A - Z Guidebook: Sveti Marka Church, Zagreb

Sveti Marka, Zagreb

This is St. Mark's Church in Old Zagreb, Croatia.  As you can see in this photo, when we were there they were doing some refurbs to it.  The city was being renovated for the World Student Games, and there were thousands of athletes filling up the place.  We nearly didn't get a room!  If you check out Google Earth, the Church is now bright white.  Clearly the plaster on the outside has been whitewashed in recent times.


Seeing that this is the last of the A-Z Guidebook posts, I am going to be a bit naughty and add a photo from Google Earth so you can see the difference.  I noticed that this church is now called Svetog Marka; I think the difference is that it was previously in Serbian, and now it is in Croatian. We were there when it was actually still Yugoslavia, rather than Croatia. Yes, quite some time ago!

Can you believe we are up to Z now?  I have been joining in with Fiona from Tiffin Bite-Sized Food Adventures from A to Z, literally:=)   In some ways, this time has flown, but then again, it has also been a long and interesting, jam-packed couple of years.  I am sad to see the last of the A - Z Guidebook, but I know we will all keep travelling and sharing our adventures.  Thanks to Fiona for hosting this mammoth effort.  Adios, amigos!

A - Z Guidebook: Yosemite National Park, California USA

Half-Dome 

Half-Dome is an iconic granite peak in Yosemite National Park.  It is very beautiful, and definitely something to put on your bucket list.  We were lucky enough to be there for sunset, and watched the beautiful golden light being chased by the shadows on the peak as the sun disappeared.  The sun vanished and the cold set in.  

As you may have seen in a previous post, we very nearly didn't have a place to lay our heads for the night so we rushed off to find a hotel after this.  Luckily, we managed to find a spare (very cold) room for the night in a local lodge.  Our memories of this place revolve around the cold (even though it was only October), the incredible scenery and of course the stunning redwood trees.  A must-do!


Join in with Fiona from Tiffin Bite Size Food Adventures and have a wander around the globe.  Share in and post your own photo.  The letter Y is clearly the go-to this month.

A - Z Guidebook: eXcitement Thanksgiving Day Style

eXcitement: Thanksgiving Day parade  

This is the small town of Lansdale, Pennsylvania.  And this is their Thanksgiving Day Parade, held in minus 10 weather.  You can just see a tiny bit of me in front of our friend Deb in the red coat.  Pity the poor marching girls in their tiny, sparkly frocks.  It was exciting but also incredibly freezing, with that windchill factor zeroing into our bones. The tough Pennsylvanians do not let a little thing like snow and ice and temperatures below zero stop them doing what they want to do.

Join in with Tiffin Fiona from Bite Sized Food Adventures in this monthly jump into our travels.  As you can see, we are up to the letter X or eXcitement.

A - Z Guidebook: Wawona Hotel, Yosemite California

why am I looking so grumpy? :=)  Perhaps the lack of dinner the previous night 

This is the Wawona Hotel at the edge of Yosemite National Park. Now known as Big Trees Lodge.  It was getting late, it was getting dark, it was getting cold, and we had nowhere to stay!  Thank the Small Gods, we finally stumbled across Wawona.  Shared bathrooms down the open hallway.  No food with us except a packet of jelly beans.  And (as some readers may remember) the restaurant only allowed you in if you had evening dress!!  Yes, what the?!

Anyway, we were thankful not to be left out in the snow with the grizzly bears eating our toes.  Part of the reason we had nowhere to stay was that the Info Centre had phones where you could ring and book a room for the night.  Sadly, some tourists are not that good at making decisions on the spot.  Each person was therefore taking hours (or was it days?) trying to find a suitable place to rest their heads.  By the time we got to the phones, there was nothing left.   So we drove and drove (it's 30 miles from Yosemite Valley) and hit Wawona.  Phew!  Life saved.

Join in with Tiffin Fiona from Bite Sized Food Adventures for the monthly travel photo round-up.  Currently on the letter W, as you can see.

A - Z Guidebook: Vatican City

Yours truly standing in front of a damp St. Peter's Basilica   

What an utterly incredible place this is.  Hubby and I were gobsmacked when we finally got inside.  Several coachloads of tourists had turned up just before us, so they get priority entrance. We had to wait  2 hours!  That amazing spiral entranceway, the Sistine Chapel, the beautiful Gardens, the endless antiquities, the maps and globes - all spellbinding.  And it made us mad to be truthful, to realise that the Church owned all that knowledge and wealth and kept (keeps) it clasped tightly to their chests, while people have suffered for centuries in poverty and dismay. 

Another incredible thing here was that in a café outside the Vatican, Mr P. and I ran into an old work colleague of mine!  We had no idea she was in Italy at the exact same time as us.  And to think she had decided to go to the Vatican on the same day as us...wow! I really need to see this place again, as you just cannot take it all in, in one go.    



Here I am joining in again with Tiffin Fiona from Bite Sized Food Adventures on the monthly travel link.  Feel free to jump in with us. We are attacking the letter V this month.

A - Z Guidebook: Umbrellas

lots of umbrellas just hangin' around

This is what comes of looking up in a shopping arcade in Melbourne CBD.  Mr P. and I were down south a couple of years ago to attend our niece's wedding.  We stayed in town for a few nights to go to the Gallery, Museum and so on.  And oh the shopping! The stores!  The clothes!  The food!  The people watching!  Well, you get the drift.  And in one of the arcades was this wondrous display of umbrellas; something you often need on a Melbourne day.  It is after all known as the city which has 4 seasons in 1 day!


Join in with Tiffin Fiona @ Bite Sized Food Adventures for the monthly travel linkup. Feel free to come along for the ride:=)

A - Z Guidebook: Townsville Queensland

torso in Townsville QLD

Last July we headed up to Townsville in Far North Queensland for our niece's wedding. We were pleasantly surprised by the café scene, the Art Gallery and bookstores.  As we wandered around one sunny day, we came across this window.  This delightful silvery gal was I believe advertising a sex shop which was beside a lawyers' office.  Hubby and I had a bit of a laugh about that.  Oh, did I mention there was even some hipster rudeness in the cafés? Hilarious fun!


Join in with Tiffin Fiona at Bite-Sized Food Adventures in a monthly show-and-tell of travel adventures.  Show off yours too:=) Just like this gal.  I think that's my head you can see reflected in her nether regions.  

A - Z Guidebook - Sopron, Hungary & My Sunday Photo

Firewatch Tower, Sopron  

We really loved Hungary when we visited as part of our big backpacking trip in our younger days.  It was still pretty scary in those days as Communism still reigned supreme.  Our lovely homestay host came with us to the train station to say goodbye, but he was fairly terrified of all the guards stomping around with big guns slung over their shoulders, and pretended he didn't know us while they were around.  A bit of an unusual experience for these young Aussies.  So not used to seeing people with biiiggg guns!

This tower has 200 steps to the top - we climbed them all, so we could check out the view.  We met a very interesting young fella in Sopron who was actually from Vienna on a trip.  He was quite the young Nazi!  He was not a fan of the Jewish people; all Europe's problems were their fault apparently.  Scary stuff I tell you.  And he was only about 20 - OMG, pretty shocking.  Fortunately, we met no other self-professed neo Nazis.  

We had a wonderful time, checking out the historical architecture and meeting lovely people.  And eating interesting food, including 2 whole tureens of soup at one restaurant.  We didn't realise you were supposed to serve yourself and just fill your bowl with a ladle of soup.  We thought you had to eat it all!  So we did.  Lord knows what the locals thought of us.
  




Join in with Tiffin Fiona in the monthly travel link up where we show off our travel photos.  We are using the letter S this month.

And thanks also to Darren from Photalife for hosting the My Sunday Photo link each week.

A - Z Guidebook - Piazza Navona, Rome

statues showing their rudey nudey bits off

This is Bernini's fountain in the Piazza Navona in Rome.  No qualms about showing off their manly bits here.  We spent a few days wandering around Rome some years ago, on our way to London.  We were amazed and confused and delighted by it all.  

We had a guidebook - well, actually pages of a guidebook that I had photocopied - which seemed to give the most irksome and ludicrous directions and instructions about seeing Rome.  For instance, we caught a bus to a church with a crypt to see the bodies, only to find that it was via the longest, most laborious, most labyrinthine route you can imagine.  There was in fact a main road with heaps of buses going back into town so we just hopped on one of those and got back way faster than the trip out.  

Every trip we took, every place we went ended with us walking for hours and/or taking lengthy bus and train trips.  I think it was Fodor's Guide, heaven help us.  I will never know if some crazy student/traveller was doing their research from the comfort of their own home or making it all up.  Anyway, we got to see lots of Rome that we probably wouldn't have otherwise.



Join up, join up global bloggers/travellers with Fiona from Tiffin Bite Sized Food Adventures, and show us your stuff.  This month we are getting stuck into the letter R.

A - Z Guidebook: Queenstown New Zealand

stunning Queenstown

I don't have a clue who the photo bombers are!  This was the Christmas we all met up in NZ for a blissfully cool holiday.  16C in Dunedin on Xmas Day; 41C at home in Brisbane.  There was actually some snow up on the mountains here in Queenstown. Oh how we loved having a roast dinner without the sweat puddling under our feet.  

Anyone who has been to NZ will know how gorgeous the scenery is, especially in the South Island.  One day we really must get here in Winter for the snow season.  I bought a huge, furry jacket at a clothing boutique, and was asked by the shopkeeper where I lived? Obviously expecting me to say some cold part of Australia or the world.  I must have had a moment of madness buying this as I have only worn it twice.  She clearly thought I was nuts!

I forgot to tell you this is the TSS Earnslaw, an Edwardian vintage steamer which takes tourists around Lake Wakatipu.  I'm sure I don't need to tell any Lord of the Rings fans that they filmed parts of the movies further up the lake.



Join in with Tiffin Fiona from Bite Sized Food Adventures in this monthly travel linky, showcasing our photos of travels far and wide (or maybe just down the road).  As you can see, we are up to the letter Q. 

A- Z Guidebook: Poseidon's Temple, Cape Sounion, Greece

Poseidon's Temple 

Here we are on our backpacking adventures when we were young and foolish.  We were staying in a very insalubrious youth hostel in the Plaka in Athens.  This was our first experience of the cardboard box for used toilet paper.   There were stern instructions about definitely NOT flushing it down the loo.  Oh the horror of sitting on the throne with a huge boxful next to you!

We took a day trip down to Cape Sounion to check out Poseidon's Temple.  I don't think we ever found the scratched-in graffiti of Lord Byron's signature on the base of one of the columns.  We all look kind of grumpy here.  Maybe that lurking cardboard box?...





Join in with Tiffin Fiona - but hurry 'cos today's the last day of the monthly linky - in this travel roundup of places near and far.

A - Z Guidebook: Otago Peninsula New Zealand

can you see the seals?

A few years ago, we did a family trip to New Zealand with in-laws and nieces.  We had a cold Christmas Day in Dunedin, wrapped up in coats and scarves while another sister-in-law complained of the 40+C heat in Brisbane.  We were glad to be where we were:=)

We had booked a boat trip around the Peninsula before we got there.  On the day, it was very cold and wet and windy but we thought to heck with it, if they're still taking tourists, we'll go - and we did.  It was fabulous.  We saw seals and penguins and dolphins and albatross, along with the usual sea life.  Don't miss it if you get a chance to go.  (But take seasickness pills).


Join in with Tiffin Fiona and other adventurous bloggers sharing their travel snaps from around the globe.  This month's letter is O.

A - Z Guidebook: New Norcia Western Australia

The Monastery at New Norcia

New Norcia is Australia's only monastic town, founded in 1847, and a fabulous place to visit.  The buildings are beautiful, though the countryside around is very dry and sparse. The monks go quietly about their business, tending the gardens and olive grove, making olive oil (which you can buy when there has been a good harvest).

You can also buy New Norcia wine, Port, Shiraz and Liqueur Muscat here.  The grapes are grown in a local vineyard, and turned into wine in the Swan Valley near Perth.  They then mature it in the old wine cellars under the Monastery.  There is a bakery with 2 wood-fired ovens, both over 100 years old.  This is operated by a private company under an agreement with the Benedictine Community.  And happily you can buy bread, cakes, biscuits and pastries from them.

If you get to W.A., take a drive to New Norcia and check it out. You can even go on retreat here, or stay in the local hotel.  Well worth a look.


Feel free to join in with Tiffin Fiona in this monthly look at travel snaps.  We are onto the letter N!

A - Z Guidebook - Melbourne Victoria

Miss Marples Tea Room, Melbourne Victoria   

I used to love the old Miss Marple movies with Margaret Rutherford when I was a child. She was just so funny and quirky. The image they use here at the Tea Room is clearly hers, so I couldn't help but love this equally quirky building with her face plastered all over it.  

This charming Tea Room is up the road from where I lived as a child, so has many happy memories for me.  Every time we go back to Melbourne to visit friends and family, we take a drive up to the hills.  Not a fan of the food here however!  Love the building but don't eat there.  It is very popular and packed to the gunnels at all times but sadly the food is pretty average.  Never mind that, it is lovely just to walk past and take in this delightful building.



Join in with Fiona from Tiffin Bite Sized with your own travel photo and story.  We are on to the letter M this month, as  you may have guessed.

A - Z Guidebook - L for Lansdale, Pennsylvania

Remember that film Witness with Harrison Ford?  He was trying to solve a murder that was witnessed by an Amish boy, and subsequently he himself had to hide out in Amish country.  We actually spent a fair bit of time there, sometimes getting stuck behind the Amish carts being dragged uphill by horse power (literally). Often we would be in fear for our lives as huge trucks would be stuck behind them too, trying to get up hills, braking on the rise and on black ice.  Hearts in our mouths I tell you!  

Why am I telling you this?  Cos I had planned to put up a photo of Amish carts in Lancaster County PA; see that's where the L came in for this month's travel linky:=). But I came across this photo that I couldn't resist of me freezing my buns off at the Thanksgiving Parade in Lansdale PA where we were staying with friends of friends.

  

Thanksgiving Parade in Lansdale PA     

Yep that little red pixie in the foreground is me.  I had so many clothes on I could barely move.  I was actually crying with cold!  I think it was about minus 10, and we were sitting in deck chairs on the footpath to watch it.  The little girls were in tiny fairy costumes with tights and tutus.  OMG!!  Such fortitude, though they seemed to think nothing of it.  I have never been so cold in my life, even in the snow in Central Park in December.  (No, my nose wasn't that red - it's the scanner). 

Everybody is welcome to join in with Tiffin Fiona in this monthly travelfest, so feel free to hop on board.  This month we are lolling around in the letter L.

A - Z Guidebook: Kaikoura New Zealand - And My Sunday Photo 17 April 2016

Mr P. and his lady friend in Kaikoura New Zealand      

Hubby and I have been to New Zealand half a dozen times over the last several years, and really love it there.  Friends from Brisbane moved to the South Island a while ago, and bought the Old Convent in Kaikoura.  This became a quirky, meandering B & B, full of charm and history.  And a restaurant, and a bar, and a chocolate shop....Here we have Mr P. with his slightly scary lady friend, enjoying the garden in the afternoon sun.



I am joining up this month with Tiffin Fiona's travel linky - we are currently up to the letter K; and My Sunday Photo.

A - Z Guidebook: J for Jill (and me at Tintern Abbey)

a younger me and a younger Jill   

This is me and my friend Jill at Tintern Abbey in Wales, in our somewhat younger days. Crumbs if I could just be that thin again:=)  I guess it helped that we were walking over hill and down dale on 10 mile walks in the British countryside.  Come rain, hail or shine, as the saying goes.  We were doing the backpacking thing with our fellas (now husbands) all over Europe and Britain.      



Tintern Abbey is a glorious ruin in the Wye Valley, originally founded by monks in the year 1131.  It has inspired artists like Turner and poets like Wordsworth.  Apparently British children have been reciting his poem ever since.  Tintern Village has their own website (enterprising), which you can peruse and get a few more images of the Abbey.


(Oh, the walls are not blue by the way.  For some reason, the scanner turned them into a lovely azure shade).


I am joining in again with Fiona from Tiffin Bite Sized Food Adventures on her regular travel link-up.  This month's letter is J. Yep I know, I am reaching a bit here using my mate Jill for my J but Fiona does say to be lateral if you need to be :=)  Join in too with your travel adventures.

A - Z Guidebook - Ipswich Queensland

stunning street art in Ipswich   

I love street art, and I love owls so this beautiful artwork on a traffic signal box in the historic town of Ipswich made me leap out of the car (we had stopped ha ha!) and take a few photos.  I love that you can see the traffic light hanging over the street, and the typical old houses of the area in the background.  

Ipswich is still full of historic homes on big blocks of land, but this is expected to change very rapidly.  Ipswich is a massive growth area, and the population is expected to double in the next 15 years. So get in while you can, and check out the buildings before they become townhouses.  And don't forget to head along to the Ipswich Art Gallery which has been refurbished recently.  It is a fabulous building from the 1860's, with beautiful windows and a lovely scissor beam roof.


Join in with Fiona from Tiffin Bite Sized Food Adventures for the monthly get-together where we showcase travel photos.  This month, the letter I is leading the race.

A - Z Guidebook - Hadrian's Wall, Northumberland, U. K.

See that wall?  Yep that's me leaning on it.  (Wow, look at those insane pants.)  Mr P. and I did the backpacking thing some years ago, and ended up here one blustery English day.  We found a wall, a very long wall!  And we walked a lot along this wall, but maybe not for 80 miles:=) 

Those crazy Romans decided to build a defensive wall which was 80 Roman miles long.  I think our fave part was checking out the communal toilets.  You know the bench-like seating covering multiple holes?  Made it so easy to have a chat about your day whilst doing your business.  The Romans I mean, not us.

a somewhat younger me leaning nonchalantly on Hadrian's Wall         

Mr P. and I walked many many wet and squelchy miles all around the UK.  Ah the memories!  We stayed in the local Youth Hostel at Once Brewed, also known as Twice Brewed (yeah, what the?!?). And the next day headed down the map to the town of Beer in Devon, where we enjoyed local blackberry wine made by the publican.  I could go a glass of that right now.


Join in with Fiona from Tiffin Bite Sized Food Adventures on her monthly travel linky. This month we are delving into the letter H.

A - Z Guidebook - Ghent, Belgium

Ghent in Belgium  

You know all those jokes about Belgium?  Well forget them 'cos Belgium is fabulous.  It is full of pretty and historical cities with beautiful buildings and canals.  Lots of artwork, and the chocolates - oh so delicious.  And did I mention the famous mussels?  Apart from feeling that it all needed a bit of a hosedown - you know just a bit grubby - we had a wonderful time here.

I can't believe that Mr P. and I walked all the way up to the top of the building from where we took this photo.  It is known as St Baaf's or St Bavo depending on which language you speak, Belgium being a mix of French and Flemish speakers.  What you can see are the Belfry Tower and St. Nicholas' Church, which are the other 2 famous towers in Ghent.  

This photo has been dragged out of an old photo album (what's that? I hear young readers exclaim), so please forgive the weird yellow/grey tint to it.  From memory, Belgium really was kind of a weird colour due to the old buildings and grey skies:=)  

I remember marvellous buskers in the streets; the most delicious chocolates ever; oh yes frites in paper cones with mayo (that was such a new idea to Australians then); the zoo in Antwerp; the Museum in Brussels, and on and on.  Belgium, we loved you:=)

Oops, it may not look like it, but this month we are hanging out with the letter G, in the monthly travel linky kindly sorted by Fiona from Tiffin Bite Sized.