Nearly two months have flown by since our wonderful weddings and honeymoon in Wales. To some it may be questionable as to whether the honeymoon has finished…or ever will? From Wales we went to Munich to stay with Uncle Dick and Aunt Gitte, attendees at the London wedding. We spent our days strolling in the Englischer Garten, along the River Isar, “occasionally” stopping at a beer garden to drink the best beer in the world.
Dawn's first MAS of beer!
Timing of the visit was perfect as we got invited to two garden parties, one Italian style with flamboyant food and lots of wine, and the other Bavarian style with stodgy food, an oompah band and lots of beer! No photos of Italian party as we were talking too much… Both were fantastic especially as neither of us had to drive!
One memorable day Dick and Gitte took us on the Zillertaler Hohenstrasse in Austria. Mind-blowing scenery! Stopped for lunch at a place on the side of a mountain which had a novel way of keeping the beer cold!
Zillertaler Valley in Austria (another Top 10 Best Places in the World contender)
The 'non-tourist' cafe on the side of the mountain
open-air beer cooler
Sad to leave marvelous Munich, a city which almost makes it onto our Top Places to Live in the World. We continued the adventure by going to beautiful Barcelona – which did not disappoint. It’s a place where walking is essential if you want to truly experience what Barcelona has to offer. Some of the streets are so narrow that the sun never touches the ground. We walked for miles in awe of the beauty and history on offer, then in the evenings had tapas and beer/wine sitting outside the historical buildings. So much to see, the photos below show a street (not the narrowest by far), the Gaudi cathedral (still under construction after about 70 years…) and a
city view from the old fort on top of Montjuic. Immediately after our visit we read ‘Cathedral of the Sea’ by Ildefonso Falcones, a novel based around the building of the 12th century cathedral Santa Maria del Mar. Well worth the read, especially if you’ve been or plan to go to Barcelona. We were fascinated to realize that we’d walked through many of the streets mentioned in the novel – streets originally built 800 or more years ago!
Street in the old town area of Barcelona
Gaudi's Sagrada Familia
View of Barcelona from Montjuic
From Barcelona we came to the apartment in Marbella where we’ve relaxed after our previous ‘exhausting’ schedule. We’re starting to realize how lucky people are who just have to get up and go to work each day…………. J There have been a few things on the itinerary, besides going to the beach or pool. We’re making an effort to learn Spanish; Dawn is doing better than Brian, wonder why? (Suggested answers welcome!!)
We also took a 6 day trip to Mallorca to meet friends from our days in Korea, and had a wonderful time. For Brian a couple of ‘boys nights out’ with Matt and Fady. For Dawn some shopping and baby cuddling, with Zsuzsi, Lara and the oh-so-lovable baby Juliana! Okay, it’s stereotypical, but it was funJ Brian even tried some of the baby cuddling, but perhaps not a full share of those duties!
Palma, Mallorca with Zsuzsi, Matt, Brian, Dawn, Fady & Juliana waving from the stroller! Lara of course had to be in class....
Mojito madness and the boys....
Spending so much time around a beautiful, well-behaved baby and being able to hand her back on the odd occasion when ‘grumpiness’ started made us think how nice it would be to be grandparents, at which point we had better say good-bye until the next update……..
No comments:
Post a Comment