to the top (10,000 feet!) and the last gondola actually rotated 360 degrees as it went up. There were amazing panoramic views of the Swiss Alps to reward us at the top –we have a feeling that we were probably able to see Italy, France and German all at the same time!
We also managed to find some rubber tubes and have a blast sliding down a man made purpose built track.
Mat at the top of Mt Titlis (10,000ft)
The city itself is very pretty –situated around the top of a lake with elegant architecture and lots of chocolate shops! Mat’s new found love is church steeples (I will just stick with the chocolate –after all the Swiss did invent milk chocolate!). While it didn’t snow while we were there, it had snowed a couple of days beforehand, so there was a fair amount of snow and ice on the roads for a few days. We saw many frozen fountains and ponds, and there was a severe frost one morning too.
The city itself is very pretty –situated around the top of a lake with elegant architecture and lots of chocolate shops! Mat’s new found love is church steeples (I will just stick with the chocolate –after all the Swiss did invent milk chocolate!). While it didn’t snow while we were there, it had snowed a couple of days beforehand, so there was a fair amount of snow and ice on the roads for a few days. We saw many frozen fountains and ponds, and there was a severe frost one morning too.
Completely frozen fountain in Zurich
We spent New Years Eve on the edge of the lake where there were plenty of food and beer tents and an array of DJ’s and live music. My fav was the ‘Pure 80’s’ tent! It was freezing cold and we couldn’t sit down for more than 5 minutes or else we started to lose feeling in our extremities. At midnight everyone gathered around the lake ready for midnight –the strangest thing is that their tradition is to have fireworks at 12.20am! At midnight a token firework went off and everyone wished each other a happy new year, then we all waited for 20 minutes for the real fireworks to begin! The coolest thing was that all of the city lights were turned off for the fireworks so it was really dark.
We have decided that we really miss January 2nd in NZ as it is a holiday. Here, everyone is back at work on the 2nd –most still hung over from New Years Eve if they make it in at all (1 in 5 Londoners called in sick on Jan 2nd!).
So it is back to same old same old at work, but with a lot of planning going on in the background on how to best spend our 5 weeks of annual leave for the year!
We have been dreaming of the sun and sand after looking at holiday pics on Facebook, but are looking forward to seeing more of Europe this year to make up for a severe lack of daylight and warmth at the moment.
Cheers –Mat & Sam
When Kiwis go to London they.....
Are astonished at how little travel the locals do outside of England!
Do nothing ALL weekend recovering from the last European trip (also to shelter from the weather)
The best meal we've had since our last update was.....
A traditional lamb dish in Zurich –the meat is crumbed and baked very slowly in an oven. It was the most full I have felt in ages!
Underground countdown
Our total so far is 55/320 and new entries include:
Royal Oak
Not such a good couple of weeks due to being out of the country.
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